The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies #6, June 2007

An electronic journal of social sciences

 www.pipss.org <http://www.pipss.org/> 

 

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS: “Defence Reform in Central Asia”

Pipss.org is a new electronic journal of social sciences devoted to the
armed forces and power institutions of post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a
multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses issues across a broad field of
disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science,
psychology, economics, history, legal science. Its main objective is to
study changes and their underlying mechanisms in post-Soviet republics,
through the analysis of the institutions that remain most hidden from the
public eye: armies and power institutions. As an electronic journal,
pipss.org also aims to promote scholarly debate across as broad an audience
as possible, and make CIS research available to Western scholars. Thanks to
its international scientific board drawn from a large pool of leading
academics and experts in their respective fields, it is in a position to
become a leading source of analysis on post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a
principal partner of the International Security Network and a member of the
CNRS/EHESS scientific journal network Revues.org.

 

SIXTH ISSUE:

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian Republics found
themselves  bound  to build their own national armies and more recently,
because of the changing security environment, they were compelled to new
military reforms.

A lot has been written on Central Asian military reform and the influence of
the West, but very little is known about those men who leads the Central
Asian armies, about the bodies in charge of the defence implementation….
Who are the Central Asian officers today. What do they read, what do they
have in mind?  How do they position themselves in the struggle between
Soviet heritage, western influence and Central Asian heritage ? These
questions (among others) remain unanswered. 

 

That is why the issue editors of volume 6 would like to invite sociologists,
anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, military analysts
etc…to submit their papers for publication in a special issue on “Defence
Reform in Central Asia”. 

 

This volume aims to cover (but does not to limit itself to) the following
issues : 

 

1 - The Soviet heritage

 
- the endurance of military networks belonging to the Soviet period
- dedovshchina in Central Asian Armies
- The image of Soviet armed forces in Central Asian societies

 
2 - Building the new national soldier

A - the role of national epic heroes in building the national soldier 

- Is Central Asian military ethos fundamentally different from Soviet and
(post-Soviet) Russian military culture?

 - What role do national epic heroes play in the building of the national
soldier in Central Asian armies ? 


 “The training [of the army] is based on the Seven Commandments of Manas
(the Kyrgyz national epic poem). Even though it is true that these
commandments only resemble modern values  nevertheless they have practically
replaced Constitutional values. These commandments have been already
included in the military pledge. Such is the present situation in the Kyrgyz
armed forces. What we have is a crisis of values in the ideological and
educational work of the military institution and as a result the democratic
values enshrined in the Constitution are replaced by the archaic values of a
medieval epic”. 

Source: Bakyt Kakchekeyev in “The Kyrgyz Republic. Is Desertion a National
Tradition?”, in F. Daucé & E. Sieca-Kozlowski (Eds), Dedovshchina in the
Post-Soviet Military. Hazing of Russian Army Conscript in a Comparative
Perspective, Ibidem-Verlag, 2006, p. 179.

 

B - The Central Asian officer: a sociological portrait

 

- The renewal of military elites, their sociological composition, the
changes in recruitment and evaluation systems and in career profiles.

 

- Changes in the ethnic composition of the armed forces of the Central Asia
Republics due to the massive departure of Russian officers (who returned
mainly to Russia and the Ukraine).

 

- Professional military staff preparation and training : the training of a
specialist corps whose members are recruited among a population with a low
level of instruction, and which was not allowed to occupy positions of
responsibility during the Soviet regime.

 

- The difficult interaction of Russian officers with local officers due to
language problems affecting the chain of command.

 

-  Military personnel’s wives / Women in the military in Central Asian
societies.

 

 

3 – Military/society relations

 

- The role of solidarities and loyalties in Central Asian armies: minorities
in the military; kinship networks in the military.  

 

- The action of military elites as lobby groups and the perceptions they
generate. Are these elites no more than interest group(s) competing with
others for the ownership and use of resources, power, etc… or does their
state function (defense, public order) confer upon them a specific role and
modus operandi?

