Bilateral relations between the Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have developed acrimonious tendencies since Kyrgyzstan's latest political revolution in 2010. This thesis studies the actual mechanisms and bodies conducting statecraft while also examining the impetus and nature of relations for the past seven years. Content analysis of governmental bodies and legislation, bloc protocols, journalistic articles, and interviews conducted by various media outlets were utilized to develop a comprehensive understanding of how and why these countries cooperate or attempt to influence each other. The data gathered in this analysis posits that the presidential administrations of both countries, rather than respective government ministries, continue to wield tremendous influence in bilateral relations. Moreover, the very nature of Kyrgyzstani politics is antithetical to Kazakhstan's authoritarian model thus initiating punitive border measures by the Kazakhstani government. Keywords Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, International Relations, EEU, Borders, Central Asia

The main goal of this paper is to trace the formation of nation-states in Central Asia, primarily during the second half of the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th century. Although soviets played a significant role in shaping modern Central Asian political map, local national elites (like Alash Orda and jadids) and tsarist officials had contributed to this process as well. Thus, it is necessary to understand the interrelationship between all these key actors. Key words Central Asia, Bolshevism, nationalism, Turkism, nation-states

This thesis deals with migration flows between Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic. The aim is to analyze migration trends after the collapse of the Soviet Union and to characterize the impact and importance of migration on society and the state of Kyrgyzstan. Another issue is the use of the theories of migration in the post-Soviet space, where they are rarely used nowadays. The analysis begins with an introduction to the formation of the USSR with regard to migration processes on the territory of present-day Kyrgyzstan. Another part is devoted to ethnic migration and the last part deals with labor migration. This thesis illustrates the interdependence of migration and changes in the economy and society in Kyrgyzstan. Based on the evaluation of the causes of migration, migration theory could be used just for explanation of labor migration. Application of specific migration theories on labour migration is a matter for further research.

This diploma thesis deals with relation between good governance and organized crime. The aim of this thesis is to test a theory claiming that level of democracy directly influences level of organized crime and then to test a hypothesis claiming that key factor for successful fight against organized crime is presence of principles of good governance. Existence and strength of the relation between democracy, good governance and organized crime is tested by statistical analysis on a wide range of states. Results of this analysis are then verified within frame of instrumental case studies of the states with low level of democracy, low level of good governance and high level of organized crime (states of Central Asia) and a state with low level of democracy, high level of good governance and low level of organized crime (Singapore).

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This thesis explores the reasons behind the stagnation in the transition to democracy in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to their constitutions, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are democracies. In actuality, however, there is little evidence to support that these are democratic systems. These states' post-Soviet constitutions outline them as democracies - yet they lack a free press; freedom of association is suppressed; religious freedom is limited; and free speech is constrained as well. While these two countries hold popular elections, much of their electoral processes are under the control of the executive branch of government - calling into question whether or not Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan really hold fair and competitive elections. In sum, in both of these states, democracy is de jure rather than de facto. Why is this so? Why are Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan not the democracies in practice that they are on paper? Many scholars and policy-makers blame the stagnation in these states' democratic transitions on the firm hands used by the countries' presidents to maintain their current power and even to increase it. Other scholars point out that Central Asia has never been democratic and thus does not know how to be so. These scholars refer, in particular, to the region's history as part of the Russian Empire and later, as part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Using frameworks drawn from Dahl's Polyarchy (1971) and Huntington's The Third Wave (1991), this thesis finds that not only are Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan straying from their constitutional democratic starting points, no single factor is to blame for the stagnation in the transitions to democracy in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Rather, it is the combination of multiple factors - both internal and external - that provides the most comprehensive explanation of these states' failure to become full-fledged democracies. Combining the elements of strong dictator-like presidents with a lack of democratic history is but the tip of the iceberg. Internal factors such as political culture and external factors such as the influence of the international community also play major roles in the current state of affairs in these Central Asian states.

Researchers and policy experts point to key issues and groups such as the Palestinian/Arab Israeli Conflict, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Saudi exported Wahhabism, and, in more recent times, the Iraq wars as being the source of militant Islam in this day in age. However, this perspective ignores key issues and ideals in to how this new form of Islam has emerged in recent decades. For instance, with all the conflicts that have occurred in recent decades, except for the 1979 Revolution in Iran, why have they not yielded Shari'a inspired Islamic states in Yemen, Lebanon, the Occupied Territories and Iraq? Currently the only Islamic states in the Arab world are ones that lay on the Persian Gulf that were established during their independence from colonial rule. One only has to look further east and to the north of the Middle East to see militant Islam taking hold in places like Chechnya, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Waziristan and a host of other areas which do not get the attention from many people in the West. After the demise of the Soviet Union and the years directly after, a political vacuum was formed that received almost no attention from the outside world except for states with historical and cultural similarities. Here Islam has and is being used as a military and political doctrine to accomplish goals and as an ideological base for launching new attacks against its proclaimed enemies. Indeed many of the key theologians and figures have come from the Arab world, but the rise of militant Islam could not have formed with this alone. Many of the fighters on the ground in alQaeda and its direct affiliated groups are indeed not Arabs but come from a wide range of different ethnic groups such as Afghans, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Uyghurs and Pakistanis who have answered bin Laden's call of lesser jihad against the West. Rather than examining militant Islam through a Middle Eastern perspective, this author wishes to give an alternate view that the current rise of militant Islam in the world is directly associated with the internal political situation of the Greater Caspian Sea Basin and not the Middle East as so many people have proposed in the past. To examine this idea, this author will look extensively at the internal conditions of states that have allowed militant Islam to arise and mature in such a short time span in this often forgotten region. The primary purpose of the proposed paper is to examine the rise of militant Islam through a Caspian Sea region lens rather than a Middle Eastern one. This study will also examine violent groups in various states to understand how groups are able to form and how they differ from each other. Countries ranging from as far as Turkey to the Xinxiang Province in China and from the southern reaches of the Russian Federation to Pakistan will be the primary focus.