The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a debate on Russia's relations with states which were... more The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a debate on Russia's relations with states which were part of the Soviet Union. Our article contributes to this discussion by focusing on Russia's two 'strategic partners', Belarus and Tajikistan, and exploring these countries' perspectives. We develop a critical geopolitics framework which accounts for time, multi-level power dynamics and culture. The article provides a new understanding of the dynamics of geopolitical knowledge beyond the West, analysing how Belarusian and Tajik political elites' decision-making towards Russia has evolved from the late Soviet period until now. While both governments appear to be dependent on Russia and, consequently, generally supportive of its politics in the global arena, the article argues that this alignment has been highly strategic. Throughout the years, Belarusian and Tajik decision makers have skilfully navigated power and economic asymmetries with Russia by using their geographical location and Russia's neo-imperial mindset to their benefit.
This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical ... more This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical stratification in world politics. It does so by analysing relations between two former Soviet states, Tajikistan and Russia, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The article investigates the underlying reasons for power asymmetries between the two countries, the ways hierarchies are sustained and enforced, as well as perceived and navigated at political and social levels. It is argued that Tajikistan's relations with Russia are explicitly postcolonial without clear-cut colonial precedents in Soviet times. Postcolonialism did not automatically result from the Soviet breakdown. Rather, it has gradually emerged because of the two countries' very different paths of integration into the global capitalist economy, which subordinated Tajikistan to Russia. In this way, new economic asymmetries exacerbated Soviet-era legacies and reinvented them in a new, hierarchical manner. Overall, the article contributes to the debate on the nature of post-Soviet legacies and what it means to be post-Soviet.
This essay reflects on the satisfactions and challenges of early career researchers entering the ... more This essay reflects on the satisfactions and challenges of early career researchers entering the field of development work from an autoethnographic perspective. During my doctoral and postdoctoral research, I engaged in small-scale cooperations with local nongovernmental organisations in Tajikistan by assisting them with project development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. I saw pracademia as a more ethical and pragmatic way to engage with practitioners by supporting their work, while simultaneously pursuing my fieldwork. However, several obstacles arose in the process which reflected the unique ways in which international development and academia function. They concerned differences in organisational frameworks, epistemological and ontological approaches to social reality, as well as temporalities of these two fields.
By shifting the study of European Union (EU)-Central Asian relations from its fixed category of b... more By shifting the study of European Union (EU)-Central Asian relations from its fixed category of black-boxing both the EU and Central Asia, this article advances the case for the approach of examining multi-level and multi-actor interactions that identify the dynamic processes of reciprocal action and meaning-making that characterize the mutual cooperation. It distinguishes perceptions, interests and practices, pointing to the rationales and modes of behaviour of multiple EU and Central Asian actors. The article also advances five reasons why EU studies should take more interest in Central Asia, given that the EU's larger external relations and security agenda extends to this region. Similarly, it shows that Central Asian studies can benefit from the analysis of the region's interactions with external actors, including the EU, given that external actors contribute to reshaping national policy agendas and influence everyday life.
Examining the European Union's (EU) engagement with Central Asia since the early 1990s, we see an... more Examining the European Union's (EU) engagement with Central Asia since the early 1990s, we see an increased commitment to context sensitivity. Arguably, in order to design 'better' interventions, the EU needs to know more about this region. This article explores three means of EU learning: in the fieldthrough EU officials' first-hand experience of working at EU Delegations in Central Asia; about the fieldthrough programmed channels of external expert knowledge, and in particular think tanks; and from the fieldduring institutionalized consultations with multiple local actors, such as academics, journalists and nongovernmental organizations. It is argued that despite this complex learning infrastructure, EU knowledge production on Central Asia has a predominantly performative character. Rather than leading to changes in its relations with Central Asia, new knowledge produced by the EU aims at legitimizing this organization's pre-existing frameworks of engagement and practices of interactions with the region, and substantiating existing policy priorities.
It has become common knowledge that international organizations (IOs) are struggling with local o... more It has become common knowledge that international organizations (IOs) are struggling with local ownership of their peacebuilding and development interventions worldwide. This happens despite the local turn which gained momentum in recent years in peacebuilding research and practice. Drawing on the post-liberal debate and area studies research focusing on conflict settlement, this paper argues that the continued difficulties of IOs to engage with the local needs to be seen in the context of multiple, diverse forms of ordering, namely structured and structuring processes of meaning-making and social interactions. To illustrate this argument, the paper refers to the case of Central Asia. Conceptualizing local orderings emerging from the ground up in communities which are targeted by internationally funded projects, on the one hand, and the underlying logic of ordering characterizing IOs and their interventions, on the other, allows us to see that there are structural differences between them. Following the Ethnographic Peace Research agenda, this paper compares these two ordering mechanisms by focusing on four specific components: cultural beliefs and norms, everyday practices, institutions, and issues of power.
This article analyzes why and how women's sex work is securitized in Tajikistan. It argues that s... more This article analyzes why and how women's sex work is securitized in Tajikistan. It argues that state actors view sex work as a threat to the nation in the context of two simultaneous processes: nation-building, centered around the family unit, and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The article explores the narratives, laws, and practices that are deployed to limit sex work. It also analyzes how security frameworks are experienced and navigated by women sex workers on a very local level. Three coping strategies are identified: hiding techniques, developing networks and befriending influential clients, and seeking companionship with other sex workers.
Building on previous work on the securitisation of HIV/AIDS, studies of framings, and the Copenha... more Building on previous work on the securitisation of HIV/AIDS, studies of framings, and the Copenhagen and Paris schools of security studies, this essay explores how policy framings of HIV/AIDS have shifted from the late Soviet period through to present-day Tajikistan. Pointing to both continuity and change, it shows how, under the influence of international actors and in accordance with nation-building priorities, Soviet-era medical and societal security framings gradually transformed into state security, demography and familyoriented framings. It also examines the resulting policy responses and practices that influence the everyday life of social groups who become identified as a public health concern.
This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent... more This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent literature about this research method, we reflect on the ethical and safety implications stemming from the widespread, even if well-intended, lack of transparency characterizing many research projects, especially ones conducted in difficult research contexts. While the standard definition of covert research holds that researchers deliberately do not declare to research subjects that academic research is taking place, we argue that the remoteness of Western academia from most researched contexts often a priori renders field research at least partially covert, irrespective of the researcher's intentions. This is because its aims, utility, and expected outputs are hard to understand for research participants unrelated to academia. We illustrate this argument by analyzing our own fieldwork experiences in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to critically reflect on the de facto use of covert techniques by social researchers.
This article investigates internationally funded women's empowerment initiatives in Tajikistan. F... more This article investigates internationally funded women's empowerment initiatives in Tajikistan. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent Tajik civil war (1992-1997), this newly independent, Muslim-majority country has experienced an influx of foreign aid, including in the field of women's rights. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the article analyzes the growth and diversification of local, Western-funded women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) between 1991 and 2020, paying attention to their leadership and aims, as well as changing perceptions of donors' interventions. It is argued that, initially, local activists were supportive of international projects, which promoted gender equality by supporting women's integration into the new, capitalist economy. In the last decade, however, an increasing conditionality of funding and deteriorating donor-NGO relations has fueled local contestations of the international agenda. The donor-enhanced women's empowerment model, which fosters individual responsibility and self-reliance, is increasingly criticized for aggravating the conditions of local women in the context of a growing economic insecurity characterizing the local capitalist economy. Against this resentment, an alternative women's empowerment model, advancing gender equity based on complementarity of male and female social roles and stressing the importance of family as a safety net against economic precarity, is gaining prominence locally.
