Editor-in-Chief’s Note

Date01 July 2016
AuthorGulshan Sachdeva
Published date01 July 2016
DOI10.1177/0020881718779722
Subject MatterEditorial
Editor-in-Chief’s Note
Countries of the Eurasian region in the former Soviet space have witnessed massive
changes in the last twenty-five years. The Russian Federation along with the newly
independent states of Central Asia and Caucasus started their journey towards
democracy and market economy. Despite a complex legacy of the socialist planned
system and dissolution of the Soviet Union, all these countries have moved along
this economic and political transformation to varying degrees. The changes have
also affected their social relations significantly. Many of the former communist
leaders in Central Asia became nationalists. They tried to pursue economic stability
while securing their own dominance in the new political system. Even the second-
generation leaders have not changed the policy framework in any significant way.
The political elite in the region has also tried to learn few lessons from the Chinese
model of development. It means political concentration and stability is paramount
for any meaningful economic reform. Disintegration of the USSR and Yugoslavia
along with the war in Afghanistan also created many security challenges for the
Eurasian region. The processes of disintegration as well as and attempts to re-
integrate Eurasia have affected the region simultaneously. Newly independent
nations of Eurasia have also attempted to find economic and strategic partners
beyond Moscow. Despite their growing ties with other partners including with
the US, China, Europe and India, Russian shadow on the region is still huge.
The increasing Chinese profile; close strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing;
and instability in Afghanistan have kept the Eurasian region continue to be
extremely relevant in international politics.
Authors in this issue have tried to describe and analyse political, economic,
and social changes in the Eurasian region, particularly in Russia and Central Asia.
As the region has a special significance for India, papers have also looked at
India-Russia relations as well as changing nature of Soviet and post-Soviet
studies in India. The Centre for Russian & Central Asian Studies at the School of
International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University is one of the largest Centres of
Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies in the world. We are thankful to the scholars of the
Centre for contributing papers. We are also grateful to Guest Editor, Prof Sanjay
Kumar Pandey, who has ably collected and edited papers for the special issue.
Since India has a long tradition of Soviet/Russian/Eurasian area studies, I hope
the issue will be of interest to scholars working on similar issues worldwide.
Gulshan Sachdeva
Editor-in-Chief
Editorial
International Studies
53(3–4) 173
2018 Jawaharlal Nehru University
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020881718779722
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/isq

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