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This dissertation seeks to make a unique contribution to the study of geopolitics and empire in Central Asia by focusing on both the indigenous developments of grand strategies and their legacies by examining several key points in the history of the region's geopolitics in order to determine the peculiar and specific nature of regional geopolitical evolution, and how its basic concepts can be understood using such a locally based framework. By putting the focus on several key concepts which hold steady through major societal and technological upheavals, as well as foreign incursion and both the inward and outward migrations, which together create the conditions which I have dubbed ‘The Formless Empire', it is possible to see the elements of a regional and homegrown tradition of grand strategy and geopolitical thinking which is endemic to the area of Inner Eurasia, even as this concept adapts from a totality of political policy to merely frontier and military policy over the course of time. This indigenous concept of grand strategy encompasses political, military, and diplomatic aspects utilizing the key concepts of strategic mobility, and flexible or indirect governance. These political power systems originated in their largest incarnations amongst the nomadic people of the steppe and other people commonly considered peripheral in history, but who in a Central Asian context were the original centerpieces of regional politics until technological changes led to their eclipse by the big sedentary powers such as Russia and China. However, even these well-established states took elements of ‘The Formless Empire' into their policies (if largely relegated to frontiers, the military, and a few informal relationships alone) and therefore the influence of the region's past still lingers on in different forms in the present.

As China’s economy and international prominence continues to grow, Beijing is now, more than ever, developing its inner and Western provinces, including Xinjiang. Its interests in Xinjiang extend to the greater South and Central Asian region as China continues to form diplomatic alliances and economic ties with its bordering neighbors. In particular, China’s move to the west and the recent designation of Kashgar as a Special Economic Zone has been an important factor for Beijing’s deepening relations with Pakistan, it’s gateway not only to South Asia but also to the greater Central Asian region. This paper will examine the steps China is taking to establish Xinjiang as a major trade and transport hub in the “New Central Asia,” and how the city of Kashgar is being developed to facilitate significant transnational trade and development with Pakistan. It will also examine China’s recent investments and development projects in Pakistan and how its neighbor in South Asia is now one of its most important allies in the region. It will posit that China’s thirst for energy resources, namely oil and natural gas from Central Asia and the Middle East, has prompted Beijing to place more emphasis on maintaining and deepening relations with Pakistan. Moreover, this paper will assess how Sino- Pakistani relations in the 21st are affecting China’s relations with India, especially in regards to Christopher Pehrson’s “String of Pearls” concept. This thesis will focus on two major case studies: the establishment of Kashgar as an SEZ and the development of the Gwadar Port in Southern Pakistan, and will show that in many regards, both projects are facing the same development problems.

The motivation for this research comes from the belief that an over reliance on a social constructivist perspective has caused development studies in general, and post-development in particular, to under-theorize the role of discourse in development. A key issue in post-development studies concerns whether or not development organizations depoliticize their interventions. The notion of depoliticization provides a perfect occasion for examining more deeply the role of discourse in development. This research uses the actor-network theory constructivist framework to analyze a USAID funded development program in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan): Mercy Corps' Peaceful Communities Initiative (PCI). The research approach used in this study involved both traditional ethnographic methods and document analysis. The ethnographic case material comes from multiple field visits to PCI offices in Central Asia and multiple visits to a variety of PCI community sites. The documentary evidence comes from a variety of organization and project specific documents. The embedded case studies demonstrate that materiality cannot be easily separated from sociality and that indeed the two are inseparable. Thus development discourse cannot be solely understood as a social phenomenon but could instead be understood as an assemblage of material elements through which both power and sociality flow.

Foreign policy making often involves the balancing of priorities and tradeoffs. U.S. foreign policy to Central Asia has changed over time, in response to regional concerns and domestic priorities. This study examines U.S. foreign policy motivations in Central Asia, the limitations and counterweights in the region, and the results of U.S. foreign policy to the region. Security, energy, and democracy building are the primary areas of U.S. interest in the region, with security having taken precedence in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In a complex region, surrounded by many interested international players, poorly calibrated U.S. policy and balancing of policy interests resulted in the souring of relations between the U.S. and Central Asian countries. Many have charged that bungled policy and the reentrance of large neighbors Russia and China resulted in a turning point that led to a large and costly decline in U.S. influence. Did the U.S. lose Central Asia? Was it inevitable that Central Asia’s neighbors would reemerge as primary influences? This study assesses mismanagement of U.S. foreign policy interests, the interests and policies of Russia and China in the region, the future outlook of U.S. policy, and possibilities for cooperation between the U.S. and neighboring superpowers in the region. / text

