Contents: Introduction/Anuradha Chenoy and Ajay Patnaik. I. CIS: Energy, state policies and security issues: 1. Energy, security and development: the Kazakh experience/Kairat Umarov. 2. Caspian and Central Asian energy architecture in emerging frontiers of global energy space/Girijesh Pant. 3. Russia's quest for supremacy in the global energy market/R.G. Gidadhubli. 4. The Russia-Ukraine gas crisis: its resolution and wider implications/Jennifer Coolidge. 5. Contextualising Central Asian states in contemporary global order/V. Nagendra Rao. 6. Security issues in Central Asia and the Shanghai cooperation organisation/Aliya Akatayeva. II. CIS: Geopolitics, external powers and regional stability: 7. The Caspian Cauldron: new geopolitical game/Devendra Kaushik. 8. Regional order and security: role of external powers in Central Asia and Caspian region/R.R. Sharma. 9. Conflicts, alliances and stability in the CIS/Ajay Patnaik. 10. Oil politics of Central Asia and Caspian Sea Basin: The US game plan/Anuradha M. Chenoy. 11. China's energy interest in Central Asia/Zhao Huasheng. 12. Regional cooperation in Central Asia and Japan's belated regional initiative/Christopher Len. 13. US policy toward the Caspian region/Chintamani Mahapatra. III. CIS: Economy and society: 14. Russian depopulation and demographic insecurity/P.L. Dash. 15. Between belief and practice: Muslims in Chinese Central Asia in the mid-nineteenth-late twentieth centuries/Mushtaq A. Kaw. 16. Changing perceptions of Siberia and the Russian Far East: from colonial narratives to local dynamics/Suchandana Chatterjee. 17. Disputes over sharing water and energy resources in the Ferghana Valley region of Central Asia/Jyotsna Bakshi. 18. Russian mass media and democratization: main goals and achievements/Veronica Usacheva. IV. CIS: Relations with neighbours: 19. The silk route: springboard of Buddhism in Central Asia/Tulsiram. 20. India's economic diplomacy trends with Central Asia: the potentials and priorities/Ibrokhim R. Mavlonov. 21. Culture and mass media: India's cultural diplomacy in Russia/Paramjit Sahai. 22. China in Central Asia: a case study of the relationship between China and Kazakhastan/Konuralp Ercilasun. 23. Eurasianism and Russia's "Critical space"/Anita Sengupta. 24. Prospects of transnational gas pipeline projects from Caspian littoral states to South Asia/Marina Milto. 25. India and Armenia-relations through centuries/Naira Mkrtchyan. Index.
"The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), consisting of the former Soviet Republics, is a region where energy resources and geopolitics have drawn international attention. A range of issues varying from energy issues at the international and local level, policies of states that impact on energy security and also on broader security issues have been discussed by eminent scholars from India and aboard, who also deal with the strategic environment, power rivalries and security architecture in the CIS.
Given the pluralities within the region, there are multiple conflicts based on ethnic, religious and geopolitical discontents, making the region susceptible to rivalries and conflicts. At the same time, globalization and economic liberalisation have influenced state policies and human/social developments in the former Soviet republics. Some of the articles deal with such issues as demography, religion, identity, resource-sharing, mass media etc.
The CIS region, which lies in the extended neighbourhood of India, has had longstanding ties with the subcontinent in the past. The developments in this region have immense security implications for India. In view of India's rapidly increasing energy requirements, the region could also be an alternate source of energy. The last section of the book mainly discusses the relations of the countries of the CIS with India and the South Asian region."
