Asia Insights - Free Internet Links on Asia

By Oleg & Maria Stalbovsky, published June 2006 by GlobaLex. GlobaLex is an electronic legal publication dedicated to international and foreign law research. Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law, GlobaLex is committed to the dissemination of high-level international, foreign, and comparative law research tools in order to accommodate the needs of an increasingly global educational and practicing legal world.
http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Turkmenistan.htm
Keywords: Central Asia, Law and legislation, Turkmenistan,

The Amnesty International library contains an archive of most reports, news releases and urgent actions published from 1996 to date. The archive is searchable by region, sub-region, country and theme.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex
Keywords: Central Asia, China, East Asia, Hong Kong, Human rights, In Focus, In Focus 2008, In Focus 2008 Week 11, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

Self description: CentralAsiaOnline.com is a website sponsored by USCENTCOM to highlight movement toward greater regional stability both through bilateral and multilateral cooperative arrangements. CentralAsiaOnline.com also focuses on developments that hinder both terrorist activity and support for terrorism in the region. This site features news from across and about the region and features analysis, interviews and commentary by paid CentralAsiaOnline.com correspondents. It is designed to provide a regional audience with a portal to a broad range of information about future stability in the region.
http://centralasiaonline.com
Keywords: Business enterprises, Business. Management, Central Asia, In Focus, In Focus 2010, In Focus 2010 Week 17, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, News, News. Media, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

This series of profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/list.html
Keywords: Agriculture, Business. Management, Central Asia, China, East Asia, Economic issues, Education, Geography, History, In Focus, In Focus 2009, In Focus 2009 Week 53, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Law and legislation, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, Politics and society, Science and technology. Innovation, Social conditions, South Korea, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

Dismantling totalitarianism? : Turkmenistan under Berdimuhamedow / Slavomír Horák and Jan Sír. - Stockholm : Silk Road Studies Program, Institute for Security and Development Policy, 2009. - 99 p. (Silk Road paper) The death of Saparmyrat Nyýazow (also referred to as Türkmenbaşy the Great), officially announced on December 21, 2006, marked the end of one of the most repressive regimes of the twenty-first century. For one and a half decades, and since Turkmenistan gained independence in 1991, President Türkmenbaşy concentrated in his hands all constitutional as well as informal powers within the country. His rule also deeply affected the overall political culture in Turkmenistan. In the first few weeks after his passing, analysts hoped that at least partial liberalization of both politics and society would follow. Some initial steps of the new leadership headed by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the vice-chairman of the cabinet of ministers under Türkmenbaşy, supported such optimism as the most bizarre aspects of Türkmenbaşy’s rule were gradually dismantled. The following analysis, however, claims that as the new regime stabilized, it became more and more focused on the figure of the new leader. It is thus difficult to conclude at this stage that the character of the post-Nyýazow regime in Turkmenistan has undergone liberalization in any meaningful sense of the term.
http://www.isdp.eu/images/stories/isdp-main-pdf/2009_horak-sir_dismantling-total...
Keywords: Central Asia, Nordic Perspective, Politics and society, Publications, Sweden, Turkmenistan,

Self description: This three-year project aims at analyzing the institutional arrangements currently being developed and redefined in Central Asian economies. It expands the “Varieties of Capitalism” (VoC) research agenda to transition countries in Central Asia; notably Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and it is driven by the following goals: * to contribute in a comparative manner to a better understanding of political-economic developments in Central Asia; * to further the VoC research agenda by applying the approach to transition economies, notably to Central Asian economies; * to determine the influence of external actors in the transformation process in Central Asia and to develop relevant policy recommendations; * to elaborate the impact of distinct capitalist variations in Central Asia on economic performance – indicated by economic growth, income distribution, and socio-economic indicators.
http://www.centralasiaproject.de
Keywords: Central Asia, Economic issues, In Focus, In Focus 2010, In Focus 2010 Week 17, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Politics and society, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

