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Tajikistan's Difficult Development Path
Tajikistan teeters on the brink of failure. This mountainous and landlocked country, the poorest in Central Asia, confronts the challenges of good governance and economic survival. These domestic struggles become even more problematic as international forces prepare to withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan, leaving Central Asian countries to ensure regional stability.
In Tajikistan's Difficult Development Path, Martha Brill Olcott traces the political, economic, and social change following the country's independence and international efforts to avert state collapse. The Tajik government's commitment to reform has been inconsistent, and substantial foreign assistance provided since the end of the country's civil war has not led to the desired economic and political development.
Olcott concludes that the Tajik leadership faces a serious fully embrace reform or continue moving toward state failure. Tajikistan's decision will have very real implications for this troubled region.
In Tajikistan's Difficult Development Path, Martha Brill Olcott traces the political, economic, and social change following the country's independence and international efforts to avert state collapse. The Tajik government's commitment to reform has been inconsistent, and substantial foreign assistance provided since the end of the country's civil war has not led to the desired economic and political development.
Olcott concludes that the Tajik leadership faces a serious fully embrace reform or continue moving toward state failure. Tajikistan's decision will have very real implications for this troubled region.
658 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2012
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About the author
Martha Brill Olcott
26 books9 followersAka Toni Brill (joint pseudonym with her husband Anthony Olcott)
Martha Brill Olcott is a senior associate with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, DC.
Olcott specializes in the problems of transitions in Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as the security challenges in the Caspian region more generally. She has followed interethnic relations in Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union for more than twenty-five years and has traveled extensively in these countries and in South Asia. Her book, Central Asia’s Second Chance, examines the economic and political development of this ethnically diverse and strategically vital region in the context of the changing security threats post-9/11.
In addition to her work in Washington, Olcott co-directs the Carnegie Moscow Center Project on Religion, Society, and Security in the former Soviet Union and the al-Farabi Carnegie Program on Central Asia in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is professor emerita at Colgate University, having taught political science there from 1974 to 2002.
Olcott served for five years as a director of the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund. Prior to her work at the Carnegie Endowment, she served as a special consultant to former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger.
Soon after 9/11, she was selected by Washingtonian magazine for its list of “71 People the President Should Listen To” about the war on terrorism.
Olcott is the author of Tajikistan’s Difficult Development Path (Carnegie Endowment, 2012); In the Whirlwind of Jihad (Carnegie Endowment, 2012); Central Asia’s Second Chance (Carnegie Endowment, 2005); Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise (Carnegie Endowment, 2002); Preventing New Afghanistans: A Regional Strategy for Reconstruction (Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief 11, 2001) Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with Anders Åslund and Sherman Garnett (Carnegie Endowment, 1999); and Russia After Communism edited with Anders Åslund (Carnegie Endowment, 1999).
Martha Brill Olcott is a senior associate with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, DC.
Olcott specializes in the problems of transitions in Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as the security challenges in the Caspian region more generally. She has followed interethnic relations in Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union for more than twenty-five years and has traveled extensively in these countries and in South Asia. Her book, Central Asia’s Second Chance, examines the economic and political development of this ethnically diverse and strategically vital region in the context of the changing security threats post-9/11.
In addition to her work in Washington, Olcott co-directs the Carnegie Moscow Center Project on Religion, Society, and Security in the former Soviet Union and the al-Farabi Carnegie Program on Central Asia in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is professor emerita at Colgate University, having taught political science there from 1974 to 2002.
Olcott served for five years as a director of the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund. Prior to her work at the Carnegie Endowment, she served as a special consultant to former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger.
Soon after 9/11, she was selected by Washingtonian magazine for its list of “71 People the President Should Listen To” about the war on terrorism.
Olcott is the author of Tajikistan’s Difficult Development Path (Carnegie Endowment, 2012); In the Whirlwind of Jihad (Carnegie Endowment, 2012); Central Asia’s Second Chance (Carnegie Endowment, 2005); Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise (Carnegie Endowment, 2002); Preventing New Afghanistans: A Regional Strategy for Reconstruction (Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief 11, 2001) Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with Anders Åslund and Sherman Garnett (Carnegie Endowment, 1999); and Russia After Communism edited with Anders Åslund (Carnegie Endowment, 1999).
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December 20, 2022
For someone like myself who knew very little about Tajikistan this was a fascinating read. Martha Brill Olcott looks at various aspects of the country including the economic, industrial and political aspects focusing on the period since independence from Russia. With pages of statistics and graphs it can read a little like a textbook on occasion but clearly Olcott has vast research and personal experience that is evident in its pages. The language is also clear and easy to understand and although Olcott’s tone is very balanced, you still get a sense of her personal feelings about the corruption and nepotism that personifies the Tajikistan government ruled over for decades now by Emomali Rahmon. The areas that particularly interested me were those on agriculture and the chapter titled, ‘Women, Children, Food and Social Safety’ but there was little in this book that wasn’t of interest in some way. Published in 2012, inevitably some of the information in the book must be dated but internet searches showed that unfortunately, much that was negative in 2012 still rings true today and that Tajikistan is still a struggling nation in many ways.
Displaying 1 of 1 review