Tajikistan is one of the main migrant origin countries in the post-Soviet world, with about one m... more Tajikistan is one of the main migrant origin countries in the post-Soviet world, with about one million labour migrants living and working in Russia. It is also one of the world’s most remittancedependent economies. By exploring how and why the Tajik government has engaged with labour migrants since 1991, this article analyses the development of emigration policy in Tajikistan. In doing so, the article de-reifies the state and illustrates the complexity of policy processes: many actors are directly and indirectly involved in policymaking and implementation. Four aspects are analysed: shifts in emigration policymaking over time and the influence of different domestic actors; the assistance offered to labour migrants; the impact of Russia as the main host country; and the influence of international organisations in the context of the nascent global governance of migration. This article argues that Tajikistan’s emigration policy has gradually moved from a laissezfaire phase, through a proactive, then a “messy”, to a reactive one. It shows that Tajik authorities have followed often contradictory pathways of (non)involvement with labour migrants and thereby illustrates how declared policies can be distinguished from informal practices performed by the state.
This article examines the nexus between art and its ideological function, both discursively and i... more This article examines the nexus between art and its ideological function, both discursively and in practice, in the Soviet socialist republics. Scrutinizing the case of visual monumental art in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1970s and 1980s, it can be seen that the geographical and cultural distance from Moscow, in addition to complex multi-actor and multi-level policy implementation channels, allowed for non-conventional artistic practices to develop in the Soviet periphery. The article highlights the role of local officials and, in particular, artists in re-appropriating the official identity formation process with specific ideas of "nationhood," religion, and gender relations, while at the same time aspiring to comply with the dominant socialist realism doctrine. It is argued that, contrary to the prominent slogan "socialist in content, national in form," artworks produced in the Soviet periphery were often socialist in form and "national" in content. While the artists skillfully worked within the monumental art tradition promoted by the state, thus relying on a socialist form, not infrequently the meaning of their works distorted, or even contradicted, the official ideology. Often this subversion was non-deliberate. Ultimately, however, the artworks ended up strengthening an autonomous local agency that policy-makers in Moscow sought to eradicate.
This article analyses how global governance frameworks and knowledge claims are translated to fit... more This article analyses how global governance frameworks and knowledge claims are translated to fit local contexts. It specifically looks at harm reduction initiatives targeting injection drug users utilising the case of Tajikistan. In the 1990s, this post-Soviet Central Asian country became exposed to an inflow of cheap and easily available heroin from Afghanistan. While Tajikistan mainly became a transit country, some parts of the local population also became addicted. To tackle the negative consequences of heroin addiction, starting from the 1990s international donors proposed the country adopt a range of harm reduction measures, including providing access to opioid substitution therapy and establishing drop-in centres where single-use needles and syringes would be distributed. This article discusses how donor-promoted harm reduction initiatives were localised in Tajikistan, why and with what outcomes. It argues that instead of a full acceptance or rejection of knowledge promoted by international actors, a complex translation process can be observed on the ground. International norms are thus localised by taking into account societal attitudes towards injection drug users, the changing nature of legitimate expertise, evolving national legislation and everyday practices, against the background of other conflicting global governance regimes and local geopolitical priorities.
This article contrasts the World Bank’s policy-oriented, standardized assessment of the business ... more This article contrasts the World Bank’s policy-oriented, standardized assessment of the business climate and small business in Tajikistan with an alternative, bottom-up reading of local entrepreneurship focused on the life stories and business experiences of the young Tajik business community. It shows that the World Bank’s business evaluations and rankings, Doing Business and Enterprise Survey, offer a top-down understanding of business in this post-Soviet Central Asian country, which is filtered through an underlying neoliberal policy paradigm. This paradigm promotes economic liberalization, rivalry and individual responsibility for wellbeing at the expense of a welfare state, solidarity and common interest. The article proposes a different account which is centered on the socioeconomic, political and moral embeddedness of local business practices. Four aspects of doing business are analyzed: informality, the role of the state in regulating business, bribing, and the relevance of social networks. Such an alternative, ethnographically informed account is needed because this organization’s publications are seen by policymakers as an authoritative source of knowledge and, as a result, serve as a powerful global governance tool influencing economic reforms worldwide. These reforms, however, often exercise a negative effect on local economic lifeworlds.
By analysing constitutive everyday peace practices, the article shows that poor socio-economic co... more By analysing constitutive everyday peace practices, the article shows that poor socio-economic conditions, rather than political grievances and aspirations, are major sources of an actual and potential discontent in present day Tajikistan. It is argued that peace is atomised in a way that it is upheld through state withdrawal from welfare provision and an ongoing, ever more deepening fragmentation of the social fabric in the context of the precarity accompanying the country’s integration into the global political economy after the Soviet collapse and the subsequent civil war (1992–97). Nevertheless, individuals themselves navigate, domesticate and mitigate conflicts from the ground up.
This article analyses localisation of the migration and development
paradigm, promoted worldwide ... more This article analyses localisation of the migration and development paradigm, promoted worldwide by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), by unpacking transformations that this approach undergoes in aid-receiving countries assisted by this organisation. Drawing on insights from International Relations and the anthropology of development, and taking the case of a specific policy transfer initiated by IOM in post-Soviet Tajikistan, which involved setting up a local state-operated labour recruitment system for industries abroad, the article advances three arguments. First, the crucial relevance of actors in the field, namely brokers who arrange and navigate IOM’s collaborations with various actors on the ground, reveals that the authority of IOM in Tajikistan is personalised and relational, rather than institutional. Second, the existence of brokers points to an ideological heterogeneity within IOM, which on the surface seems united in its pursuit of the migration and development agenda. Third, this article problematises the role of IOM in Tajikistan, showing that the organisation interferes in state-citizens relations and that its rhetoric of migration and development justifies a market-tailored export of local labour, serving the global capitalist economy. The article contributes to research on IOM, as well as global-local interactions and international organisations in the field.
Local ownership is one of the popular paradigms of Western
development aid. It involves giving mo... more Local ownership is one of the popular paradigms of Western development aid. It involves giving more effective control of the design and implementation of development aid to local actors in aid-receiving countries, including governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities. This article contrasts the understanding of local ownership as a top-down process triggered by donors, with an alternative, bottom-up ownership, which emerges spontaneously on the ground. By looking at the case of a local NGO in post-Soviet Tajikistan, the article analyses practices which reveal how the NGO actively takes ownership of development aid through everyday work. This includes fundraising, structuring relations with other organizations competing for donor funding, selecting calls for proposals from NGOs and writing grant applications. Each of these activities involves negotiations of the goals and scope of development work, against parameters imposed by donors. By means of example, the article questions the application of the local ownership paradigm in development work.
This article analyses how international norms are transferred to aid-receiving countries and with... more This article analyses how international norms are transferred to aid-receiving countries and with what outcomes, when tensions exist between these norms and local realities. By taking a case study of an American-funded good governance project in Tajikistan, it investigates a multi-level and multi-actor process of norm localisation, looking at why and how different development agencies re-appropriate international norms. The article proposes to see a failed localisation from the point of view of donors, in a way that outcomes differ from their initial intentions, as a successful localisation from the point of view of local actors. The distortion of international norms indicates that local actors reappropriated them in accordance with their biographies, personal views, and political opportunities and constraints of organisations which they represent.