The end of Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union created new dynamics in international arena. The events of the new restructured world show us decline and rise of powers’ capabilities on the global and regional levels. Powers such as China and Russia started to reconsider their global and regional capabilities to define their position in international arena. The new sovereign states of Central Asian region have strengthened their capabilities with those powers who maneuver in the region in the fields of economy, politics and security. They all try to improve their interstate relations in the framework of mutual understanding, mutual trust, interaction and mutual profits. China, Russia and Central Asian Republics are pursuing the peace and stability as their strategic interests. Overall, the challenges of instability and contradictions in the region still exist. This should be an important question for future research of security studies of Central Asia region.

This thesis provides a feminist perspective on the inter-ethnic conflict between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. The empirical data for the analysis consists of reports describing the conflict and from interviews conducted in the region in the spring of 2016. The concept discourse is used both as theory and method, in order to analyze how hegemonic identities related to ethnicity and gender can be both reiterated and challenged. The thesis recommends alternative methodological approaches including the object of research, in order to construct knowledge relevant to local conditions. This field study suggests that a feminist perspective on the inter-ethnic conflict in the southern region of Kyrgyzstan is necessary for obtaining a perspective on security which is valid for both men and women. Moreover, women’s passive position in the nationalist narrative may provide a valuable perspective on conflict prevention and reconciliation processes due to inter-ethnic conflict.

1 Abstract Central Asia is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The region includes five different countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The countries differ in the terms of the economic development, and a degree of the openness of the national economies, as well as in the foreign trade and the orientation of the foreign policy. Some states of the region belong to the poorest countries of the world while the others keep a quite successful way of the economic development. In the region there are countries which retain sufficiently isolated from the world economy (such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and Kazakhstan which formed an open liberal economy since gaining the independence. Also there are countries which focused on the development of cooperation with Europe as well as the other regions abroad and at the same time there are countries aimed at preserving and developing the deeper ties with neighboring Russia and China. In June 2007 the European Council of the EU adopted a new strategy towards Central Asia for the period from 2007 to 2013. And despite the strategy is short-term, yet it is a political document (Council of the European Union, 2007). In accordance with the adopted «Strategy for a New Partnership» the EU engages with the region in many areas,...

Reproductive health patterns in post-Soviet Central Asian countries Abstract This study aims to evaluate reproductive health patterns among post-Soviet Central Asian republics since their independence. The reproductive health indicators of individual countries were researched and compared. Furthermore, cluster country groups among selected post-Soviet, post-Socialist and capitalist countries were identified based on certain reproductive health indicators for the beginning and the end of the research period. The subsequent research was focused on 1999 Kazakhstan Demographic and Health Survey data. This thesis explores statistically significant factors influencing pregnancy outcomes in the country. According to the results, never married, urban women, women of Ukrainian, Russian, and other ethnicities, women living in the East and North regions were more likely to terminate a first pregnancy by an induced abortion rather than giving a live birth. Additionally, the same categories were proven to be statistically significant using the Poisson regression analysis, except the regions were shown to be the West and the North. Keywords: post-Soviet Central Asia, reproductive health, maternal mortality, pregnancy outcomes

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The evolution of Kazakhstan's security policies since independence, and particularly after September 11, 2001, indicates that the country has chosen to play an active role in regional and international security as a means to security its own national interests. It has opened to the West, and played an active role in the War on Terrorism. It has also worked to maintain Central Asia's regional security architecture. These policies have had some demonstrable affect on national, regional and international security, but as a young state in a troubled region Kazakhstan will require increased Western assistance if it is to become the force for stability that it seeks to be. Kazakhstan has a very important geopolitical location, and can play a role of a regional leader in Central Asia, but it is still a very young state and needs a strong support. "Perhaps nowhere was the granting of independence more bittersweet and the challenges of sustaining it more complex than in the case of Kazakhstan." (Mathews, Jessica T. Foreword in "Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise" by Olcott, Martha Brill, Washington D.C. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002) / Colonel, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan