Development Opportunities of Asia Flashcards
Central Asia
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Water Disputes
Other understandings of Central Asia
Many different concepts – depending on geographical and historical issues
5 + Afghanistan + Uyghur region
5 + N Afghanistan + NW China + N Iran + N Pakistan + Kashmir + sometimes also part of Siberia
Central Asia: (size, resources, population…)
Vast territory - 23% of the world
Geostrategic position
Mineral wealth - fuels (oil, gas, uranium, coal, tar sands) and metals - Research of new deposits
Transit potential
Mutual dependence on energy (oil, gas, water, …)
Rapidly growing population (the largest
Uzbekistan) - but little in terms of the whole world
A total of about 60 million people (almost half in UZB)
History of CA until the Russian (later Soviet) rule:
Common characteristics
• Great importance in the Middle Ages - the Silk Road - the emergence of cities and empires (Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Khiva, Kokand …) - close to the Middle East (Islamic influence)
Oguzkhan (first turk. dynasty), city Nissa
Decline after the discovery of sea routes - in the 16th century (region outside of interest of the world centers)
19th century: Increase of importance again: “Great game for Central Asia“ (between Russia and GB)
Delimitation of spheres of influence
- The slow allocation of Kazakh hordes, the Bukhara Emirate, and Khiva
- Kokand khanate to Czarist Russia
Turn of the 19th-20th century: the Russian population migration to CA ( increasing Russian influence)
History of effect in contemporary societies in CA
Contemporary disputes about the oldest capital
the creation of a new ideology -efforts to find proof of independent history and meaning, search for ancestors and roots for reconstructing the national identity)
Under the Russian (Soviet) rule
The colonial administration in CA
Disposition of local cultures
the creation of the state borders - Stalin “drew” (1924-1936) - 5 actual republics
“Buffer” states created dependent on the center - Moscow (subsidies)
- Supply of raw materials – domination of monocultures (cotton exports, but imports • of textiles !!!)
- Uzbekistan - cotton, Tajikistan - cotton
Turkmenistan - natural gas, Kazakhstan - oil and iron ore, wool Kyrgyzstan - wool - Specialization only on the initial processing, the dependence on imports of basic foodstuffs (except of KAZ)
- Limited transport availability on the world market, poor quality and limited range of export goods
resulting as “mental borders„
The djajidists ( “new movement”)
Russian dominance until the collapse of the USSR >collapse of economies
The jajidists
( “new movement”)
muslim modernist reformers within the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century
History of CA after USSR collapse
Disputes about water resources
Language - Russian + local (return); Cyrillic and Latin alphabet
• Differences
Religion: southern nations more (TURK, UZB, TAJ)
Regimes - authoritarian (continued leadership from the USSR), totalitarian (TUR)
Soviet elites stayed in power in the 1990s
Ideology - statesmen, historical figures …
CA - population
Dynamic growth - mainly titular nationality, the eviction of the Russian people
A very young population - average age 22 to 30 years
Most people live in the villages (except KAZ)
The clan structure (family, region, nepotism …)
Multinational and language structure:
The largest -Turkic-speaking nations
Iranian - Persian-speaking -Tajik (Farsi proximity)
Russian-speaking population
CA: problems rooted in history
Environmental disasters - excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers in the cultivation of cotton, drying, salting
Collection of radioactive waste uranium mining
Rise in religious extremism
Brain drain (Russian was/is the language of science)
- Departure of the Russian population
- Departure of the German population
New Great Game on Central Asia:
- Russia • China • USA
- Iran • Turkey • EU
Economic freedom
The biggest KAZ, KYR - currency convertibility
Problems with property rights and corruption - threatening foreign projects
Pressure on farmers - must grow cotton (UZB, TAD)
Freedom of movement, but bureaucracy
Own business - a lot of bureaucratic procedures
Human rights and political freedoms
Kyrgyzstan best
Turkmenistan worst
Eurasian Economic Union EEU
(operational since 2015)
single market
Founding: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus
Newly acceded: Armenia, Kyrgyzstan
Economic, NOT political block !!!
Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC)
Discussion since the 1990s
Formally advanced integration and cooperation
Much subordinated ambitions of Moscow
The convergence of economies - “customs union”, transport and energy networks - Did the opposite … - successful mainly in humanities (science, citizenship, education …)
Russia (veto power - the voice has a weight of 40%), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan (2008)
The Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO) - integrated
→EEU
Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB)
Remains of CIS (which works ???)