This article traces the different origins, development, agency and political stances of various T... more This article traces the different origins, development, agency and political stances of various Tajik emigrant communities that emerged after the break-up of the Soviet Union, mainly in Russia, but also beyond the post-Soviet space. It argues that factors such as time and type of arrival, region of origin, socio-economic status in the host society, host and home country policies, all impact on interactions within and across these emigrant populations, as well as on their engagement with the homeland. The article critically examines manifestations of socio-political activism within the Tajik emigrant community complex and points at different forms and degrees of mobilization. It also shows the complexity of answers to emigrants’ activities by the Tajik government, based on a “perceived utility” of different emigrant communities.
Soon after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war
started in Tajikistan (1992–97)... more Soon after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war started in Tajikistan (1992–97). This was also the period when a number of international organizations arrived in the country to distribute humanitarian assistance and assist in conflict resolution and stabilization. After the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was the second key organization which appeared in the conflict-stricken country. Like other key international organizations in Tajikistan, the OSCE, which has been in the country since 1994, has seen a shift in its original functions of monitoring and emergency assistance. Some see its avowed objectives in the new century as formalistic, virtual and ineffective. By capturing perceptions of foreign assistance to Tajikistan among employees of the OSCE and other international organizations, NGO workers, government officials and ordinary citizens, this article explores how Tajikistan ‘socialized’ the OSCE, making the organization simultaneously a benefactor, an industry and even an intruder.
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a debate on Russia's relations with states which were... more The 2022 invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a debate on Russia's relations with states which were part of the Soviet Union. Our article contributes to this discussion by focusing on Russia's two 'strategic partners', Belarus and Tajikistan, and exploring these countries' perspectives. We develop a critical geopolitics framework which accounts for time, multi-level power dynamics and culture. The article provides a new understanding of the dynamics of geopolitical knowledge beyond the West, analysing how Belarusian and Tajik political elites' decision-making towards Russia has evolved from the late Soviet period until now. While both governments appear to be dependent on Russia and, consequently, generally supportive of its politics in the global arena, the article argues that this alignment has been highly strategic. Throughout the years, Belarusian and Tajik decision makers have skilfully navigated power and economic asymmetries with Russia by using their geographical location and Russia's neo-imperial mindset to their benefit.
This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical ... more This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical stratification in world politics. It does so by analysing relations between two former Soviet states, Tajikistan and Russia, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The article investigates the underlying reasons for power asymmetries between the two countries, the ways hierarchies are sustained and enforced, as well as perceived and navigated at political and social levels. It is argued that Tajikistan's relations with Russia are explicitly postcolonial without clear-cut colonial precedents in Soviet times. Postcolonialism did not automatically result from the Soviet breakdown. Rather, it has gradually emerged because of the two countries' very different paths of integration into the global capitalist economy, which subordinated Tajikistan to Russia. In this way, new economic asymmetries exacerbated Soviet-era legacies and reinvented them in a new, hierarchical manner. Overall, the article contributes to the debate on the nature of post-Soviet legacies and what it means to be post-Soviet.
This essay reflects on the satisfactions and challenges of early career researchers entering the ... more This essay reflects on the satisfactions and challenges of early career researchers entering the field of development work from an autoethnographic perspective. During my doctoral and postdoctoral research, I engaged in small-scale cooperations with local nongovernmental organisations in Tajikistan by assisting them with project development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. I saw pracademia as a more ethical and pragmatic way to engage with practitioners by supporting their work, while simultaneously pursuing my fieldwork. However, several obstacles arose in the process which reflected the unique ways in which international development and academia function. They concerned differences in organisational frameworks, epistemological and ontological approaches to social reality, as well as temporalities of these two fields.
By shifting the study of European Union (EU)-Central Asian relations from its fixed category of b... more By shifting the study of European Union (EU)-Central Asian relations from its fixed category of black-boxing both the EU and Central Asia, this article advances the case for the approach of examining multi-level and multi-actor interactions that identify the dynamic processes of reciprocal action and meaning-making that characterize the mutual cooperation. It distinguishes perceptions, interests and practices, pointing to the rationales and modes of behaviour of multiple EU and Central Asian actors. The article also advances five reasons why EU studies should take more interest in Central Asia, given that the EU's larger external relations and security agenda extends to this region. Similarly, it shows that Central Asian studies can benefit from the analysis of the region's interactions with external actors, including the EU, given that external actors contribute to reshaping national policy agendas and influence everyday life.
Examining the European Union's (EU) engagement with Central Asia since the early 1990s, we see an... more Examining the European Union's (EU) engagement with Central Asia since the early 1990s, we see an increased commitment to context sensitivity. Arguably, in order to design 'better' interventions, the EU needs to know more about this region. This article explores three means of EU learning: in the fieldthrough EU officials' first-hand experience of working at EU Delegations in Central Asia; about the fieldthrough programmed channels of external expert knowledge, and in particular think tanks; and from the fieldduring institutionalized consultations with multiple local actors, such as academics, journalists and nongovernmental organizations. It is argued that despite this complex learning infrastructure, EU knowledge production on Central Asia has a predominantly performative character. Rather than leading to changes in its relations with Central Asia, new knowledge produced by the EU aims at legitimizing this organization's pre-existing frameworks of engagement and practices of interactions with the region, and substantiating existing policy priorities.
It has become common knowledge that international organizations (IOs) are struggling with local o... more It has become common knowledge that international organizations (IOs) are struggling with local ownership of their peacebuilding and development interventions worldwide. This happens despite the local turn which gained momentum in recent years in peacebuilding research and practice. Drawing on the post-liberal debate and area studies research focusing on conflict settlement, this paper argues that the continued difficulties of IOs to engage with the local needs to be seen in the context of multiple, diverse forms of ordering, namely structured and structuring processes of meaning-making and social interactions. To illustrate this argument, the paper refers to the case of Central Asia. Conceptualizing local orderings emerging from the ground up in communities which are targeted by internationally funded projects, on the one hand, and the underlying logic of ordering characterizing IOs and their interventions, on the other, allows us to see that there are structural differences between them. Following the Ethnographic Peace Research agenda, this paper compares these two ordering mechanisms by focusing on four specific components: cultural beliefs and norms, everyday practices, institutions, and issues of power.
This article analyzes why and how women's sex work is securitized in Tajikistan. It argues that s... more This article analyzes why and how women's sex work is securitized in Tajikistan. It argues that state actors view sex work as a threat to the nation in the context of two simultaneous processes: nation-building, centered around the family unit, and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The article explores the narratives, laws, and practices that are deployed to limit sex work. It also analyzes how security frameworks are experienced and navigated by women sex workers on a very local level. Three coping strategies are identified: hiding techniques, developing networks and befriending influential clients, and seeking companionship with other sex workers.
Building on previous work on the securitisation of HIV/AIDS, studies of framings, and the Copenha... more Building on previous work on the securitisation of HIV/AIDS, studies of framings, and the Copenhagen and Paris schools of security studies, this essay explores how policy framings of HIV/AIDS have shifted from the late Soviet period through to present-day Tajikistan. Pointing to both continuity and change, it shows how, under the influence of international actors and in accordance with nation-building priorities, Soviet-era medical and societal security framings gradually transformed into state security, demography and familyoriented framings. It also examines the resulting policy responses and practices that influence the everyday life of social groups who become identified as a public health concern.
This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent... more This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent literature about this research method, we reflect on the ethical and safety implications stemming from the widespread, even if well-intended, lack of transparency characterizing many research projects, especially ones conducted in difficult research contexts. While the standard definition of covert research holds that researchers deliberately do not declare to research subjects that academic research is taking place, we argue that the remoteness of Western academia from most researched contexts often a priori renders field research at least partially covert, irrespective of the researcher's intentions. This is because its aims, utility, and expected outputs are hard to understand for research participants unrelated to academia. We illustrate this argument by analyzing our own fieldwork experiences in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to critically reflect on the de facto use of covert techniques by social researchers.
This article investigates internationally funded women's empowerment initiatives in Tajikistan. F... more This article investigates internationally funded women's empowerment initiatives in Tajikistan. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent Tajik civil war (1992-1997), this newly independent, Muslim-majority country has experienced an influx of foreign aid, including in the field of women's rights. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the article analyzes the growth and diversification of local, Western-funded women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) between 1991 and 2020, paying attention to their leadership and aims, as well as changing perceptions of donors' interventions. It is argued that, initially, local activists were supportive of international projects, which promoted gender equality by supporting women's integration into the new, capitalist economy. In the last decade, however, an increasing conditionality of funding and deteriorating donor-NGO relations has fueled local contestations of the international agenda. The donor-enhanced women's empowerment model, which fosters individual responsibility and self-reliance, is increasingly criticized for aggravating the conditions of local women in the context of a growing economic insecurity characterizing the local capitalist economy. Against this resentment, an alternative women's empowerment model, advancing gender equity based on complementarity of male and female social roles and stressing the importance of family as a safety net against economic precarity, is gaining prominence locally.
Tajikistan is one of the main migrant origin countries in the post-Soviet world, with about one m... more Tajikistan is one of the main migrant origin countries in the post-Soviet world, with about one million labour migrants living and working in Russia. It is also one of the world’s most remittancedependent economies. By exploring how and why the Tajik government has engaged with labour migrants since 1991, this article analyses the development of emigration policy in Tajikistan. In doing so, the article de-reifies the state and illustrates the complexity of policy processes: many actors are directly and indirectly involved in policymaking and implementation. Four aspects are analysed: shifts in emigration policymaking over time and the influence of different domestic actors; the assistance offered to labour migrants; the impact of Russia as the main host country; and the influence of international organisations in the context of the nascent global governance of migration. This article argues that Tajikistan’s emigration policy has gradually moved from a laissezfaire phase, through a proactive, then a “messy”, to a reactive one. It shows that Tajik authorities have followed often contradictory pathways of (non)involvement with labour migrants and thereby illustrates how declared policies can be distinguished from informal practices performed by the state.
This article examines the nexus between art and its ideological function, both discursively and i... more This article examines the nexus between art and its ideological function, both discursively and in practice, in the Soviet socialist republics. Scrutinizing the case of visual monumental art in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1970s and 1980s, it can be seen that the geographical and cultural distance from Moscow, in addition to complex multi-actor and multi-level policy implementation channels, allowed for non-conventional artistic practices to develop in the Soviet periphery. The article highlights the role of local officials and, in particular, artists in re-appropriating the official identity formation process with specific ideas of "nationhood," religion, and gender relations, while at the same time aspiring to comply with the dominant socialist realism doctrine. It is argued that, contrary to the prominent slogan "socialist in content, national in form," artworks produced in the Soviet periphery were often socialist in form and "national" in content. While the artists skillfully worked within the monumental art tradition promoted by the state, thus relying on a socialist form, not infrequently the meaning of their works distorted, or even contradicted, the official ideology. Often this subversion was non-deliberate. Ultimately, however, the artworks ended up strengthening an autonomous local agency that policy-makers in Moscow sought to eradicate.
This article analyses how global governance frameworks and knowledge claims are translated to fit... more This article analyses how global governance frameworks and knowledge claims are translated to fit local contexts. It specifically looks at harm reduction initiatives targeting injection drug users utilising the case of Tajikistan. In the 1990s, this post-Soviet Central Asian country became exposed to an inflow of cheap and easily available heroin from Afghanistan. While Tajikistan mainly became a transit country, some parts of the local population also became addicted. To tackle the negative consequences of heroin addiction, starting from the 1990s international donors proposed the country adopt a range of harm reduction measures, including providing access to opioid substitution therapy and establishing drop-in centres where single-use needles and syringes would be distributed. This article discusses how donor-promoted harm reduction initiatives were localised in Tajikistan, why and with what outcomes. It argues that instead of a full acceptance or rejection of knowledge promoted by international actors, a complex translation process can be observed on the ground. International norms are thus localised by taking into account societal attitudes towards injection drug users, the changing nature of legitimate expertise, evolving national legislation and everyday practices, against the background of other conflicting global governance regimes and local geopolitical priorities.
This article contrasts the World Bank’s policy-oriented, standardized assessment of the business ... more This article contrasts the World Bank’s policy-oriented, standardized assessment of the business climate and small business in Tajikistan with an alternative, bottom-up reading of local entrepreneurship focused on the life stories and business experiences of the young Tajik business community. It shows that the World Bank’s business evaluations and rankings, Doing Business and Enterprise Survey, offer a top-down understanding of business in this post-Soviet Central Asian country, which is filtered through an underlying neoliberal policy paradigm. This paradigm promotes economic liberalization, rivalry and individual responsibility for wellbeing at the expense of a welfare state, solidarity and common interest. The article proposes a different account which is centered on the socioeconomic, political and moral embeddedness of local business practices. Four aspects of doing business are analyzed: informality, the role of the state in regulating business, bribing, and the relevance of social networks. Such an alternative, ethnographically informed account is needed because this organization’s publications are seen by policymakers as an authoritative source of knowledge and, as a result, serve as a powerful global governance tool influencing economic reforms worldwide. These reforms, however, often exercise a negative effect on local economic lifeworlds.
By analysing constitutive everyday peace practices, the article shows that poor socio-economic co... more By analysing constitutive everyday peace practices, the article shows that poor socio-economic conditions, rather than political grievances and aspirations, are major sources of an actual and potential discontent in present day Tajikistan. It is argued that peace is atomised in a way that it is upheld through state withdrawal from welfare provision and an ongoing, ever more deepening fragmentation of the social fabric in the context of the precarity accompanying the country’s integration into the global political economy after the Soviet collapse and the subsequent civil war (1992–97). Nevertheless, individuals themselves navigate, domesticate and mitigate conflicts from the ground up.
This article analyses localisation of the migration and development
paradigm, promoted worldwide ... more This article analyses localisation of the migration and development paradigm, promoted worldwide by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), by unpacking transformations that this approach undergoes in aid-receiving countries assisted by this organisation. Drawing on insights from International Relations and the anthropology of development, and taking the case of a specific policy transfer initiated by IOM in post-Soviet Tajikistan, which involved setting up a local state-operated labour recruitment system for industries abroad, the article advances three arguments. First, the crucial relevance of actors in the field, namely brokers who arrange and navigate IOM’s collaborations with various actors on the ground, reveals that the authority of IOM in Tajikistan is personalised and relational, rather than institutional. Second, the existence of brokers points to an ideological heterogeneity within IOM, which on the surface seems united in its pursuit of the migration and development agenda. Third, this article problematises the role of IOM in Tajikistan, showing that the organisation interferes in state-citizens relations and that its rhetoric of migration and development justifies a market-tailored export of local labour, serving the global capitalist economy. The article contributes to research on IOM, as well as global-local interactions and international organisations in the field.
