Conflict, Crime, and the State in Postcommunist Eurasia

Turkey has anticipated Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s downfall ever since protests first broke out in Syria in 2011. It has been disappointed at every turn, though, and now it is not only Assad who is in trouble but Turkey as well.

Amid recent upheaval in the Middle East, American policymakers have often turned to Turkey as an important partner that shared many U.S. interests. This perception of Turkey is based primarily on history.

Notwithstanding Kazakhstan’s entrance into the Eurasian Economic Union and a growing perception of American disengagement from Central Asia, the major finding of this report is that the strategic objectives of the Republic of Kazakhstan and of the United States today are mutually compatible and even mutually reinforcing.

Bringing together a group of leading American and European experts, this is the first book-length study of Russian President Vladimir Putin's effort to create a Eurasian Union. The book indicates the ideological origins and character of this project; focusing not only on Putin's strategic objectives but the tactics he employs to achieve them.