In the graduate qualification work of a student the tourist potential of one of the most closed destinations in the world is considered. The cultural background, natural and geographical features are studied, the transport infrastructure is characterized. / В выпускной квалификационной работе магистранта рассматривается туристский потенциал одной из самых закрытых дестинаций в мире. Изучается культурный бекграунд, природно-географические особенности, характеризуется транспортная инфраструктура.

After seven decades of regional domination, the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 put the whole continent in a state of political and economic uncertainty. The sudden absence of a strong, yet generally predictable hegemon initiated an intense debate centered on whether or not the rise of China posed a grave threat to the region or whether it would bring stability and cohesion to the region. After 23 years of observation, it is now safe to presume that China does not pose a military threat to the region. Simply because China does not have expansionist or aggressive political or economic aims does not mean that there should be no cause for concern. China does possess persistent political, economic, and security concerns that, despite the nation's best efforts, has not been able to solve. Domestically, examples of these concerns are illegal smuggling, weapons and human trafficking, illegal narcotics, organized crime, Islamic fundamentalism, ethnic nationalism, and Islamic militancy. Internationally, China has had a hard time, not only dealing with the aforementioned list, but also with piracy, ethnic unrest, anti-Chinese sentiment, corruption, and illegal port activities. The reason the solution to these problems remains elusive is the fact that they all share a common element. The element is that they are all transnational in nature; the events themselves, not fully encapsulated within the borders of just one nation-state. This makes them extremely difficult for a single nation-state to be able to effectively deal with them. It happens that Central Asian nations and littoral nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are also afflicted with many of the same issues. This fact is why it will take a comprehensive and coordinated effort in order to effectively deal with the underlying causes which contribute to these problems before any noticeable effect will take place. These efforts, or transnational solutions, are the most effective way to deal with transnational concerns. Research, observations, and the case studies demonstrate that many of the most pressing transnational concerns have similar underlying factors. Income inequality, government repression, and lack of economic opportunity are a few of the most prevalent factors. The obstacles these factors cause are not insurmountable. However each one of these problems require a concentrated and coordinated effort and the cooperation of multiple nation-states. International Organizations, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, are effective mediums in which to accomplish this. What is repeatedly observed is that transnational problems are best solved using transnational solutions.

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After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey involved in many projects in all spheres with the Central Asian republics. In contrast, less of them have been realized. Turkey was more succesful in educational projects. It has initiated more permanent projects with the republics. In this regard, International Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Turk-Kazakh University, established in 1993 in Turkestan city of Kazakhstan, is one of the first and outstanding project of Turkey not only in education sphere but also in terms of all spheres. Concurrently, for the first time Turkey involved in an international higher education activity abroad. The existence of the university both facilitated the establishment of the subsequent Turkish universities in Central Asia and contributed to the sustainable enhancement of Turkish relations with the region. On the other hand, for the last two decades higher education is more highlighted as a cross-border issue mainly accelerated by the internationalization of higher education. Although the university is not directly prompted by the internationalization process, it both performs activities matching with internationalization and contributes to the development of this process in Central Asia. In this context, this study brings up the motives and objectives behind the establishment and structuration of the university, and argues that by foundation university has quite similarities with the rationales of the internationalization. Therefore, it aims to find out the compatible and incompatible aspects of the university with the internationalization in addition to clarify its identity and position as an international higher education institution.

冷戰結束後，由於蘇聯的崩解，致使中亞地區權力出現真空狀態。中亞新興獨立的五個國家援引俄羅斯、美國、中國等外力，來協助國家的進步。俄羅斯自詡為中亞的保護者，並且認為中亞為其勢力範圍。美國為霸權擴張、西方式民主鼓吹者，致力於反恐戰爭與中亞資源的開發。中國的崛起需要的是中亞區域的穩定以及中亞各國與中國的相互合作。本研究試圖透過中亞本身內部安全、資源、民族、文化等因素以及外部國際環境變化，來探討俄、美、中三國與中亞五國之間的關係發展與演變。 / After the cold war, the disintegration of the Soviet Union has caused a power vacuum situation in Central Asia. The five newly independent Central Asian states have cited external forces, including Russia, the United States and China, to assist their own countries’ progress. Russia treats itself as Central Asia’s protector, and considers Central Asia under its sphere of influence. As a hegemony expansionist and western-style democracy promoter, the US strives for anti-terrorism and the extraction of natural resources in Central Asia. For China’s rise, China needs regional stability and maintains mutual cooperation with Central Asian states. This study explores Central Asian states’ relationship with Russia, America and China through domestic security, natural resources, nationalities, cultures, and international situation.

