Journal of Eurasian Studies最新文献

{"title":"An Exploration of Vertical and Social Accountability in the Elected Tier of Local Government: Evidence from Kazakhstan","authors":"Yerkebulan Zhumashov","doi":"10.1177/18793665221129881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221129881","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the functioning of the lowest elected tier of local government in Kazakhstan that governs villages, towns and small cities. While the existing literature on this issue mostly relies on quantitative data, document reviews and comparative analysis with foreign countries, this study explores new angles on the subject through the qualitative interview method. In so doing, this investigation evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the lowest elected tier of local governments, their vertical interaction with higher-level local government and social engagement. The following conclusions have been obtained. First, providing authority to aul akims (heads of the lowest elected tier of local government) to develop budgets from locally collected revenue creates unequal opportunities for service provision. This is because the capacity of such local governments to collect taxes varies by population size, geographical features and remoteness from large cities. Second, aul akims now allocate more funds than before, but financing conditions still make them dependent on higher authorities. Third, recent requirements stipulating that aul akims discuss local issues in a local community meeting have made the heads much more socially accountable. Finally, legislation that regulates the functioning of aul akims is complex and incomplete. Based on these findings, this study suggests a number of practical recommendations for policymakers, contributes to existing knowledge via enhancing contextual information and provides directions for future research.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"179 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79141526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: The myth of continents: A critique of Metageography","authors":"Xing Fang","doi":"10.1177/18793665221129885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221129885","url":null,"abstract":"The construct of continents has been a widely accepted global spatial structure in academic and popular discourse as well as a common framework of global geography and history in school education today. However, Martin W. Lewis and Kären E. Wigen contend that this over-simplified meta-geography is grounded mainly on ethnocentrism and environmental determinism and ignores the complex reality and diversity of human communities around the globe. In contrast, they adopt a moderate post-modern approach, which accentuates fluidity and multiplicity, to challenge the conceptions such as continents, West and East, nation-states and isolated civilizations that co-construct a static order of the world. In order to rectify the flaws of meta-geography, they propose a revised scheme of the world regions that emerged in the North American academia, and they believe that this scheme could liberate geographical and historical studies from the misconceptions, reflect more accurately the socio-cultural reality of a highly interconnected world, and promote further debate regarding meta-geography. The organized style of composition is a notable strength of the book. In Chapter 1, the authors present a review of the historical development of the scheme of continents and introduce the fallacy of environmental determinism underlying the scheme as well as the little utility of the scheme in geology. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 deconstruct West and East as spatial and cultural notions, reveal the arbitrary nature of the West-East division driven by Euro-centrism, and evidence that the imagined boundary between the West and the East has been shifting in response to the practice of the West to construct a central Western image and tradition composed of rationality, democracy and economic progress. In Chapter 4, the authors mainly discuss and criticize Eurocentrism and Afro-centrism, which are both forms of ethnocentrism. They also point out the inappropriate use of race as a geographical concept because race is merely a social construct and the distribution of the “racial” characteristics does not correspond with the continents. Chapter 5 reviews Arnold Toynbee’s scheme of isolated civilizations for carving up the world and elucidates a paradigm shift to a refined world-system theory, which considers both civilized and uncivilized areas of the world and emphasizes the cultural interconnectivity among civilizations and world regions. In Chapter 6, the authors present their revised “world region” scheme by elaborating on the challenges of treating Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Latin America as a single region. They finally conclude the book with ten principles for meta-geographical reforms and emphasize the importance of historical and cultural connections in the division of regions. They also suggest directions for further research such as non-Western people’s view of the globe, the impacts of European geography on non-European intellectual framework, sea communities as well ","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"32 1","pages":"82 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85525195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Casting off Soviet chains? Conditions for the Ideological Renewal of Communist Successor Parties in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova since the 2010s","authors":"J. Lassila, Ryhor Nizhnikau","doi":"10.1177/18793665221116128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221116128","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies the political developments of Communist successor parties (CSPs) in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova since the 2010s to identify conditions for their ideological renewal. We find that embeddedness in the patronalist systems is a major impeding factor to ideological renewal and the removal of patronal shackles and governmental responsibility are its key drivers. In terms of the prospects of Russiaʼs communist party, an unreformed CSP may win elections but the actual ideological renewal begins while in power, as the case of Moldova shows. At the same time, the interdependence between the access to power and ideological renewal resembles a vicious circle. While a clientilistic status disincentivizes the real competition for power, the access to power becomes a nearly impossible task until the system collapses. As the example of the Ukrainian communists show, the danger is that the systemic collapse may also bring down its clients as well.