• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.141-164
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• 2020

The article closely considers an important aspect of the operation of nomadic charisma that has not yet been sufficiently addressed by historians. To do so, it examines the dynamics of nomadic power relations and the nomads' ensuing sense of properly balanced relations of power that found its manifestation when their rulers were required to share power in an effective way, one that would satisfy all parties involved. This was translated into the requirement to comply with established norms of social reciprocity toward one's kinsfolk that became crystallized into certain patterns of behavior. I argue that adherence to these patterns constituted the essential attributes of the nomads' psychological and cultural expectations that shaped their perception of a charismatic style of ruling.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 2020

Afghanistan has experienced more than four decades of severe disruption, ever since the communist coup of April 1978 plunged the country into a state of disorder that was then severely aggravated by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Despite the high hopes that accompanied the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan's path in the first two decades of the 21st century has proved to be anything but smooth, and this article highlights a confluence of challenges - political, diplomatic, and societal - that Afghanistan presently faces, challenges that in large measure account for the profound uncertainty that clouds its future. The article is divided into four sections. The first provides some context for the discussion of these three challenges. The remaining sections investigate the particular challenges - intra-elite rivalries, a fragile and defective peace process, and the underreported but grave threat to life and limb in Afghanistan resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic - in more detail. Together, these challenges highlight the dangers of wishful thinking about harsh realities.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-90
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• 2020

The city of Sumqayit in Azerbaijan was famous in the USSR for its chemical plants, which supplied the whole country with plastics, detergents, and fertilizers. While production increased in the post-WWII period, young people from remote Caucasian villages were attracted as workers to the industrial settlement on the shore of the Caspian Sea and worked together with specialists from all over the USSR. Migration did not stop when the USSR collapsed. To the contrary, mobility increased as Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia and IDPs from Karabakh fled to Sumqayit, which grew to become the second-largest city of Azerbaijan. Although a generation has passed since the ceasefire, IDPs still are separately administered. In the last 20 years, more and more internal migrants have chosen the Greater Baku Region as their destination, mostly finding jobs in the informal labor market. In the post-independence transformative period, informal housing has offered migrants a place to stay in the city. Sumqayit can be regarded as an arrival city, an established urban platform for migrants who prefer internal over transnational migration.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.91-110
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• 2020

This paper traces the trajectory of a variety of complicated economic and political developments between China and India - the world's most ancient civilizations connected by rich history. These recent developments, which are heavily acrimonious and include military clashes involving loss of lives, have greatly damaged bilateral relations. The paper examines the reasons behind the bilateral relations dipping to new lows. Aside from specific bilateral disputes like outstanding border problems, China-India relations have been affected by global and regional developments. The paper identifies rising tensions between the U.S. and China, the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the growth of the Indo-Pacific construct, as the reasons that have expanded distance and mistrust between the two countries. Both China and India are now part of country coalitions aiming to marginalize each other's strategic influences. The paper argues that such efforts by them are going to impact countries in their neighbourhood - such as in Central Asia - by forcing them to make complex choices in the areas of trade engagement and technological development.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.119-140
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• 2021

Relations between Ankara and Washington, which have hardly been harmonious, recently became extremely tense, especially when Turkey decided to deal with Kurdish enclaves nearby its border. Russia naturally took advantage of the tension by providing Turkey with advanced S-400 missiles and by trying to play a peacemaking role in contested regions within Syria. Ankara's dealings with Moscow alienated it from NATO and the USA, and complicated relations with Russia and its allies in Syria, where Turkey's interests collided with those of Tehran and Moscow. While these aspects of the Ankara/Moscow relationship are well known, this article explores how the discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean has increased Ankara's importance to Moscow, as a means of sowing dissension within NATO and helping Moscow hinder the emergence of alternative gas suppliers to Europe.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2021

