by Zack Kramer The Kyrgyz are a Turkic ethnic group first recognized as a distinct people by Chinese sources dating back to the second century B.C.E. The ethnonym “Kyrgyz” has its origins in a Turkic root meaning “forty”, a reference to a legendary forty original tribes that made up the ancient Kyrgyz people. They appear … Continue reading The Political Economy of Kyrgyzstan
Category: world affairs
The Political Economy of Kazakhstan
by Zack Kramer The Kazakhs emerged as a distinct ethnic group in the 14th and 15th centuries, essentially through an intermingling of local Turkic tribes with more recently arrived Mongolian peoples. The ethnonym Kazakh derives from an old Turkic root meaning “wanderer,” reflecting their nomadic origins. That same root, via a fairly circuitous path, is … Continue reading The Political Economy of Kazakhstan
Bed, Ba’ath, and Beyond, part 2: War Is a Racket
Happy Hallowen! Today I'm very pleased to bring you the second part of Travis Haycraft's two-part series on Saddam Hussein's military buildup in Iraq. Part one took us through the 1970s, leading up to the Iran-Iraq War, and today's piece looks at how the war both affected and was affected by the military machine Saddam … Continue reading Bed, Ba’ath, and Beyond, part 2: War Is a Racket
Bed, Ba’ath, and Beyond, part 1: Saddam’s Shopping Extravaganza
Hello readers! Today I'm very pleased to bring you the second attwiw guest post! Arms proliferation researcher Travis Haycraft joins us for the first part of a two-parter (coming next month) on Iraq. Part one looks at the Saddam Hussein-organized build up of the Iraqi military in the 1970s, leading up to the Iran-Iraq War. … Continue reading Bed, Ba’ath, and Beyond, part 1: Saddam’s Shopping Extravaganza
Death in the family
Like any mostly closed/insulated group of people--Fortune 500 CEOs, Catholic clergy, the mafia, Congress--there are a lot of ways in which Iran's religious (and increasingly military) ruling class resembles a family. There are a lot of things binding them together: everybody knows each other, they all share some common backgrounds and life experiences, they probably … Continue reading Death in the family
Fidel Castro, 1926-2016
Fidel Castro is dead. Maybe you've heard. This blog is not devoted to events in or the history of Latin America, as you've presumably figured out by now, and this is for the simple reason that this is a part of the world I just haven't studied apart from the most perfunctory American and world … Continue reading Fidel Castro, 1926-2016
Speaking Ill of the Dead
Shimon Peres, 1923-2016 (World Economic Forum via Wikimedia Commons) Shimon Peres, who died on Monday at the age of 93, spent much of the last couple of decades of his life paying lip service to the idea of making peace with the Palestinians, and so it's much easier for world leaders to eulogize him as … Continue reading Speaking Ill of the Dead
Politicizing Ethnic Cleansing
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on YouTube. A video that may shock, anger, and possibly horrify you. Here it is, and please don't say I didn't warn you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ1BltDU4iM Oh wait, no, that was a campaign ad from last February. Still, horrifying. This was last week's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CUFSHB114 Netanyahu's attempt … Continue reading Politicizing Ethnic Cleansing
The History of Turkey’s Diyanet
Kristin Fabbe and Kimberly Guiler, at The Washington Post's "Monkey Cage" blog, looked at the proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding last week's attempted coup in Turkey. In their piece, they made a point about a Turkish institution that probably deserves more explanation than they were able to give it, the Diyanet: Turkey’s self-avowed secularists also … Continue reading The History of Turkey’s Diyanet
Did Saddam Hussein Create the Islamic State?
Middle East analyst Kyle Orton has an op-ed in The New York Times today, called "How Saddam Hussein Gave Us ISIS," that, as you might imagine, is raising some eyebrows on the internets. I have to say, though, as somebody who has read Orton's work (the growth of ISIS out of the wreckage of Saddam's … Continue reading Did Saddam Hussein Create the Islamic State?
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 