New Books In Central Asian Studies

I am very pleased to host on the NBN Central Asia Studies podcast Agha Bayramov, the author of the extremely readable Constructive Cooperation in the Caspian Sea Region? An Alternative Image (Routledge, 2022). This is a much-needed book, which looks at the developments of cooperative frameworks in the Caspian Sea region, an area that is too often investigated through Great Game analysis. Challenging mainstream depictions that portray the Caspian Sea basin as a geopolitical battle­ground between regional and external great powers, where tensions have been exacerbated by the sea’s rich natural resources, strategic location, and legal disagreements over its status, this book offers a new image of the region. Bayramov ac­knowledges the difficulties and problematic starting situation of power poli­tics in the Caspian Sea region while seeking to show that there are ways forward by identifying mechanisms and means to transform the `New Great Game’ into processes of functional co-operation. Drawing on theoretical ins