Education is a key element in shaping the worldview of the next generation and determines society's core values, ideology, and basic understanding of human rights. While Kyrgyzstan is a secular state, Islamic education, backed by Arab and Turkish sponsors, continues to increase in popularity with the construction of thousands of mosques and dozens of new Islamic educational institutions. Young women have become an important target for Islamic ideology and Islamic educational institutions seek to introduce a new type of ideal woman who is obedient, submissive, and modest. This research uses curricula content analysis, participant observation, and in-depth interviews with teachers and students to examine the effects of newly introduced Islamic education institutions and concludes that the schools are succeeding in training female Kyrgyz students for sheltered lives of dependency, threatening to fundamentally erode women's rights in the country. Two tasks thus demand the attention of policymakers: preserving Kyrgyzstan's secular state and introducing new interpretations of the Quran, which strengthen support for women's rights among believers.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.141-164
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• 2021

The Khitans were a Turco-Mongol clan who dominated China north of the Yangtze River during the early mediaeval period. They adopted and then adapted many of the cultural traditions of their powerful neighbours to the south, the Song Chinese. However, before their absorption into the Mongol Empire in the late 13^th century they proved pivotal, firstly in the eastward expansion of the armies of Chinggis Khan, secondly, in the survival of the Persian heartlands after the Mongol invasions of the 1220s and thirdly, in the revival and integration of the polity of Iran into the Chinggisid Empire. Da Liao, the Khitans, the Qara Khitai, names which have served this clan well, strengthened and invigorated the hosts which harboured them. The Liao willingly assimilated into the Chinggisid Empire of whose formation they had been an integral agent and in doing so they also surrendered their identity but not their history. Recent scholarship is now unearthing and recognising their proud legacy and distinct identity. Michal Biran placed the Khitans irrevocably and centrally in mediaeval Asian history and this study emphasises their role in the establishment of the Mongol Empire.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.165-184
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• 2021

This article demonstrates the significance of long-distance networks formed by traders from Afghanistan and Central Asia to the forging of present-day transregional connections within Asia. It identifies two connective corridors authored by these traders: a 'Eurasian corridor' connecting East Asia to post-Soviet Eurasia and extending into Western Europe and a 'West Asian corridor' involving traders originally from Central Asia linking East Asia to Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. Empirically, the paper documents and analyses the varying cultural and political orientations of traders operating along these networks, and ways in which specific nodes in the networks contribute to their activities as a whole. Conceptually, the papers suggest that the study of 'inter-Asian' connections stands to benefit from deploying oceanic and inland models of geography in a non-dichotomous manner.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.83-104
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• 2022

This article attempts to explain current social perceptions in Mexico about the Silk Road. Based on a critical geopolitics approach, the author analyzes how the idea of the Silk Road is socially constructed in Mexican popular geopolitics, focusing on studying digital mass media between 2013 and 2020. The main research questions are: how is the Silk Road notion constructed in Mexican popular geopolitics and what are the geopolitical implications for Mexico? The article discovers that in Mexico, the idea of the "Silk Road" is profoundly close to the idea of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) given China's geostrategic discourse that constructs the BRI as a "New Silk Road". The article also argues that Mexico's social-political agency to deal with China may be hindered by divergent social perceptions in favor and against the "Silk Road".

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2022

This study investigates why Khwārazmshāh's rulers abandoned Khwārazm, their capital before the Mongols invaded this city. From a local dynasty in Khwārazm under the Saljuqs, the Khwārazmshāh dynasty (ca.469-628/1077-1231) rapidly expanded in the region. After conquering the Saljuqs (ca.429-590/1037-1194), they extended their territory from Hamedān in western Iran to Samarqand in Transoxiana and beyond that to Otrār to become one of the world's great medieval empires. During this critical time, Khwārazm remained their central hub of power. However, the split in the power of the Khwārazmshāh dynasty under Sultan Muhammad (ca.596-617/1200-1220) contributed to their failure to recognize the strategic role of Khwārazm in retaining and reconstructing their power. In essence, the Khwārazmshāh state was divided before the Mongol Invasion.