 

- How the contradictions affecting Central Asian societies  (tribal and clan
divisions, ethnic tension, regional disparities, urban-rural differences,
social inequalities etc) affects the national armies ?

 

- The Central Asian armies in Central asian public opinion.

 
4 - Central Asian defence reform and defence strategy

 
A – Military reform 

 
- Implementation of state measures, military reform: the bodies in charge.

 

- Military reform and structural changes: how military reforms have affected
Soviet-style regimental structures

 

- Central Asian military legislation and military justice

 

B – Defense strategy and territorial division

- What are the actors in charge of building and maintaining national
security structures and infrastructure in the different Republics of Central
Asia ?

- What are their current role and mission ?

- Are they wholly independent of their national centres or symbiotically
related to a variety of regional, local or national actors ?

- Territorial division and security policy in Central Asian Republics:
assessing the impact of the regions’ (districts) contribution to national
security policies

 

- Non state security actors operating in the regions (the role of local
militias)

 

- Non governemental actors and assistance to the military ? Evaluation/ratio
of public, private and foreign contributions to the military

 

- Corruption and regional security

 

C – Other security forces

 

Very often literature on Post-Soviet armed forces fails to cover police
forces and security services. Therefore the issue editors would like to
assess the role and the importance given to other security forces (Interior
troops, border troops, security services…) in Central Asian Republics. Are
Central Asian Republics following the Russian model ? Have military reforms
been severly limited by the role given to these forces as they have in
post-Soviet Russia ? Or have Central Asian Republics escaped this phenomenon
? Are their any linkage between defence reform and security sector reform ? 

 

 

5 - What Russia and the West can learn from Central Asian  armies.    

 

The issue editors welcome studies of original experiences conducted in
Central Asian countries such as the creation of  “army unit councils” in
Uzbekistan (these councils of five - seven people are formed at general
meetings of privates and sergeants by open ballot for a one-year term and
aim to help “forming a healthy spiritual and moral atmosphere in military
communities”), or of a  similar body in Kyrgyzstan: the “garrison public
council”. Could Russia learn from these experiences and specificities
(Uzbekistan  broke new ground when a civilian was appointed defence
minister) ?

What about the West ?  One cannot help but look or even hope for a
specificity in Central Asian countries as an alternative to modernity.

 

 

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Papers dealing with other issues related to armies and  power institutions
in the CIS, as well as book review  proposals are also welcome.

REVIEWS

 
Publishers interested in publicizing their editions, please send review
copies to:

Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski

15 rue Charlot

75003 Paris, France

 Guidelines for article submission 

The journal will be published in four languages (French, English, Russian,
and German with a 100-word abstract in English) thanks to which most authors
will be able to write in their mother tongue. This will ensure greater
precision in the articles and avoid a decrease in scientific quality. But we
draw your attention to the fact that most pipss.org readers are essentially
English speakers, therefore we do encourage articles in English in order to
reach an audience as broad as possible.


The articles submitted to pipss.org for publication should be original
contributions and should not be under consideration for any other
publication at the same time. Manuscripts should be attached as Microsoft
Word format. References should be given in footnotes. (For more details
about the guidelines for article submission please check
<http://www.pipss.org/> www.pipss.org  or contact the Editorial Board).
There should be a cover page stating the author's background and
affiliation, full address. 


If you wish to submit an article, please first contact the editorial board
and send an 100-word abstract in English. The deadline for article
submission is March 10, 2007, with publication in June. Final decisions on
publication will be made by the Editorial Board.

Please send your contributions or inquiries to:

Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Chief Editor,  <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[log in to unmask] 

 
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (6th Issue Editor)
Roger McDermott (6th Issue Editor)

Editorial Board : Eden Cole, Francoise Dauce,  Gilles Favarel-Garrigues,
Anna Colin Lebedev, Anne Le Huerou, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van
Bladel