Water resources in the semi-arid to arid areas of Central Asia are often limited by low precipitation, and hence vulnerable to impacts of global change, i.e. socio-economic development and climate change. Both, socio-economic development and climate change are very likely causing significant changes as water resources are affected by two main effects: Firstly, growing population and industrial activities in the region raise the pressure on water resources due to increasing water abstractions. Secondly, air temperature in the region has been rising in the past far above global average and it is expected to increase further, which will lead to changes in runoff generation and therefore water availability. Increasing temperature as well as increasing water abstractions will affect water quantity and consequently water quality as a result of higher pollution intake or reduction in dilution capacity. Thus, it is of crucial importance to analyse and assess the state of current and future water resources to implement sustainable water management as the above mentioned effects very likely causing significant changes of water resources. Within the last years, the number of scientific research studies using large-scale models to simulate water availability and water use has increased substantially. Several new datasets from earth observations and new or improved models have been published (Werth et al. 2009; Werth and Güntner 2010; van Beek et al. 2011). Nevertheless, those studies focussed on water quantity and did not take into account impacts on water quality induced by global change although changes in water quality affecting aquatic ecosystems and species. Furthermore, spatially explicit large-scale modelling studies have not been carried out for Mongolia and Central Asia to get a comprehensive overview and assessment. To address this research gap, the large-scale water resource modelling framework WaterGAP 3 was applied to Central Asia with a focus on Mongolia to simulate impacts on current and future water resources. WaterGAP 3 consists of hydrology, water use and water quality sub-models in order to simulate current and future water quantity and quality.

U.S. strategy toward Southern Caucasus and Central Asia has not been studied sufficiently. The present study, which takes the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of the states of CASC (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) as its starting point, is probably the most detailed tracing of the evolution of U.S. strategy toward this specific region hitherto available. The study is methodologically committed to process-tracing and covers U.S. strategy toward CASC over a 15-year period covering three separate presidential administrations. A vast material has been collected and studied, and the primary contribution of the study is empirical. The study also sets out develop a neoclassical realist framework for analysing U.S. strategy, which introduces strategic culture as an intervening variable between the external actions of the U.S and the international environment.  The theory in this study is based on three pillars. The first is structural realism. With its focus on the international environment and the pressure that is exerts, the study accepts the systemic imperative described by structural realists. The second pillar is cultural/constructivist theory. The study presupposes the notion of malleable norms and identities promoted by such theories. The third and most important pillar is neoclassical realism, which aims at finding intervening variables between a state´s external actions and the international environment. The definition of U.S. strategic culture relies heavily on American political and diplomatic history, the main argument being that U.S. policymakers constantly draw on U.S. strategic culture and have strong incentives to frame their policies so as to be culturally acceptable. The strategic culture thus both constrains and enables actions. The framework contributes to the ongoing effort to bridge the gap between realist and constructivist perspectives. This study will demonstrate that U.S. strategy toward CASC was shaped by specific U.S. strategic culture to a considerable extent. Throughout the entire period studied, the declared goal of the U.S. was the integration of CASC into the community of liberal market democracies. One very important theoretical finding of this study is that U.S. strategic culture had a powerful impact on U.S. strategy, independently of international pressures. This study will also demonstrate that U.S. strategy was incoherent, inconsistent, bureaucratically uncoordinated, susceptible to domestic pressure, and frequently subordinated to more important strategic goals outside of the region.

Some linguists in the nineteenth century argued for the existence of a "Turanian" family of languages in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, claiming the common descent of a vast range of languages like Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish, Mongol, Manchu, and their relatives and dialects. Of such linguists, Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) was an important developer and popularizer of a version of the Turanian theory across Europe, given his influence as a German-born Oxford professor in Victorian England from the 1850s onwards. Although this theory lost ground in academic linguistics from the mid twentieth century, a pan-nationalist movement pushing for the political unity of all Turanians emerged in Hungary and the Ottoman Empire from the Fin-de-siècle era. This thesis focuses on the history of this linguistic theory in the nineteenth century, examining Müller's methodology and assumptions behind his Turanian concept. It argues that, in the comparative-historical trend in linguistics in an age of European imperialism, Müller followed evolutionary narratives of languages based on word morphologies in which his contemporaries rationalized the superiority of "inflectional" Indo-European languages over "agglutinating" Turanian languages. Building on the "Altaic" theory of the earlier Finnish linguist and explorer Matthias Castrén, Müller factored in the more primitive nomadic lifestyle of many peoples speaking agglutinating languages to genealogically group them into the Turanian family. Müller's universalist Christian values gave him a touch of sympathy for all human languages and religions, but he reinforced the hierarchical view of cultures in his other comparative sciences of mythology and religion as well. This picture was challenged in the cultural pessimism of the Fin de siècle with the Pan-Turanists turning East to their nomadic heritage for inspiration.