The Modern Silk Route is critical to the development and integration of Central Asian countries. The book argues that to overcome current supply chain inefficiencies the traditional focus on physical corridors needs to be complemented by a consistent and ambitious set of national reforms in trade and transport facilitation.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Russian food policy. Food policy is defined as the way government policy influences food production and distribution. Russia’s food policy is important for several reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that a dysfunctional food policy is symptomatic of larger political and societal problems. A failing food policy is often the precursor to political instability. Russian food policy is also important is due to the agricultural recovery since 2004 that has allowed Russia to become self-sufficient in grain production. Being food-sufficient in grain means that Russia is not drawing upon global grain supply. Even more important, Russia now produces surpluses and has become a global grain supplier. Moreover, the agricultural recovery has made the country food secure, traditionally defined as having enough food for a healthy life. An analysis of food policy reveals that the structure of food production has changed with the emergence of mega-farms called agroholdings that are horizontally and vertically integrated. Agroholdings represent a concentration of capital and land, with a small number of farms producing large percentages of total food output. The book explores alternatives to the industrial agricultural model by discussing different variants of sustainable agriculture. A final importance of Russian food policy concerns food trade. Russia has become more protectionist since 2012. The food embargo against Western nations (2014-2017) is one example, so too is import substitution that is a core component of food policy. The book demonstrates the politicalization of external food trade. Food trade and denial of access to the Russian market is used as an instrument of foreign policy to punish countries with whom Russia has disagreements. Current Russian policymakers have food resources to augment, support, and extend national interests abroad. Russia historically has cycled through periods of integration and isolation from the West. This book raises the question whether a new normal has arisen that is characterized by the permanent withdrawal from integration, as evidenced by its nationalist and protectionist food policy. The book is entirely original, rich in detail and broad in scope. It is based on field work, survey data, a wide reading of primary sources and the secondary literature, all of which are linked to important policy questions in development studies and food studies. It is destined to become a classic book on Russian food policy.

Crossroads of Cuisine offers history of food and cultural exchanges in and around Central Asia. It discusses geographical base, and offers historical and cultural overview. A photo essay binds it all together. The book offers new views of the past.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), officially established in 1996, is an inter-regional forum consisting of the 15 member states of the European Union and the European Commission, 7 member of the 10 states of ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea. In this important volume academics from Asia and Europe examine the level of engagement between both continents and highlight how the ASEM process has been conducive in enhancing the political, economic and cultural ties between the various Asian and ...

This book evaluates the utility of the Eurasian Economic Union in economic, political, cultural and geostrategic dimensions. It does so through a systematic comparison of the bloc with aspects of the European Union along a number of criteria derived from integration theory. The book concludes that the EAEU is a useless undertaking, at least for Russia, in any of the integration dimensions discussed. This is so because of the inherent properties of the region, and also because of the behaviour of the member states in the context of Russia’s resistance to the West. Besides, the principles of liberal economics, endorsed by the union, contribute to asymmetries in development among its member states. In addition to a symbolic event spotlighting Russia’s regional leadership, the union appears mainly as a shop where gas is sold below market prices, and as an import base of unskilled labour for Russia in conditions of Russia’s high unemployment and underemployment. Concurrently, the book discusses Russia’s grievances with the West, which have been inducing and constraining Eurasian integration at the same time.

The Eurasian continent, which has for over a century lagged behind in global markets, is currently gaining economic and political momentum. This book investigates emerging economic linkages in the area, examining the factors shaping this integration, the benefits and risks involved, and the future of these states on the global stage.

‘Within the borders of these isles shall remain a race one calls Indo. Neither white, nor brown.’ This ‘Indo’ was part of the Indo-Europeans, a group of mixed indigenous and European ancestry, from the former Dutch East Indies. In almost all other Asian colonies, including British India and French Indochina, which are also covered in this study, such a group of mixed ancestry came into being. The future of these Eurasians after decolonisation was quite insecure. The European rulers, on which their status was based, were gone. The new indigenous rulers perceived them suspiciously as colonial remnants and often even as traitors. In this chaotic situation, they were forced to make a choice, between staying in the former colony or leaving for the European mother country. Did they belong in the country of their European fathers or the former colony, the country of their Asian mothers?

The need to gather available data on the Eurasien huchen - an important salmonid species - has been forced by a plain and, unfortunately, common fact of our times: the numbers and distribution of this biggest of salmonids have begun to decline and its range has begun to shrink. A seminar on the huchen - the European form of the species Hucha hucha - held in Zilina in February 1973 as a result of a suggestion of the Section for the Conservation of Fauna of the Slovak Zoological Society, indicated very clearly the sad situation. Data on the biology of the huchen are regrettably scarce despite several recent papers (Ivaska 1951, Svetina 1962, Prawochenski and Kolder 1968) with the aim of filling this gap. Supposing that without a thorough knowledge it is practically impossible to conserve any plant or animal species, the participants of the seminar concluded that the existing knowledge on the huchen should be compiled in an exhaustive monograph. The first such outline originated in 1977 under the authorship of J. Holcik, K. Hensel and L. Skacel, and was submitted as a research report to some of the central authorities. Even during the compilation of the report it became evident, however, that there is no difference between the huchen and its relative, the taimen. Consequently, we immediately began revising our first report, which took over three years.