This book discusses the significance of cultural symbols/‘images’ in the nation-building of Eurasian states that emerged out of the former Soviet Union. It particularly focuses on the cases of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet era and argues that the relationship between nation- and image-building has been particularly relevant for Eurasian states. In an increasingly globalized world, nation-state building is no longer an activity confined to the domestic arena. The situating of the state within the global space and its ‘image’ in the international community (nation branding) becomes in many ways as crucial as the projection of homogeneity within the state. The relationship between politics and cultural symbols/ ‘images’, therefore acquires and represents multiple possibilities. It is these possibilities that are the focus of Symbols and the Image of the State in Eurasia. It argues that the relationship between politics and cultural symbols/ ‘images’, became particularly relevant for states that emerged in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It extends the argument further to contend that the image that the state projects is largely determined by its legacy and it attempts to do this by taking into account the Uzbek and Kazakh cases. In the shaping of the post-Soviet future these legacies and projections as well as the policy implications of these projections in terms of governmentality and foreign policy have been decisive.

This book discusses the significance of cultural symbols/‘images’ in the nation-building of Eurasian states that emerged out of the former Soviet Union. It particularly focuses on the cases of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet era and argues that the relationship between nation- and image-building has been particularly relevant for Eurasian states. In an increasingly globalized world, nation-state building is no longer an activity confined to the domestic arena. The situating of the state within the global space and its ‘image’ in the international community (nation branding) becomes in many ways as crucial as the projection of homogeneity within the state. The relationship between politics and cultural symbols/ ‘images’, therefore acquires and represents multiple possibilities. It is these possibilities that are the focus of Symbols and the Image of the State in Eurasia. It argues that the relationship between politics and cultural symbols/ ‘images’, became particularly relevant for states that emerged in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It extends the argument further to contend that the image that the state projects is largely determined by its legacy and it attempts to do this by taking into account the Uzbek and Kazakh cases. In the shaping of the post-Soviet future these legacies and projections as well as the policy implications of these projections in terms of governmentality and foreign policy have been decisive.

Conceptualizing Mass Violence draws attention to the conspicuous inability to inhibit mass violence in myriads forms and considers the plausible reasons for doing so. Focusing on a postcolonial perspective, the volume seeks to popularize and institutionalize the study of mass violence in South Asia. The essays explore and deliberate upon the varied aspects of mass violence, namely revisionism, reconstruction, atrocities, trauma, memorialization and literature, the need for Holocaust education, and the criticality of dialogue and reconciliation. The language, content, and characteristics of mass violence/genocide explicitly reinforce its aggressive, transmuting, and multifaceted character and the consequent necessity to understand the same in a nuanced manner. The book is an attempt to do so as it takes episodes of mass violence for case study from all inhabited continents, from the twentieth century to the present. The volume studies ‘consciously enforced mass violence’ through an interdisciplinary approach and suggests that dialogue aimed at reconciliation is perhaps the singular agency via which a solution could be achieved from mass violence in the global context. The volume is essential reading for postgraduate students and scholars from the interdisciplinary fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History, Political Science, Sociology, World History, Human Rights, and Global Studies.

Juri Lotman (1922–1993), the Jewish-Russian-Estonian historian, literary scholar and semiotician, was one of the most original and important cultural theorists of the 20th century, as well as a co-founder of the well-known Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. This is the first authoritative volume in any language to explore the main facets of Lotman's work and discuss his main ideas in the context of contemporary scholarship. Boasting an interdisciplinary cast of contributing academics from across mainland Europe, as well as the USA, the UK, Australia, Argentina and Brazil, The Companion to Juri Lotman is the definitive text about Lotman's intellectual legacy. The book is structured into three main sections – Context, Concepts and Dialogue – which simultaneously provide ease of navigation and intriguing prisms through which to view his various scholarly contributions. Saussure, Bakhtin, Language, Memory, Space, Cultural History, New Historicism, Literary Studies and Political Theory are just some of the thinkers, themes and approaches examined in relation to Lotman, while the introduction and thematic Lotman bibliography that frame the main essays provide valuable background knowledge and useful information for further research. The book foregrounds how Lotman's insights have been especially influential in conceptualizing meaning making practices in culture and society, and how they, in turn, have inspired the work of a diverse group of scholars. The Companion to Juri Lotman shines a light on a hugely significant and all-too often neglected figure in 20th-century intellectual history.

This book investigates the roles that ideas and constructs associated with Eurasia have played in the making of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy during the Nazarbaev era. This book delves into the specific Eurasia-centric narratives through which the regime, headed by Nursultan Nazarbaev, imagined the role of post-Soviet Kazakhstan in the wider Eurasian geopolitical space. Based on substantive fieldwork and sustained engagement with primary sources, the book unveils the power implications of Kazakhstani neo-Eurasianism, arguing that the strengthening of the regime’s domestic power ranked highly in the list of objectives pursued by Kazakhstani foreign policy between the collapse of the Soviet Union and Nazarbaev’s apparent withdrawal from the Kazakhstani political scene (19 March 2019). This book, ultimately, is a study of inter-state integration, which makes use of a rigorous methodological approach to assess different incarnations of post-Soviet multilateralism, from the Commonwealth of Independent States to the more recent, and highly controversial, Eurasian Economic Union. This book offers a ground-breaking analysis of Kazakhstani foreign policy in the Nazarbaev era. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Central Asian Politics, International Relations and Security Studies.