The Ob' will enter the Caspian: the Yenisey-Ob'-Aral-Caspian Water Connection and the Energy Problem

An early 1949 version of Davydov's grandiose scheme for diverting water from the Yenisey and Ob' Rivers to Kazakhstan and Central Asia via the Turgay Gates and the Aral and Caspian Seas in order to stabilize the level of the Caspian, expand the irrigated acreage of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, generate abundant hydro-electric power, provide a cheap water transport route between Siberia and Central Asia, eliminate sukhovei (dry winds) at their source, and ameliorate the continental climate of Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia. The plan reflects the anthropocentric “transformation of nature” and the large-scale “great projects of communism” drives of the late Stalinist period. The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.     

文明交往视阈下16世纪布哈拉汗国的经济发展

1500年布哈拉汗国的建立拉开了中亚近代史的序幕。乌兹别克人的南下加快了河中地区游牧文明与农耕文明的交往,促使汗国经济发展步入转折期。在继承和变革帖木儿王朝经济制度的前提下,16世纪汗国的农牧经济得到恢复和发展,手工业进一步完善,对外贸易重新活跃,从而对中亚近代文明交往产生了深远影响。乌兹别克人在与河中地区各民族频繁交往的过程中,其经济生活逐渐转向农业,并接受中亚传统的伊斯兰教,从而实现了中亚农耕文明和伊斯兰文化的传承与发展。     

浅析中亚国家的社会分化与整合

本文通过对中亚国家独立十年来的民族社会结构分化与社会整合等问题的探讨 ,揭示了中亚各国在独立道路上所遇到的困难与波折 ,分析了中亚各国的社会发展情况。从社会结构的分化上来说 ,中亚各国独立十年来体现在各领域的分层十分明显。从社会整合方面来讲 ,由于前苏联人为地造成的资源分配的不平衡 ,导致中亚各国资源利用上的匮乏 ,致使其政治系统的正常运行受到严重的打击 ,结果给中亚各国的社会整合带来了较大的困难。目前中亚各国的社会整合任重而道远 ,需要社会各部分力量的相互协调与合作。     

The Jewish Communities of Central Asia in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

When the Jews first settled in Central Asia is uncertain, but circumstantial evidence clearly indicates that this happened at least two and a half thousand years ago. In the first millennium AD, the Jews lived only in cities no farther than 750?km east of the Caspian sea (in the eighth–eleventh centuries the sea was called Khazarian). Only later did they migrate to the central part of the region, to cities like Samarkand and Bukhara. It is possible that Jews from Khazaria joined them, since they already had tight trade connections with Central Asia and China. There is no trace of evidence regarding the existence of Jews in the entirety of Central Asia in the early sixteenth century. At the very end of the sixteenth century Bukhara became the new ethnoreligious center of the Jews in that region. In the first half of the nineteenth century, thanks to European travelers visiting Central Asia at that time, the term “Bukharan Jews” was assigned to this sub-ethnic Jewish group. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary source materials, this article aims to prove that the presence of Jews in Central Asia was not continuous, and therefore the modern Bukharan Jews are not descendants of the first Jewish settlers there. It also attempts to determine where Central Asia’s first Jewish population disappeared to.     

论中亚的民族主义问题

本民族主义在中亚各国的表现进行了综合分析,特别对各国主体民族意识方面的表现进行了阐述。作认为,尽管中亚国家的民族自我中心主义对提升主体民族的凝聚力有帮助作用,然而却导致了非主体民族与主体民族的矛盾,甚至产生了危害国家安全的异己力量。中亚国家的民族主义思潮严重影响到中亚地区的社会稳定,对我国西北边疆地区的社会稳定也带来消极的影响。中亚国家已经认识到民族主义的危害,并采取了相应的对策,抵制民族主义的泛滥,携手共同打击民族分裂主义势力、宗教极端主义势力和国际恐怖主义势力等三股恶势力。     

略论中亚突厥系民族对成吉思汗的尊崇

本文从人类学的视角考察了14世纪以来中亚突厥系民族尊崇成吉思汗的种种表现,指出成吉思汗崇拜在中亚是一种超民族、超语言、超宗教的涵盖了从政治领域到民间文化各层面的精神信仰,并阐释了这种崇拜长期存在的原因。     

中亚国家独立前后跨国民族的迁移对其民族结构的影响

本文对中亚各国民族结构主体民族化的状况进行了分析研究。认为在中亚国家政局动荡、经济陷于危机的形势下,民族结构的主体民族化有利于各国暂时缓解民族矛盾和稳定政局,有利于暂时缓解失业带来的社会压力;然而从长远的发展角度来看,它侵蚀了中亚社会稳定的基石,不利于中亚各国社会的长治久安,破坏了良性的社会结构,加速了中亚社会的分化。     

