Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Migration, Democratisation and Inequality in the post-Soviet Era, I.B. Tauris, 288 p., edited by Sophie Hohmann, Claire Mouradian, Silvia Serrano and J. Thorez.

 

After the final collapse of the Soviet Union, the so-called ‘last empire’, in 1991, the countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan – and of the Caucasus became independent nations. These countries, previously production centres under the socialist planning system of the Soviet Union, have made enormous economic adjustments in order to attempt to develop along capitalist lines. However, inequality in Central Asia and the Caucasus is widening, as the Soviet systems of healthcare and state provisions disappear. Rejecting the Cold War-era East/West paradigm often used to analyse the development of these nations, this study analyses development along the North-South lines which characterise the migration patterns and poverty levels of much of the rest of the developed world. This opens up new avenues of research, and helps us understand why it is, for instance, that this region is better characterised as a ‘new South’ – as skilled workers flood out of the territories and into Russia and Western Europe.

 

Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus draws together detailed analyses of the development of migration economics as the region’s oil wealth further enhances its strategic and economic importance to Russia, the US, the Middle East and to the EU.

 

‘An insightful contribution to understanding post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus in world politics and international development.’ Olivier Ferrando, French Institute for Central Asian Studies

 

Sophie Hohmann holds a PhD in social sciences and demography from the EHESS (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) in Paris. Claire Mouradian is senior research fellow at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and coordinates Caucasian studies

at the CERCEC (Centre for Russian, Caucasian and East-European studies).

Silvia Serrano teaches political science at the Law faculty of the Université d’Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand and is a research fellow at the CERCEC.

Julien Thorez is a research fellow of the CNRS in Paris and member of the unit ‘Iranian and Indian Worlds’ composed of researchers from the CNRS, EPHE (Practical School of Advanced Studies), Sorbonne Nouvelle and INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations).