Central Asia, Russia, and the Deficiencies of European Models

The study of Central Eurasian history poses many challenges, of which one of the knottiest but most interesting is that the familiar Western models of nation, state, and empire do not apply. While historians have long studied nations and empires as products of Western development, and the connections between their rise and the rise of history as a modern intellectual discipline, it takes confrontation with profoundly different sociopolitical systems to see just how hard it is to restructure our thinking. When considering relations among Eurasian polities, positing Russia as a European imperial power that colonized Central Asia seems commonsensical, with some modifications to the model. However, as these three fine books show, even a modified imperial model oversimplifies Eurasian relations. Another strength of these books is that they look beyond strictly political relations to consider economic, environmental, and social factors in the shifting balances of power across Eurasia. While they consider different periods and topics, these books share several