Principles in the pipeline: managing transatlantic values and interests in Central Asia

After a decade of relative neglect post‐Soviet Central Asia has become a foreign policy priority for the transatlantic community. Both the United States and Europe have engaged with the region in recent years in pursuit of new strategic interests, including maintaining military basing access in support of coalition operations in Afghanistan and securing the export of Central Asian oil and gas to the West. Despite this period of renewed engagement, however, the quality of democratic governance within the region remains poor, especially in comparison with other post‐communist regions that successfully completed their political transitions. In fact, the United States and the European Union have often tempered promoting their Central Asian democratization agendas in order to maintain access to these strategically important fixed assets. The transatlantic struggle to balance the pursuit of strategic interests and democratic values has been rendered more difficult by Russia's recent resurgence as a regional power. Backed by the Central Asian governments, Moscow has challenged the purpose and influence of western‐based international and non‐governmental organizations in the region, thereby further diminishing the transatlantic community's capacity to promote sustained democratic reforms.     

Strategic Reassertion in Russia's Central Asia Policy

President Putin has presided over a proactive, hard-headed and relatively effective Russian policy in Central Asia and the Caspian region since at least the summer of 2002, which aims both to support Russia's revival as an economic and military power and to help tackle at source new security challenges from the volatile south. In line with rising domestic nationalist thinking and the growing influence of officials with a security service or military background, Moscow has been searching for a rationale to support a more assertive policy in the region. Meanwhile, Russian and American views on the scope and conduct of the war on terrorism have diverged in important respects. Russia lacks an overall regional strategy for Central Asia, but is seeking to mesh together geopolitical, security and energy policy goals. It is seeking to reinvigorate its military–security influence in Central Asia under the banner of counterterrorism and at the same time has achieved long-term agreements for energy transit and purchases that make Central Asian states increasingly dependent on Russia in energy policy. Overall, a dynamic of competition is displacing the potential for cooperation between Russia and western states, especially the United States, in Central Asia. The prospects for a fully-fledged strategic partnership in the region are fading but the reality of security threats from Afghanistan and within Central Asia might eventually reconcile Moscow to a lower profile but long-term western strategic presence in the region.     

试论新疆与中亚民族、文化多元融合性特点及其差异

章对新疆与中亚民族、化融合的特点进行了探讨,认为由于独特的地理环境及处于几大明之间,中亚地区成为不同种族、民族融合的舞台,民族的复杂化和化的多元化使这里从远古至19世纪在经济上始终没有形成一个统一的经济基础,政治上大多数时候处于各自为政的局面,在民族发展进程中表现为整体上伊斯兰化、突厥化的同对,近代各个民族也在孕育之中。     

中国—中亚合作冲突关系及时空热点分析

中亚地处欧亚大陆中心，是“一带一路”倡议建设的重要区域。本文基于GDELT新闻媒体数据库，构建了事件影响度和双边关系度，定量分析了中国与中亚国家之间的合作、冲突关系演变，采用时空热点分析识别了中国在中亚城市尺度的合作、冲突热点模式。结果表明：①中国与中亚国家的合作日趋紧密。“一带一路”倡议提出之后，中国与中亚国家的合作趋势显著上升，与哈萨克斯坦的合作关系最为紧密。②中国在中亚地区的合作区域集中在中亚国家首都、战略要地、重要能源基地等，在乌兹别克斯坦安集延地区和塔吉克斯坦哈特隆州形成集中连片的合作区域。冲突区域集中在中亚国家首都和战略要地，与合作区域在空间上高度重合，但影响力显著低于合作事件。③中国在中亚城市的影响力以合作关系占主导，冲突关系大于合作关系的城市主要分布在吉尔吉斯斯坦。64%的中亚城市为低合作—低冲突状态，中亚国家首都、阿拉木图、安集延属于显著的高合作—高冲突城市。④时间尺度上，中国与中亚地区的合作热点以持续型为主，冲突热点以振荡型为主，哈萨克斯坦纳伦市、阿特劳州为新增冲突热点，应引起重视。     

英俄私分帕米尔与清政府的立场

本文以19世纪末的中亚为背景,运用新近刊布的国内外档案、文书等第一手资料,详尽论述了清末英俄以强凌弱,私分帕米尔,瓜分中国领土的经过,并对清政府为捍卫国土主权,与英俄据理力争的严正立场予以新的阐释,以深入理解该时期英俄争夺中亚势力范围的真实目的和清政府的领土主权意识,对稳定新疆局势,维护祖统一有一定的现实意义。     

UNION REPUBLIC MIGRATION TRENDS IN THE USSR DURING THE 1980s

This article examines union republic migration trends in the USSR between 1979 and 1987 and prospects for indigenous out-migration from rural areas in Central Asia. The study is based on migration data derived by the residual technique and migration data from the 1985 microcensus. Results indicate that a south-to-north and probably Russian-dominated migration trend emerged in the 1980s, one which marks an almost complete reversal from earlier periods, especially 1959-70. Although Central Asia continues to have low levels of indigenous out-migration, labor surpluses and relatively waning capital investment in Central Asia may change this situation.     