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"53 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83398307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Current situation and tasks for public health and medical cooperation between South Korea and Central Asia: Focusing on Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan","authors":"S. Jung","doi":"10.1177/18793665221123596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221123596","url":null,"abstract":"2022 marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Central Asia. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, Korea and Central Asia have expanded exchanges in various fields, including politics, economy, and diplomacy. Cooperation between Korea and Central Asia utilizing the abundant medical manpower of Central Asia and Korea’s excellent medical and pharmaceutical technology was also selected as a promising area of cooperation between the two sides. Korea and Central Asia have continued to cooperate in the field of health and medical care, but there were limits to deepening cooperation. Recently, the importance of health and medical cooperation around the world has been highlighted again due to COVID-19. This thesis examines the status and problems of health care in Central Asia, and analyzes the achievements and limitations of health care cooperation between Korea and Central Asia. The purpose of this is to suggest directions for strengthening health care cooperation between Korea and Central Asia. This will help the new government, which aims to become a global center of bio-digital health, explore strategies and policies for preemptive health care cooperation in Central Asian countries.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"92 1","pages":"212 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81668849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of development models in Japan’s and Korea’s relations with Central Asia: Discourses and practices","authors":"N. Murashkin, E. Varpahovskis","doi":"10.1177/18793665221123597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221123597","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the policies of development cooperation promoted by Japan and Korea in Central Asia, focussing on the roles of discourses treating Japan and Korea as potential non-Western models for the region’s development and modernisation in their relations with Central Asian states. We trace the evolution of relevant developmental approaches made by Japan and Korea, analysing discourses and practices of sharing experiences, as well as the key drivers behind those shifts, and we seek to locate these changes in the larger context of regional political economy and international relations. Furthermore, the article seeks to address the ideational and normative aspects of Japanese and Korean development cooperation in Central Asia. We conclude with a recap comparison of Japan’s and Korea’s sharing of development experiences.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"2 1","pages":"180 - 199"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74327477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uzbekistan and South Korea relations in the contests of transregional and global perspectives","authors":"M. Rakhimov","doi":"10.1177/18793665221123598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221123598","url":null,"abstract":"The main objective of the paper is analyzing bilateral and multilateral relations in the economy, policy, migration, security, technology, transport communication, and cultural exchange between Central Asia and Uzbekistan with Republic of Korea. Based interdisciplinary approach and comparative study it was elaborated status, challenges, and perspectives of South Korean–Uzbekistan relations. The Central Asian partnership with the Republic of Korea has been strengthened and the countries of the region consider South Korea as a highly developed state, occupying one of the leading places in the Asia-Pacific region. Central Asia for Korea, in turn, is an important region with huge natural and energy resources, potential for mutually beneficial investment projects and a large export market. Over years, the directions of partnership between the Republic of Korea and Uzbekistan have significantly expanded both within the framework of bilateral and multilateral formats, and today they cover almost all major areas. However, there are also many problems including the lack of land transport links between them, which affects the cost and timing of delivery of transported goods. South Korea has a strongly positive image in Central Asia. Like other countries of region, Uzbekistan strongly support South Korean aim at preserving and strengthening peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. Implementation of joint projects aimed at the formation of common transport and communication, energy and production networks on the Eurasian continent, can contribute to the revival of the Great Silk Road in modern realities with the restoration of direct railway and road connections of the Korean peninsula with the countries of Central Asia and other states of the continent. Also, it is necessary to develop optimal models for connecting the Korea-Central Asia with other projects and mechanisms of multilateral cooperation operating in the region, such as TRACECA and the EU Strategy, Belt and Road, Central Asia + Japan, India-Central Asia etc.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"200 - 211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81716997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of the Ukrainian War on South Korea’s diplomacy in Central Asia","authors":"Eom Gu Ho","doi":"10.1177/18793665221124814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221124814","url":null,"abstract":"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have political and economic impacts in Central Asia. Politically, first, Central Asian countries will strengthen cooperation with neighbouring regional powers such as India, Turkey and Iran to hedge their political and economic security. Second, while China’s influence in Central Asia will increase, SCO will be more economic cooperation organisation. Third, the future direction of Central Asian regionalism will be uncertain. Although it is unlikely, if Uzbekistan shows anti-Russian behaviour, regionalism in Central Asia may weaken. Fourth, it is unlikely that the US role will be expanded again in Central Asia after the Ukraine War. Economically, first, it is highly likely that the status and centripetal force of the Eurasian Economic Union will be weakened. Second, if Europe’s anti-Russian energy policy is strengthened and green energy policies are accelerated, the