Local ownership is one of the popular paradigms of Western
development aid. It involves giving mo... more Local ownership is one of the popular paradigms of Western development aid. It involves giving more effective control of the design and implementation of development aid to local actors in aid-receiving countries, including governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities. This article contrasts the understanding of local ownership as a top-down process triggered by donors, with an alternative, bottom-up ownership, which emerges spontaneously on the ground. By looking at the case of a local NGO in post-Soviet Tajikistan, the article analyses practices which reveal how the NGO actively takes ownership of development aid through everyday work. This includes fundraising, structuring relations with other organizations competing for donor funding, selecting calls for proposals from NGOs and writing grant applications. Each of these activities involves negotiations of the goals and scope of development work, against parameters imposed by donors. By means of example, the article questions the application of the local ownership paradigm in development work.
This article analyses how international norms are transferred to aid-receiving countries and with... more This article analyses how international norms are transferred to aid-receiving countries and with what outcomes, when tensions exist between these norms and local realities. By taking a case study of an American-funded good governance project in Tajikistan, it investigates a multi-level and multi-actor process of norm localisation, looking at why and how different development agencies re-appropriate international norms. The article proposes to see a failed localisation from the point of view of donors, in a way that outcomes differ from their initial intentions, as a successful localisation from the point of view of local actors. The distortion of international norms indicates that local actors reappropriated them in accordance with their biographies, personal views, and political opportunities and constraints of organisations which they represent.
This article traces the different origins, development, agency and political stances of various T... more This article traces the different origins, development, agency and political stances of various Tajik emigrant communities that emerged after the break-up of the Soviet Union, mainly in Russia, but also beyond the post-Soviet space. It argues that factors such as time and type of arrival, region of origin, socio-economic status in the host society, host and home country policies, all impact on interactions within and across these emigrant populations, as well as on their engagement with the homeland. The article critically examines manifestations of socio-political activism within the Tajik emigrant community complex and points at different forms and degrees of mobilization. It also shows the complexity of answers to emigrants’ activities by the Tajik government, based on a “perceived utility” of different emigrant communities.
Soon after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war
started in Tajikistan (1992–97)... more Soon after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war started in Tajikistan (1992–97). This was also the period when a number of international organizations arrived in the country to distribute humanitarian assistance and assist in conflict resolution and stabilization. After the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was the second key organization which appeared in the conflict-stricken country. Like other key international organizations in Tajikistan, the OSCE, which has been in the country since 1994, has seen a shift in its original functions of monitoring and emergency assistance. Some see its avowed objectives in the new century as formalistic, virtual and ineffective. By capturing perceptions of foreign assistance to Tajikistan among employees of the OSCE and other international organizations, NGO workers, government officials and ordinary citizens, this article explores how Tajikistan ‘socialized’ the OSCE, making the organization simultaneously a benefactor, an industry and even an intruder.
This essay analyses artistic interpretations of what it meant to be simultaneously Soviet and Taj... more This essay analyses artistic interpretations of what it meant to be simultaneously Soviet and Tajik in the late Soviet period. It explores gender and labour representations, which can be found in three mosaics, looking at what normative and economic roles and responsibilities their creators attributed to Tajik men and women. Mosaics, a genre of visual monumental art, became particularly popular in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1970s and 1980s, as they allowed the visualisation of state policies in public spaces and in this way popularised them among people. While the artists worked under the strict socialist realism doctrine, their artworks reveal that they were not deprived of agency and they actively attributed new, unexpected meanings to the official ideology.
The international academic mobility that we hear about most often concerns moving from the non-We... more The international academic mobility that we hear about most often concerns moving from the non-West to the West. It is far more rare for academics to go the ‘other’ way, i.e. from Western to non-Western academia. While I have been both ways, I owe the really transformative experience of my academic mobility to Tajik academia. This essay describes three of the many aspects of this formative experience, referring to the issues of mistrust, mutual favours and the culture of mediocracy. By being confronted with new academic conventions and practices, Tajik academia made me question my own positionality. It forced me to reflect on privilege and precarity which I simultaneously embodied, and offered a new perspective on Western academic culture.
When international donors arrived in the Central Asian region in the 1990s, they saw it as a fert... more When international donors arrived in the Central Asian region in the 1990s, they saw it as a fertile terrain for their activities.With the Soviet collapse in 1991, the region suddenly became ‘post-Soviet.’The prefix ‘post-’ left room for imagination of what it might become after almost seven decades under communist ideology. Donors believed Central Asia could be redesigned in accordance with the Western democratic and capitalist ‘standards.’And yet, as Eric Sievers (2003: 1) pointed out, a few years before the donors’ arrival, people in Central Asia ‘overwhelmingly identified themselves as superpower citizens, as comparatively wealthy, and as distinct from their southern neighbours.’ In such a case, could the Soviet past be effectively erased and a prosperous, Western-like future built?
At first sight, it might seem that we chose to analyze a type of soft power that is intangible an... more At first sight, it might seem that we chose to analyze a type of soft power that is intangible and purely ideational. It is based upon an assumption that civil society is a “domain parallel to but separate from the state—where citizens associate according to their own interests and wishes.” Unlike several other contributors of this volume, we do not describe soft power developed by a specific agent, such as a country or a particular organization. Our agent refers to multiple organizations which we describe under a common label of development agencies by way of Western donor agencies, international organizations (IOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which have adopted the idea of “neoliberal civil society” and have been exercising it by utilizing foreign aid or, in turn, providing funding to local activists and civil society entrepreneurs, in our case in post-Soviet Tajikistan. The case of Tajikistan, we believe, is somewhat typical of many other post-communist, but also aid-dependent countries.
In the mid-1990s, international organisations started releasing research produced and situated in... more In the mid-1990s, international organisations started releasing research produced and situated in the local realities of aid-receiving countries, calling it ‘local knowledge’. Over time, local knowledge became a new standard to design development projects by taking into account local complexities and a way to improve project implementation through the use of local solutions. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has also been keen on including local knowledge in its knowledge production schemes. This chapter examines how the IOM produces knowledge on migration in Tajikistan, where it has been operating since 1993 and how it incorporates local knowledge in its projects. It does so by taking a case study of a 2016 IOM research project on the vulnerability of Central Asian labour migrants returning from Russia, in which a strong argument about the ‘radicalisation potential of returning migrants’ was made. The chapter highlights by whom and how knowledge is produced at the IOM; what meaning local knowledge gains for different actors involved in the process; and if, and how, local knowledge is adapted to fit international settings. By way of example, this chapter argues that production of knowledge at the IOM is embedded in a broader economic and geopolitical context in which the organisation operates, questioning the possiblity of including pure, unfiltered local knowledge.
This chapter takes a critical look at the EU-Central Asia cooperation since the 1990s until now. ... more This chapter takes a critical look at the EU-Central Asia cooperation since the 1990s until now. It argues that although this partnership has always stood out as smooth and balanced, and thus less fraught with major political controversies and abrupt U-turns compared to other external partners of the Central Asian region, one sees important limitations that call for revisiting of institutional and ideational aspects of interaction. The chapter analyses three aspects which reflect the nature of the real challenge: the burden of asymmetric power relations between the EU and Central Asian states; neglected differences and complexities of cooperation by the two parties; and the ‘project’-logic that mixes up cooperation with development assistance, and prioritises the continuity of engagement over the purpose of cooperation.
This chapter touches upon a problematic relationship between international norms and local practi... more This chapter touches upon a problematic relationship between international norms and local practice, putting norms promoted by international donors face to face with popular beliefs in Tajikistan.
This chapter seeks to uncover the roles played by multiple actors from the globalised third secto... more This chapter seeks to uncover the roles played by multiple actors from the globalised third sector in the migration policy field. It presents major strands of literature dealing with various aspects of such involvement, illustrating its main points with examples from Europe, Asia, the post-Soviet region and the global level, starting with research on civil society in migration governance at the local and national levels.
Timur Dadabaev’s Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations is an innovative piece of wor... more Timur Dadabaev’s Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations is an innovative piece of work in two ways. First, it represents an attempt to think in a decolonial manner about the practices of international relations in Central Asia, pointing to a distinct way of doing world politics in this region. It attributes an equal agency to Central Asian states, with a focus on Uzbekistan, and some of their major international partners, such as Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. It explains rationalities on both sides of interactions, without seeing Central Asia merely as an object of interest of major powers. Second, the book engages with the discipline of International Relations (IR) of Central Asia from a decolonial perspective—as new a way of thinking about world politics in the scholarly community.
Tajikistan on the Move is an important collection of studies. While Tajikistan tends to be descri... more Tajikistan on the Move is an important collection of studies. While Tajikistan tends to be described as a stagnant and static place, this book, as the title indicates, shows the country on the move. The picture of Tajikistan that emerges from the volume reveals motion, dynamic changes, and a vibrant society. The volume’s contributors highlight points of view and aspirations guiding various actors on the ground—political elites, local communities, and labor migrants. Through that, instead of describing the country through the prism of problems and social vulnerabilities, they offer a nuanced analysis of local political and societal changes occurring in the recent years, in regional and global contexts.
The past century has seen the Tajik capital Dushanbe change in many ways. As the city celebrates ... more The past century has seen the Tajik capital Dushanbe change in many ways. As the city celebrates its first one hundred years at the country’s heart, it is worth looking back at the media that has encapsulated its many eras.
The collapse of the Soviet Union meant more than just the fall of a government. For many, it also... more The collapse of the Soviet Union meant more than just the fall of a government. For many, it also brought about the end of a way of life. This includes the artist Murivat Beknazarov, who through his work fought to defend the memories of Soviet Tajikistan’s unique cultural life.
The Eastern Partnership establishes a framework for the EU’s engagement with Armenia, Azerbaijan,... more The Eastern Partnership establishes a framework for the EU’s engagement with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Fabienne Bossuyt, Louise Amoris, Karolina Kluczewska, Katsiaryna Lozka, Laura Luciani and Servaas Taghon write that almost fifteen years after it was launched, the future of the initiative looks bleaker than ever.
In many countries around the world, feminist politics are marginalised or face resistance from go... more In many countries around the world, feminist politics are marginalised or face resistance from governments and societies alike – and this is also the case in post-socialist Eurasia. As an additional challenge, gender-related discourses in this region are dominated by international donors, which promote a one-size-fits-all, neoliberal approach based on universal human rights and gender equality as a means for democracy promotion. In recent years, however, a new generation of small-scale, grassroots feminist initiatives has emerged which are oriented towards social justice, but also more sensitive than donors towards local realities. These grassroots feminist groups often face a dilemma: should they strategically soften their approach to avoid backlash and reach a broader audience, or should they purposefully use blunt and provocatory language to disrupt dominant gender norms?
Feminist groups in Europe and Eurasia are continuing to resist the far-right rollback of women’s ... more Feminist groups in Europe and Eurasia are continuing to resist the far-right rollback of women’s rights. But the international media usually focuses on mass demonstrations for women’s reproductive and sexual rights, overlooking the budding intersectional feminist movements fighting for change.
openDemocracy spoke to five small-scale, grassroots feminist initiatives in Italy, Poland, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan – countries in which the authors have expertise and local contacts – which transcend mainstream narratives about women’s rights. From transfeminist alliances to disability rights and sexual and bodily autonomy, these groups aim to tackle complex forms of injustice.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/tajikistan-russia--ukraine-war/
The difference between the s... more https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/tajikistan-russia--ukraine-war/ The difference between the silence of ‘official’ Dushanbe and the views found on Tajikistan’s streets could not be starker
https://www.ugent.be/ps/politiekewetenschappen/gies/en/gies_papers/2022-ukraine/how-the-war-in-uk... more https://www.ugent.be/ps/politiekewetenschappen/gies/en/gies_papers/2022-ukraine/how-the-war-in-ukraine-affects-countries-that-depend-on-russia I was doing field research in Tajikistan when Russia attacked Ukraine. In a country where people usually are not concerned about world affairs, the war suddenly became a frequent topic of discussion, and a major preoccupation of many people whose livelihoods depend on Russia. This post-Soviet Central Asian country is tied to Russia in many ways: historically, politically and, most importantly, economically. Based on my observations, I sketch in this paper how the first weeks of the war in Ukraine affected Tajikistan.
Post-communist states, both the pre-existing ones and those which emerged after the Soviet disintegration, followed very different paths of handling the artistic remains of their immediate past. Dealing with symbols is highly symbolic.
https://www.fr.de/meinung/frieden-von-unten-91005811.html
with Anna Kreikemeyer
Bei der Lösung vo... more https://www.fr.de/meinung/frieden-von-unten-91005811.html with Anna Kreikemeyer Bei der Lösung von Konflikten werden die Gemeinschaften vor Ort oft viel zu wenig einbezogen.
http://911legacies.com
The 9/11 Legacies project
The events of 9/11 and the subsequent Global Wa... more http://911legacies.com The 9/11 Legacies project The events of 9/11 and the subsequent Global War on Terror have profoundly transformed the landscape of international development in post-Soviet Central Asia.
Global Cooperation Research: A Quartely Magazine, 2/2021
https://www.gcr21.org/publications/gcr/g... more Global Cooperation Research: A Quartely Magazine, 2/2021 https://www.gcr21.org/publications/gcr/gcr-quarterly-magazine/global-cooperation-research-2-/-2021 International development is a highly normative and emotional enterprise. This is particularly the case on the very local level, in spaces where divergent visions of local order are negotiated – in villages, Komsomol venues and NGO offices. Zooming-in to these spaces offers IR researchers a new, bottom-up lens to think about international development interventions through the eyes of participants of these processes.
In the 1970s and 1980s, mosaics made of stones and opaque glass tiles called smalti covered nearl... more In the 1970s and 1980s, mosaics made of stones and opaque glass tiles called smalti covered nearly all corners of Soviet Tajikistan. Since then, many of them have disappeared, destroyed by the passing of time and weather conditions, but also as a result of spatial reconstruction, which has intensified in recent years. Back then, however, the mosaics transformed the space and, possibly, also the society. They not only made Tajikistan more colourful and vibrant but also promoted solidarity, mutual care and fairness.
Local ordering matters - this is the starting point of a recent special issue titled 'Studying Pe... more Local ordering matters - this is the starting point of a recent special issue titled 'Studying Peace in and with Central Eurasia, ' edited by Anna Kreikemeyer, which explores and theorises a variety of ordering and peace formation practices arising from the ground up.
During the Soviet era, the present and future of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic were glorifi... more During the Soviet era, the present and future of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic were glorified in mosaics. Colorful pieces of stained glass, interspersed with stones from the mountains, could be seen in even the most distant corners of the country, symbolizing the coexistence of Soviet ideas with local culture. What do young adults in Tajikistan make of this colorful Soviet legacy? For Firuza, Timur, Yusuf, Nargis, and Nodira, the mosaics are art that they can reinterpret and connect to the present in light of their own experiences.
This paper analyses Tajikistan’s foreign policy towards Russia between 1991 and 2023 by identifyi... more This paper analyses Tajikistan’s foreign policy towards Russia between 1991 and 2023 by identifying four distinct stages of this process and exploring their structural determinants. Characteristics of each stage reflect a unique combination of Soviet-era path dependencies, domestic developments in Tajikistan and Russia within a specific time period, as well as changes in the broader international context in which relations between the two countries are embedded. Overall, we can see a clear evolution of Tajik policymakers’ perceptions of, and expectations from, Russia.
From limited interactions in the early 1990s, the EU and Central Asia now consider each other to ... more From limited interactions in the early 1990s, the EU and Central Asia now consider each other to be increasingly important. This international collection of contributors analyses multiple levels of mutual interactions, and how they have transformed since Central Asia independence to the contemporary. It shows why and in what ways exactly the EU and Central Asia matter to each other – and also why researchers should pay more attention to their interactions. Central Asia falls under the broader external relations and security agenda of the EU, and over years it provided a testing ground for many EU policies, including the priority ones of region-building and resilience promotion. Looking at the EU, in turn, informs as to how Central Asian actors interact with external partners of the region, and how they influence national policy agendas and consequently everyday life – bringing new approaches, insights and evidence also to the wide field of EU studies. This ENC Analysis summarizes the main findings and presents special issue contributions.
For many years, scholars and practitioners have been struggling with problems of local ownership ... more For many years, scholars and practitioners have been struggling with problems of local ownership in IO-led peacebuilding. Despite the discourse surrounding giving ownership to local communities, top-down approaches prevail in practice and often lead to counterproductive outcomes. Ethnographic fieldwork has proven that IOs could achieve a better understanding of local experiential perspectives on conflict and peace. Here, we point to key features of local peace and suggest how IOs could better incorporate peaceful local agency, cope with power imbalances and advance strategies for peacebuilding from the ground up.
Помощь в целях развития неразрывно связана с международными отношениями. Эта зонтичная концепция ... more Помощь в целях развития неразрывно связана с международными отношениями. Эта зонтичная концепция включает в себя широкий спектр инструментов, таких как проектные гранты, прямая поддержка, льготные кредиты, а также предоставление экспертных знаний – все из которых направлены на стимулирование социально-экономического и политического развития в странах-получателях. Все формы помощи подразумевают формирование особых отношений между донорами, т.е. правительствами, которые выделяют финансирование, и международными организациями, которые им управляют, и получателями помощи. В то время как помощь в целях развития преподносится как подарок, подарки не предоставляются бесплатно, о чем нам говорят социальные теории взаимности. Получатели помощи не могут вернуть те же пожертвования своим донорам, и от них этого не ожидается. Вместо этого они должны по-разному отплачивать, например, демонстрируя лояльность на международной арене, предоставляя экономические уступки стране-донору или принимая нормативные рамки, сопровождающие помощь.
The present paper focuses on Tajikistan and development aid that it has received since 1991. The ... more The present paper focuses on Tajikistan and development aid that it has received since 1991. The overview of the nearly three decades of development aid builds around five main phases: 1) humanitarian aid during the Tajik civil war, 1992-1997, 2) the post-civil war peacebuilding and reconstruction in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, 3) security-focused aid throughout the 2000s, 4) the broadening of the donor landscape in the 2010s, and 5) the COVID-19-related aid in 2020. The description of these stages is somewhat sketchy. The distinction, however, helps identify and discuss the changing characteristics of aid and aid-related international relations, including the major fields of assistance and volumes of aid, the dominant actors, and the shifts in donor-recipient relations.
This ENC analysis will outline the changing donor-NGO relations in Tajikistan. The Tajik NGO sect... more This ENC analysis will outline the changing donor-NGO relations in Tajikistan. The Tajik NGO sector started to grow in the 1990s, during the country’s civil war (1992-1997). Despite clear differences in donors’ and local NGOs’ views on the meaning of NGO activism, the period until the mid-2000s was the best in terms of relations between the two. NGOs not only received generous funding from donors for humanitarian aid and the provision of services to vulnerable groups of the population, but also enjoyed a great deal of freedom in project implementation. This changed because of gradually decreasing international funding for local NGOs and a steep increase in growth of managerialism in aid delivery mechanisms. As a result, the positive donor-NGO relations transformed into asymmetric power relations characterised by subordination of NGOs to donors, exploitation of NGOs by donors and mistrust between the two. This process has significantly limited the agency of local NGOs in the development work.
This policy brief analyses how International Organisations (IOs) produce research in and on aid-r... more This policy brief analyses how International Organisations (IOs) produce research in and on aid-receiving countries. Its key conclusion is that despite these actors' claims to implement evidence-based projects, the research they produce and rely on is never neutral. Rather, institutional and operational features of IOs profoundly influence research findings. By looking at the case of IOs in Tajikistan, this paper shows how the geopolitical interests of donors, a project management logic and power asymmetries between these organisations and local actors shape the research process and affect its outcomes. This has implications for how we should approach knowledge claims made by IOs.
Keeping Central Asia stable and free of conflicts has been mentioned as a priority both in nation... more Keeping Central Asia stable and free of conflicts has been mentioned as a priority both in national governments’ narratives and those of international partners already for long time. The early 1990s, times of political and economic transitions, were uncertain by default. Few observers could foresee how the newly emergent states would address the spectre of ethnic conflicts or civil wars. Disputes over borders and water resources highlighted low level of inter-state cooperation, while the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan put Central Asia at the forefront of the fight against terrorism. The region has not been free of heated disputes and open conflicts, and undoubtedly, most of the aforementioned issues require a close attention. However, long-term stability of the region cannot be pursued without addressing some less visible, yet critical problems. These are often issues of domestic nature that set the very environment within which a stable and prosperous development can be imagined. While national governments are primarily responsible for addressing (or not addressing) these challenges, international partners of the region have a big role to play. This brief looks at three particular areas – education, economy and equality – that are critical for sustainable development of the region and deserve more national and international attention.
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paradigm, promoted worldwide by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM), by unpacking transformations that this
approach undergoes in aid-receiving countries assisted by this
organisation. Drawing on insights from International Relations and
the anthropology of development, and taking the case of a
specific policy transfer initiated by IOM in post-Soviet Tajikistan,
which involved setting up a local state-operated labour
recruitment system for industries abroad, the article advances
three arguments. First, the crucial relevance of actors in the field,
namely brokers who arrange and navigate IOM’s collaborations
with various actors on the ground, reveals that the authority of
IOM in Tajikistan is personalised and relational, rather than
institutional. Second, the existence of brokers points to an
ideological heterogeneity within IOM, which on the surface seems
united in its pursuit of the migration and development agenda.
Third, this article problematises the role of IOM in Tajikistan,
showing that the organisation interferes in state-citizens relations
and that its rhetoric of migration and development justifies a
market-tailored export of local labour, serving the global capitalist
economy. The article contributes to research on IOM, as well as
global-local interactions and international organisations in the field.
development aid. It involves giving more effective control of the
design and implementation of development aid to local actors in
aid-receiving countries, including governments, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and local communities. This article contrasts
the understanding of local ownership as a top-down process
triggered by donors, with an alternative, bottom-up ownership,
which emerges spontaneously on the ground. By looking at the
case of a local NGO in post-Soviet Tajikistan, the article analyses
practices which reveal how the NGO actively takes ownership of
development aid through everyday work. This includes
fundraising, structuring relations with other organizations
competing for donor funding, selecting calls for proposals from
NGOs and writing grant applications. Each of these activities
involves negotiations of the goals and scope of development
work, against parameters imposed by donors. By means of
example, the article questions the application of the local
ownership paradigm in development work.