Regionalism in Central Asia: New Geopolitics, Old Regional Order

Behind the rhetoric of regional cooperation, the Central Asian states have been embroiled with increasing frequency in conflicts among themselves, including trade wars, border disputes and disagreements over the management and use of water and energy resources. Far from engendering a new regional order in Central Asia, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent basing of US troops in the region have served to entrench pre-existing patterns of regional cooperation, while highlighting the obstacles that have beset the regionalization process there since the mid-1990s. While all five Central Asian states have been attempting to use the renewed rivalry between Russia and the United States, which is being played out in the Central Asian region, to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, the formation of the United States–Uzbekistan strategic partnership has increased the resolve of the other Central Asian states (Turkmenistan excepted) to balance Uzbekistan's preponderance by enthusiastically pursuing regional projects involving Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. This regional dynamic has resulted in the steady gravitation of the centre of regionalism in Central Asia to the north from a nominal Tashkent–Astana axis to a more stable Astana–Moscow one, with possible repercussions for the poorer states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The article examines the major constraints on regionalism in Central Asia, considering in particular the ways in which the personalist, non-democratic regimes of Central Asia have obstructed state–centric 'top–down' regionalism as well as informal regionalist processes 'from below'.     

The late prehistory of xinjiang in relation to its neighbors

Recent research by Chinese archaeologists has identified many late prehistoric (2000-400 B.C.) oases, pastoral settlements, and cemeteries in eastern Central Asia (Xinjiang province of China). The synthesis presented here organizes the data into 10 archaeological cultures, defined on the basis of ceramics, burials, small finds, and architecture. The archaeological cultures reveal two periods, corresponding to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The oases cultures formed a core area before the Chinese Han period and maintained close contacts with nearby highland pastoralists in Siberia and western Central Asia. The evidence for interaction between Xinjiang and the complex cultures in China and western Central Asia is evaluated with regard to the origins of the early Xinjiang cultures.     

The Role of the Eastern Regions in the Economy of the USSR

The economic development of the eastern regions, including Siberia and the Far East, Kazakhstan and Central Asia, has been hampered by manpower shortages (except in Central Asia) and the high cost of construction. However the generally more favorable conditions for resource development are viewed as a sound basis for further industrialization of the Eastern regions, focusing on fossil fuels and electric power and on industries consuming large amounts of fuel and power (nonferrous and ferrous metals, some chemicals, and forest products). In view of the need for integrated regional development, primary resource-based industries should be supplemented by some manufacturing, particularly heavy machinery industries and pulp and paper. Savings in construction could be achieved by investing in territorial-production complexes with interrelated industries and common engineering and transport systems.     

A Place for Women Only: Health,Healing and the Divine at an Islamic Shrine in Central Asia

This article analyses the relationships between traditional healing and biomedical practices found in contemporary Central Asia from the late Soviet period into the early twenty-first century. Gendered demarcation of space, the roles of women as caregivers and protectors of spiritual health in legends and emphasis on life cycle rituals position women at the centre of discussions of healing practices in Central Asia. Through historical and ethnographic work conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic, this article offers a view of women as practitioners and recipients of healing and as producers of knowledge about health and healing.     

An Umm an‐Nar‐type compartmented soft‐stone vessel from Gonur Depe,Turkmenistan

Recent excavations by V.I. Sarianidi in the so‐called ‘royal necropolis’ of Gonur Depe North, in southern Turkmenistan, have brought to light the first unequivocal example of an Umm an‐Nar‐type soft‐stone compartmented vessel ever found in Central Asia. The find is discussed in light of other evidence of links between Central Asia, south‐eastern Arabia and Bahrain.     

A seal in the collections of the National Museum, Bahrain

This article describes a Murghab seal amulet recently identified in the collections of the National Museum of Bahrain and discusses some of the other evidence for contact between Central Asia and the Gulf in the early second millennium.     

丝路开通之初帕提亚帝国境内的东西交通路线

丝绸之路的具体路径是学界在中外交流领域长期关注的焦点.张骞凿空之时,正是帕提亚帝国疆域大扩张时期,从两河流域到中亚的道路基本在其控制之下.从西到东,帕提亚帝国的领土可分为三大区域:亚述一巴比伦尼亚地区、伊朗高原上的波斯腹地以及赫卡尼亚以东的不稳定控制地域.自亚历山大东征至四大帝国并立时的1-2世纪,帕提亚帝国境内的东西...