renewable energy policies of Central Asian carbon-centered energy producing countries such as Kazakhstan in particular can be accelerated. Third, if the logistical obstacles of TSR persist, the bypass logistics infrastructure going to Central Asia through India, Iran, Pakistan, etc. instead of through Russia will be activated. It seems inevitable to shift Korea’s diplomacy toward Central Asia to a certain level to organically link value-based diplomacy and economic security strategies. In this context, first, the existing diplomatic strategies and economic cooperation policies toward Central Asia must be freed from the tendency to view Central Asian countries only as a sphere of influence from Russia. Second, in a situation in which economic cooperation between Korea and Russia is inevitably severely curtailed due to western sanctions against Russia and geopolitical conflicts, it is necessary to strengthen economic cooperation with Central Asian countries as a means of circumventing economic cooperation with Russia. Third, there is a possibility that the northern policy of new governments may be weakened due to the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thus the cooperation with Central Asian countries may also shrink. It will be necessary to maintain and develop the previous government’s cooperation platform with Central Asian countries.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"36 1","pages":"172 - 179"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75642500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Open government and citizen empowerment in authoritarian states","authors":"B. Kurmanov, Colin Knox","doi":"10.1177/18793665221104118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221104118","url":null,"abstract":"The introduction of open government has been used in many countries to improve the transparency, accountability of the state, and promote participation by citizens in collaborative governance. Its potential for public services improvement, citizen empowerment, and a positive impact on reducing corruption have attracted scholarly attention. Set alongside this, open government initiatives have facilitated greater access to information which can be used to hold governments to account and, in so doing, build trust between citizens and the state. While open government principles sit easily in democratic systems, some authoritarian states have also adopted this concept. This raises two questions. First, is there evidence that open collaboration, as the most developed form of open government, has empowered citizens in autocracies? Second, and more generally, why would authoritarian regimes seek to adopt open government when the concepts of autocracy and openness are antithetical? This paper attempts to address these questions using three case study countries in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan which adopted open government policies. It finds evidence of co-optation, network authoritarianism, and state unresponsiveness/resistance to citizens’ inputs.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"50 1","pages":"156 - 171"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84548878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Another perspective regarding the 2020 War in Karabakh: The relationship between a frozen conflict and securitization","authors":"Selim Kurt, Göktürk Tüysüzoğlu","doi":"10.1177/18793665221096689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221096689","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most critical disputes in the Post-Soviet space is the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. While this issue has long been regarded as a land-based dispute to a large extent, it can also be stated from the securitization perspective that it is a conflict inherent in ethnic identity. The proposed way to solve a problem in the securitization approach is the desecuritization of the issue. However, negotiations conducted by the Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which were initiated within the framework of the OSCE, did not yield any results. In this context, the process of resolving the issue through negotiations, in other words, desecuritization, failed. This has led to the re-securitization of the problem and paved the way for taking extraordinary measures to come to a solution. The final military confrontation experienced in 2020 has also been triggered specifically by this approach.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"147 1","pages":"145 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72511067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"India-Kazakhstan energy relations: Looking back and looking ahead","authors":"Ramakrushna Pradhan","doi":"10.1177/18793665221093798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665221093798","url":null,"abstract":"India and Kazakhstan share deep-rooted historical relations since millennia. The spread of Buddhism to Central Asia from India and Islam to India through Babur – the founder of the Mughal dynasty – vividly reflects at least 2500 years old cultural and civilizational ties with both the regions, yet India has been perceived in Kazakhstan as a latecomer and disinterested power. While many attribute New Delhi’s lack of political willpower and economic muscle as reasons for its consistent failure in the energy sector of Kazakhstan since 1990s, this article after thorough examination holds New Delhi’s diffident policy accountable for this. Although, at the beginning of the 21st century, the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh had tried to come out of that slumber through the initiation of ‘Connect Central Asia Policy’ yet a lack of concerted effort has derailed the renewed process. However, with Modi in New Delhi as the Prime Minister of India has shown keen interests and passionate desire to tie up with the region through commercial and strategic opportunities especially with Kazakhstan in energy sector yet both the countries need a massive overhaul in their relationship to transform the short-sighted association into a broad-based strategic engagement focussing on energy cooperation. This article uncovers the irritants, misplaced imaginations and wrong assumptions that deny India a foothold in the energy hub of Kazakhstan. It therefore argues for a paradigm shift in India’s Central Asia policy which New Delhi so far has been ignoring and strongly urges India to take Russia on board while dealing with Kazakhstan.","PeriodicalId":39195,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eurasian Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"103 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86879932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}