The former Soviet republics of Central Asia have largely completed their post-independence transitions. The purpose of this volume is to assess what has been accomplished, the trends of development in the region, especially its leading states and how sound are the foundations of this "bulwark against the spread of terrorism" in Eurasia?

Part I Overview; Chapter 1 Central Asia at the End of the Transition, Boris Rumer; Part II The External Context; Chapter 2 Russia and Central Asia: Problems of Security, Irina Zviagel 'skaia; Chapter 3 Russia: On the Path to Empore?, Konstantin Syroezhkin; Chapter 4 China's Central Asia Policy: Making Sense of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Richard W. X. Hu; Chapter 5 Islamic Radicalism in Central Asia: The Influence of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky; Part III The Internal Social and Political Context; Chapter 6 The Regime in Kazakhstan, Dmitrii Furman; Chapter 7 Uzbekistan: Between Traditionalism and Westernization, Evgeniy Abdullaev; Part IV The Prospects for Economic Development; Chapter 8 Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan: Landlocked Agrarian Economies with an Unlimited Supply of Labor, Stanislav Zhukov; Chapter 9 Institutional Barriers to the Economic Development of Uzbekistan, Eshref Trushin, Eskender Trushin; Chapter 10 Kazakhstan: The Development of Small Raw-Material Exporters Under the Constraints of Globalization, Stanislav Zhukov; Chapter 11 Economic Ties Between Russia and Kazakhstan: Dynamics, Tendencies, and Prospects, Stanislav Zhukov, Oksana Reznikova;