between these norms and local realities. By taking a case study of
an American-funded good governance project in Tajikistan, it
investigates a multi-level and multi-actor process of norm
localisation, looking at why and how different development
agencies re-appropriate international norms. The article proposes
to see a failed localisation from the point of view of donors, in a
way that outcomes differ from their initial intentions, as a
successful localisation from the point of view of local actors. The
distortion of international norms indicates that local actors reappropriated
them in accordance with their biographies, personal
views, and political opportunities and constraints of organisations
which they represent.
break-up of the Soviet Union, mainly in Russia, but also beyond the post-Soviet space. It argues that factors such as time and type of arrival, region of origin, socio-economic status in the host society, host and home country policies, all impact on interactions within and across these emigrant populations, as well as on their engagement with the homeland. The article critically examines manifestations of socio-political activism within the Tajik emigrant community complex and points at different forms and degrees of mobilization. It also shows the complexity of answers to emigrants’ activities by the Tajik government, based on a “perceived utility” of different emigrant communities.
started in Tajikistan (1992–97). This was also the period when a
number of international organizations arrived in the country to
distribute humanitarian assistance and assist in conflict resolution
and stabilization. After the UN, the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was the second key organization
which appeared in the conflict-stricken country. Like other key
international organizations in Tajikistan, the OSCE, which has been
in the country since 1994, has seen a shift in its original functions
of monitoring and emergency assistance. Some see its avowed
objectives in the new century as formalistic, virtual and ineffective.
By capturing perceptions of foreign assistance to Tajikistan among
employees of the OSCE and other international organizations,
NGO workers, government officials and ordinary citizens, this
article explores how Tajikistan ‘socialized’ the OSCE, making the
organization simultaneously a benefactor, an industry and even
an intruder.
paradigm, promoted worldwide by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM), by unpacking transformations that this
approach undergoes in aid-receiving countries assisted by this
organisation. Drawing on insights from International Relations and
the anthropology of development, and taking the case of a
specific policy transfer initiated by IOM in post-Soviet Tajikistan,
which involved setting up a local state-operated labour
recruitment system for industries abroad, the article advances
three arguments. First, the crucial relevance of actors in the field,
namely brokers who arrange and navigate IOM’s collaborations
with various actors on the ground, reveals that the authority of
IOM in Tajikistan is personalised and relational, rather than
institutional. Second, the existence of brokers points to an
ideological heterogeneity within IOM, which on the surface seems
united in its pursuit of the migration and development agenda.
Third, this article problematises the role of IOM in Tajikistan,
showing that the organisation interferes in state-citizens relations
and that its rhetoric of migration and development justifies a
market-tailored export of local labour, serving the global capitalist
economy. The article contributes to research on IOM, as well as
global-local interactions and international organisations in the field.
development aid. It involves giving more effective control of the
design and implementation of development aid to local actors in
aid-receiving countries, including governments, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and local communities. This article contrasts
the understanding of local ownership as a top-down process
triggered by donors, with an alternative, bottom-up ownership,
which emerges spontaneously on the ground. By looking at the
case of a local NGO in post-Soviet Tajikistan, the article analyses
practices which reveal how the NGO actively takes ownership of
development aid through everyday work. This includes
fundraising, structuring relations with other organizations
competing for donor funding, selecting calls for proposals from
NGOs and writing grant applications. Each of these activities
involves negotiations of the goals and scope of development
work, against parameters imposed by donors. By means of
example, the article questions the application of the local
ownership paradigm in development work.
between these norms and local realities. By taking a case study of
an American-funded good governance project in Tajikistan, it
investigates a multi-level and multi-actor process of norm
localisation, looking at why and how different development
agencies re-appropriate international norms. The article proposes
to see a failed localisation from the point of view of donors, in a
way that outcomes differ from their initial intentions, as a
successful localisation from the point of view of local actors. The
distortion of international norms indicates that local actors reappropriated
them in accordance with their biographies, personal
views, and political opportunities and constraints of organisations
which they represent.
break-up of the Soviet Union, mainly in Russia, but also beyond the post-Soviet space. It argues that factors such as time and type of arrival, region of origin, socio-economic status in the host society, host and home country policies, all impact on interactions within and across these emigrant populations, as well as on their engagement with the homeland. The article critically examines manifestations of socio-political activism within the Tajik emigrant community complex and points at different forms and degrees of mobilization. It also shows the complexity of answers to emigrants’ activities by the Tajik government, based on a “perceived utility” of different emigrant communities.
started in Tajikistan (1992–97). This was also the period when a
number of international organizations arrived in the country to
distribute humanitarian assistance and assist in conflict resolution
and stabilization. After the UN, the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was the second key organization
which appeared in the conflict-stricken country. Like other key
international organizations in Tajikistan, the OSCE, which has been
in the country since 1994, has seen a shift in its original functions
of monitoring and emergency assistance. Some see its avowed
objectives in the new century as formalistic, virtual and ineffective.
By capturing perceptions of foreign assistance to Tajikistan among
employees of the OSCE and other international organizations,
NGO workers, government officials and ordinary citizens, this
article explores how Tajikistan ‘socialized’ the OSCE, making the
organization simultaneously a benefactor, an industry and even
an intruder.
describing the country through the prism of problems and social vulnerabilities, they offer a nuanced analysis of local political and societal changes occurring in the recent years, in regional and global contexts.
openDemocracy spoke to five small-scale, grassroots feminist initiatives in Italy, Poland, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan – countries in which the authors have expertise and local contacts – which transcend mainstream narratives about women’s rights. From transfeminist alliances to disability rights and sexual and bodily autonomy, these groups aim to tackle complex forms of injustice.
The difference between the silence of ‘official’ Dushanbe and the views found on Tajikistan’s streets could not be starker
I was doing field research in Tajikistan when Russia attacked Ukraine. In a country where people usually are not concerned about world affairs, the war suddenly became a frequent topic of discussion, and a major preoccupation of many people whose livelihoods depend on Russia. This post-Soviet Central Asian country is tied to Russia in many ways: historically, politically and, most importantly, economically. Based on my observations, I sketch in this paper how the first weeks of the war in Ukraine affected Tajikistan.
Post-communist states, both the pre-existing ones and those which emerged after the Soviet disintegration, followed very different paths of handling the artistic remains of their immediate past. Dealing with symbols is highly symbolic.
with Anna Kreikemeyer
Bei der Lösung von Konflikten werden die Gemeinschaften vor Ort oft viel zu wenig einbezogen.
The story of two Lenin statues in Dushanbe is emblematic of the country’s complex process of coming to terms with its history.
The 9/11 Legacies project
The events of 9/11 and the subsequent Global War on Terror have profoundly transformed the landscape of international development in post-Soviet Central Asia.
https://www.gcr21.org/publications/gcr/gcr-quarterly-magazine/global-cooperation-research-2-/-2021
International development is a highly normative and emotional enterprise. This is particularly the case on the very local level, in spaces where divergent visions of local order are negotiated – in villages, Komsomol venues and NGO offices. Zooming-in to these spaces offers IR researchers a new, bottom-up lens to think about international development interventions through the eyes of participants of these processes.
colorful Soviet legacy? For Firuza, Timur, Yusuf, Nargis, and Nodira, the mosaics are art that they can reinterpret and connect to the present in light of their own experiences.
undoubtedly, most of the aforementioned issues require a close attention. However, long-term stability of the region cannot be pursued without addressing some less visible, yet critical problems. These are often issues of domestic nature that set the very environment within which a stable and prosperous development can be imagined. While national governments are primarily responsible for addressing (or not addressing) these challenges, international partners of the region have a big role to play. This brief looks at three particular areas – education, economy and equality – that are critical for sustainable development of the region and deserve more national and international attention.