he Human Development Report (HDR) was first launched in 1990. Each Report focuses on a highly topical theme in the current development debate, providing path-breaking analysis and policy recommendations. National human development reports at the country level have been published in more than 120 nations. The Human Development Report is an independent report. It is commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and is the product of a selected team of leading scholars, development practitioners and members of the Human Development Report Office of UNDP. The Report is translated into more than a dozen languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually.
http://hdr.undp.org/
Keywords: Central Asia, China, Development. Poverty, East Asia, Economic issues, Education, Environment, Hong Kong, Human rights, In Focus, In Focus 2009, In Focus 2009 Week 41, In Focus 2010, In Focus 2010 Week 03, In Focus 2010 Week 29, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, Politics and society, Social conditions, South Korea, Statistics, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Women and gender studies,

Provides information on any member country's relations with IMF. Includes: * IMF publications about the member country. * The country's position in the Fund (when it joined, its quota size). * When its last Article IV consultation with the Fund took place. * The country's financial relations with the Fund (disbursements and payments). * Whether the country subscribes to the Data Standards Bulletin Board
http://www.imf.org/external/country/index.htm
Keywords: Central Asia, China, Development. Poverty, East Asia, Economic issues, Hong Kong, In Focus, In Focus 2008, In Focus 2008 Week 34, In Focus 2008 Week 46, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, South Korea, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database contains selected macroeconomic data series from the statistical appendix of the World Economic Outlook report, which presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups and in many individual countries. The WEO is released in April and September each year. Use this database to find data on national accounts, inflation, unemployment rates, balance of payments, fiscal indicators, trade for countries and country groups (aggregates), and commodity prices whose data are reported by the IMF. Data are available from 1980 to the present, and projections are given for the next two years. For some countries, data are incomplete or unavailable for certain years.
http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=28
Keywords: Burma - Myanmar, Cambodia, Central Asia, China, Development. Poverty, East Asia, East Timor, Economic issues, Hong Kong, In Focus, In Focus 2009, In Focus 2009 Week 41, In Focus 2010, In Focus 2010 Week 06, In Focus 2011, In Focus 2011 Week 20, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam,

e-book (2007). Thanks to the collapse of the USSR, whose closed border stood like a wall across the heart of Eurasia, to China's decision to open trade across its western border, and to the gradual return of Afghanistan to the community of nations, continental trade spanning the entire Eurasian land mass is again becoming possible. Western Europe, China, Russia, the Middle East, and the Indian sub-continent can, in time, connect with one another and with the lands between by means of direct roads, railroads, and technologies for transporting gas, oil, and hydroelectric power. These 'new Silk Roads' have enormous potential for the entire Eurasian continent, and especially for the countries of 'Greater Central Asia' which they must traverse. This book, with contributions by eminent scholars from sixteen countries, reviews the state of the links of transport and trade that are bringing about this fundamental change on the world's largest continent. It explores the potential of such int! erchange for fifteen of the countries most directly affected by it. It identifies some of the many impediments to the full realization of this epochal project. And it suggests a few steps that might be taken to ameliorate or remove these impediments." Site contents: * Cover; * Table of Contents etc.; * Introduction - S. Frederick Starr; * Afghanistan - Masood Aziz; * Pakistan - Aftab Kazi; * Tajikistan - Khojamakhmad Umarov; * Turkmenistan - Firat Yildiz; * Iran - Abbas Maleki; * Uzbekistan - Martina Reiser and Dennis DeTray; * The Kyrgyz Republic - Joomart Otorbayev et. al.; * Kazakhstan - Sanat Kushkumbayev; * Azerbaijan - Taleh Ziyadov; * India - Gulshan Sachdeva; * China - Niklas Swanstr?m, Nicklas Norling and Zhang Li; * Turkey - Kemal Kaya; * Russia - Vladimir Boyko; * Contributors.
http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/GCA.html
Keywords: Afghanistan, Central Asia, China, East Asia, Economic issues, Foreign trade, In Focus, In Focus 2008, In Focus 2008 Week 04, In Focus 2010, In Focus 2010 Week 17, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nordic Perspective, Pakistan, Publications, South Asia, Sweden, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,