Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia offers the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary overview of key issues in Central Asian studies. The 30 chapters by leading and emerging scholars summarise major findings in the field and highlight long-term trends, recent observations and future developments in the region. The handbook features case studies of all five Central Asian republics and is organised thematically in seven sections:

• History
• Politics
• Geography
• International Relations
• Political Economy
• Society and Culture
• Religion

An essential cross-disciplinary reference work, the handbook offers an accessible and easyto- understand guide to the core issues permeating the region to enable readers to grasp the fundamental challenges, transformations and themes in contemporary Central Asia. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students of the region and those working in the field of Area Studies, History, Anthropology, Politics and International Relations.

Chapter 23 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Rico Isaacs is Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Lincoln, UK, and the editor of Central Asian Survey. His recent books include, among others, Party System Formation in Kazakhstan (2011), Nation-Building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space (with A. Polese, 2016) and Politics: An Introduction, 3rd edition (with B. Axford, V. Browne and R. Huggins, 2018), also published by Routledge.

Erica Marat is Associate Professor at the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defence University, Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on violence, mobilisation and security institutions in Eurasia, India and Mexico. She is also the author of The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries (2018).