Maintaining the degree of joint defense and military forces (assistance in case of aggression …)
Not to enter into other military groups
Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Belarus
Creation of common army
Alternative to NATO, Russia’s position
2012 re-withdrawal of UZB - shift back to US? (UZB territory was/is needed for the withdrawal of troops from AFG)
CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States
Compensation for the USSR
Russia’s attempt to preserve its influence
GEORGIA out 2008 (war in Ossetia)
TUR - striving for neutrality (the “associate member”) and Ukraine (out after Crimea)
Cooperative efforts, economic, political, security
Cooperation contracts existed, but never actually implemented
Today, basically dysfunctional, replaced with other structures
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Established to adjust the border with China (already the USSR)
Today - especially the fight against terrorism (also economic and military interests …), security and social-economic cooperation
China + 4 (Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) today Uzbekistan (focus on Russia and China), India, Pakistan + observers (Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia, Iran) + dialogue partners
Beijing Secretariat, anti-terrorism center in Tashkent (originally meant to be in Bishkek)
The first real results in the 1990s (removal of troops, exercises of armies …)
Non-interference in internal affairs (Bishkek Declaration)
Regional integration: Turkmenistan
‘neutral’
Regional integration within CA
A lot of efforts - not all successful or the structure is
dysfunctional
Disintegrating tendencies - finding partners outside CA
CA transformation from planned to market economy
At the beginning - collapse and problems - each state a different procedure,
Almost no change in Turkmenistan
Fastest changes in Kyrgyzstan (WTO - 1998),
later the TAJ (2013), KAZ (2015) x UZB (observer status)
Privatization (agriculture, construction, trade, …)
Diversification of the local agriculture and industry
Legislation
Modernization of enterprises
Corruption of public officials, the grey economy (estimated at 30-80%)
• Common ethnic roots (except Tajiks)
CA after USSR: Political party hierarchy and leaders were maintained
Secretaries took power - new presidents
- Opposition discredited
- Power in the hands of the family (political, economic …)
- Clan structure
The influence of the Russian minority - the elites - emigration
Homo sovieticus - different perception of the Soviet inheritance between generations
Transformation – start from almost the same conditions
- The poorest of the former USSR
- The high literacy, high life expectancy - the good status of women
- • Unreliable statistics from the 90s
Economic reforms of CA after USSR
All the countries were mainly rural (except for Kazakhstan)
KAZ andTUR - boom in resources (oil, natural gas)
During the USSR there were not market prices - after the
collapse some countries gained a lot due to market prices
Republics unprepared for the changes
Transformation, decay, hyperinflation
Assistance from the WB, IMF
WTO negotiations
No national tradition (they were Soviets) – that is why later they started to search for national identity (history, heroes, old towns)
The absence of national institutions
Problems with ruble (hyperinflation) - transition to its own
currencies (the first KYR)
- Economic reforms - the fastest in KYR (first WTO - 1998) • Kyz - mainly Kumtor (gold mine) led the economy
- UZB - a good starting point, but the slow pace of reforms today • Cotton and grains
TUR - very slow pace of reforms, the cult of personality, gains from trade (oil and gas invested into palatial buildings)
A slowdown in reforms and growth, especially after 1998 - crisis in Russia
Reducing funding for education and social issues (pensions)
Lack of transport routes outside of Russia (oil and gas)
- Initial orientation only for Russia, but since 1996 more than half the trade outside of CIS (higher import from CIS than exports to CIS)
- Illegal trade - the drug route from AFG
Leading states in CA
Kazakhstan
- More economically developed than other countries
- Spatial and demographic potential
- Good relations with all three players in the region
Uzbekistan
- neighboring with all other CA states
- No decision can be done without them
- Especially after September 11
HDI – CA
all countries in the group of middle human development, exception- KAZ
CPI (Transparency) : CA
Kazakhstan > Kyrgyzstan > Tajikistan > Turkmenistan > Uzbekistan
Waters: Balkhash, Aral Sea, Caspian Sea
Deserts:
Karakum („black“), Kyzylkum („red“), „Aralkum“
Fergana valley
Ethnic conflicts along the border - enclaves
= distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory
Access to water (water allocations, rivers Sur Darya and Amu Darya, climate change) and energy resources (more recent disputes) - also major source of food
The borders drawn under Soviet rule (Nomadic tribes: identity based on clan or region)
Strategic relevance
Probably the most troubled region in the CA
Turan lowlands
low-lying desert basin region
Rivers: Syrdarya, Amudarya, Zeravshan, Naryn
Flow into Aral sea
Mountains - Tian Shan, Pamir, Hindukush
Mountains: Kazakhstan Alatau, Altai
Alatau part of Tian Shan (Northest part)
Oil at Caspian Sea
