The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies #6, June 2007
An electronic journal of social sciences
www.pipss.org
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS: “Defence Reform in Central Asia”
Pipss.org is a new electronic journal of social sciences devoted to the armed forces and power institutions of post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses issues across a broad field of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, economics, history, legal science. Its main objective is to study changes and their underlying mechanisms in post-Soviet republics, through the analysis of the institutions that remain most hidden from the public eye: armies and power institutions. As an electronic journal,
pipss.org also aims to promote scholarly debate across as broad an audience as possible, and make CIS research available to Western scholars. Thanks to its international scientific board drawn from a large pool of leading academics and experts in their respective fields, it is in a position to become a leading source of analysis on post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a principal partner of the International Security Network and a member of the CNRS/EHESS scientific journal network Revues.org.
SIXTH ISSUE:
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian Republics found themselves bound to build their own national armies and more recently, because of the changing security environment, they were compelled to new military reforms.
A lot has been written on Central Asian military reform and the influence of the West, but very little is known about those men who leads the Central Asian armies, about the bodies in charge of the defence implementation…. Who are the Central Asian officers today. What do they read, what do they have in mind? How do they position themselves in the struggle between Soviet heritage, western influence and Central Asian heritage ? These questions (among others) remain unanswered.
That is why the issue editors of volume 6 would like to invite sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, military analysts etc…to submit their papers for publication in a special issue on “Defence Reform in Central Asia”.
This volume aims to cover (but does not to limit itself to) the following issues :
1 - The Soviet heritage
- the endurance of military networks belonging to the Soviet period
- dedovshchina in Central Asian Armies
- The image of Soviet armed forces in Central Asian societies
2 - Building the new national soldier
A - the role of national epic heroes in building the national soldier
- Is Central Asian military ethos fundamentally different from Soviet and (post-Soviet) Russian military culture?
- What role do national epic heroes play in the building of the national soldier in Central Asian armies ?
“The training [of the army] is based on the Seven Commandments of Manas (the Kyrgyz national epic poem). Even though it is true that these commandments only resemble modern values nevertheless they have practically replaced Constitutional values. These commandments have been already included in the military pledge. Such is the present situation in the Kyrgyz armed forces. What we have is a crisis of values in the ideological and educational work of the military institution and as a result the democratic values enshrined in the Constitution are replaced by the archaic values of a medieval epic”.
Source: Bakyt Kakchekeyev in “The Kyrgyz Republic. Is Desertion a National Tradition?”, in F. Daucé & E. Sieca-Kozlowski (Eds), Dedovshchina in the Post-Soviet Military. Hazing of Russian Army Conscript in a Comparative Perspective, Ibidem-Verlag, 2006, p. 179.
B - The Central Asian officer: a sociological portrait
- The renewal of military elites, their sociological composition, the changes in recruitment and evaluation systems and in career profiles.
- Changes in the ethnic composition of the armed forces of the Central Asia Republics due to the massive departure of Russian officers (who returned mainly to Russia and the Ukraine).
- Professional military staff preparation and training : the training of a specialist corps whose members are recruited among a population with a low level of instruction, and which was not allowed to occupy positions of responsibility during the Soviet regime.
- The difficult interaction of Russian officers with local officers due to language problems affecting the chain of command.
- Military personnel’s wives / Women in the military in Central Asian societies.
3 – Military/society relations
- The role of solidarities and loyalties in Central Asian armies: minorities in the military; kinship networks in the military.
- The action of military elites as lobby groups and the perceptions they generate. Are these elites no more than interest group(s) competing with others for the ownership and use of resources, power, etc… or does their state function (defense, public order) confer upon them a specific role and modus operandi?
- How the contradictions affecting Central Asian societies (tribal and clan divisions, ethnic tension, regional disparities, urban-rural differences, social inequalities etc) affects the national armies ?
- The Central Asian armies in Central asian public opinion.
4 - Central Asian defence reform and defence strategy
A – Military reform
- Implementation of state measures, military reform: the bodies in charge.
- Military reform and structural changes: how military reforms have affected Soviet-style regimental structures
- Central Asian military legislation and military justice
B – Defense strategy and territorial division
- What are the actors in charge of building and maintaining national security structures and infrastructure in the different Republics of Central Asia ?
- What are their current role and mission ?
- Are they wholly independent of their national centres or symbiotically related to a variety of regional, local or national actors ?
- Territorial division and security policy in Central Asian Republics: assessing the impact of the regions’ (districts) contribution to national security policies
- Non state security actors operating in the regions (the role of local militias)
- Non governemental actors and assistance to the military ? Evaluation/ratio of public, private and foreign contributions to the military
- Corruption and regional security
C – Other security forces
Very often literature on Post-Soviet armed forces fails to cover police forces and security services. Therefore the issue editors would like to assess the role and the importance given to other security forces (Interior troops, border troops, security services…) in Central Asian Republics. Are Central Asian Republics following the Russian model ? Have military reforms been severly limited by the role given to these forces as they have in post-Soviet Russia ? Or have Central Asian Republics escaped this phenomenon ? Are their any linkage between defence reform and security sector reform ?
5 - What Russia and the West can learn from Central Asian armies.
The issue editors welcome studies of original experiences conducted in Central Asian countries such as the creation of “army unit councils” in Uzbekistan (these councils of five - seven people are formed at general meetings of privates and sergeants by open ballot for a one-year term and aim to help “forming a healthy spiritual and moral atmosphere in military communities”), or of a similar body in Kyrgyzstan: the “garrison public council”. Could Russia learn from these experiences and specificities (Uzbekistan broke new ground when a civilian was appointed defence
minister) ?
What about the West ? One cannot help but look or even hope for a specificity in Central Asian countries as an alternative to modernity.
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Papers dealing with other issues related to armies and power institutions in the CIS, as well as book review proposals are also welcome.
REVIEWS
Publishers interested in publicizing their editions, please send review copies to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski
15 rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France
Guidelines for article submission
The journal will be published in four languages (French, English, Russian, and German with a 100-word abstract in English) thanks to which most authors will be able to write in their mother tongue. This will ensure greater precision in the articles and avoid a decrease in scientific quality. But we draw your attention to the fact that most pipss.org readers are essentially English speakers, therefore we do encourage articles in English in order to reach an audience as broad as possible.
The articles submitted to pipss.org for publication should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. Manuscripts should be attached as Microsoft Word format. References should be given in footnotes. (For more details about the guidelines for article submission please check www.pipss.org or contact the Editorial Board). There should be a cover page stating the author's background and affiliation, full address.
If you wish to submit an article, please first contact the editorial board and send an 100-word abstract in English. The deadline for article submission is March 10, 2007, with publication in June. Final decisions on publication will be made by the Editorial Board.
Please send your contributions or inquiries to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Chief Editor, contact@pipss.org
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (6th Issue Editor)
Roger McDermott (6th Issue Editor)
Editorial Board : Eden Cole, Francoise Dauce, Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Anna Colin Lebedev, Anne Le Huerou, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van Bladel
[sursa e-nass]
