Kashmir: all tactics,no strategy

Despite a recent deescalation of military tensions and the fairest election in more than two decades, Kashmiris do not express much optimism about their future. If this skepticism is justified, perhaps it is due to a near-universal emphasis on short-term tactics at the expense of long-term strategy. Virtually all parties to the conflict in Kashmir – whether based in New Delhi, Islamabad, Srinagar or Muzaffarabad, seem to be thinking tactically rather than strategically. The one notable is the most implacable segment of the jihadist militants: all the more reason to be pessimistic.     

A Pilot Assessment of a School‐Based Youth Court in a Resource‐Poor African‐American Urban School District: Lessons Learned From Youth Court Volunteers

This study assesses the benefits of youth court participation for volunteers (N = 14) serving as jurors in an urban school‐based youth court. Focus group and questionnaire data indicate that volunteers are capable of providing more effective sanctioning decisions than adults. Volunteers reported developing citizenship skills including learning about the law and decision‐making skills. The youth court leaders developed self‐confidence and maturity while learning the conflict resolution skills necessary for rendering dispositions and conducting trials. We interpret our findings within the context of the youth court literature, the issue of the school‐to‐prison pipeline, and Elijah Anderson's analysis of the Code of the Street.     

Book reviews

Alexandre Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush, Muslims of the Soviet Empire: a Guide. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1986, xviii + 294 pp., $24.95, Foreword by Hans Bräker.

Viktor Kozlov, The People of the Soviet Union. Bloomington, Indiana and London: Indiana University Press and Hutchinson, 1988, xi + 251 pp., $45 (Pauline M. Tiffen, Trans.; Michael Rywkin, Intro.).     

Book reviews

The Nationalities Question in the Post‐Soviet States Graham Smith (editor) New York and London: Longman Group, 1996, xiv + 524 pp. $21.00 pb (second edition)

Regional Power Rivalries in the New Eurasia: Russia, Turkey and Iran Alvin Z. Rubinstein and Oles M. Smolansky (editors) New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1995, xii 4‐ 290 pp, pb

Kochevaia tsivilizatsiia kazakhov: osnovy zhiznedeiatel'nosti nomadnogo obshchestva (Nomad civilisation of the Kazaks: bases of the life activity of a nomad society) Nurbulat Masanov Almaty: Sotsivest. 1995

Atlas Geopolitique Informatique du Caucase Nicolas Beroutchachvili and Jean Radvanyi (editors) Paris: Observatoire des Etats Post‐Sovietiques (INALCO) 1996

Aurel Stein. Pioneer of the Silk Road Annabel Walker London: John Murray, 1995, 393 pp, illus., £25

Empire's Edge. Travels in South‐Eastern Europe, Turkey and Central Asia Scott Malcomson London: Faber and Faber, 256 pp, £8.99, pb

Frontiers of Heaven. A Journey Beyond the Great Wall Stanley Stewart London: John Murray, 1995, 223 pp, illus, £16.99

Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850–1922, Occidental Orientations Partha Mitter Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 475 pp, illus, index, £60     

Book reviews

Iran and the Former Soviet South, Edmund Herzig, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, Former Soviet South Project, 1995, ix, 60 pp, £9.50

The Party of Unbelief: The Religious Policy of the Bolshevik Party 1917–1929, Arto Luukkanen, Helsinki: Societas Historica Finlandiae, Studia Historica 48, 1994, 274 pp

Russians Beyond Russia. The Politics of National Identity, Neil Melvin, London: Pinter/Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 170 pp

The Russian Policy Debate on Central Asia, Irina Zviagelskaia, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 41 pp

From the Gulf to Central Asia. Players in the New Great Game, Anoushiravan Ehteshami (editor), Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994, 242 pp, £14.95

Empires in Conflict: Armenia and the Great Powers 1895–1920, Manoug J. Somakian, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1995, 276 pp, £39.50

Turkey and the New States of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Buent Gokay and Richard Langhorne, London: HMSO, 1996, 35 pp, £5

Central Asia, A Lonely Planet travel survival kit, John King, John Noble and Andrew Humphreys, London and Hawthorn, Australia: Lonely Planet, 1996, 539 pp, £11.99

Ornament and Amulet. Rings of the Islamic Lands, Marian Wenzel, London: the Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1993, 304 pp, illus., biblio., index, £135     

Book reviews

Central Asia and the Caucasus After the Soviet Union: domestic and international dynamics Mohiaddin Mesbahi (Ed.) Gainsville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1994, x, 353 pp, $49.95 cloth, $24.95 paper

Central Asia in Historical Perspective Beatrice F. Manz (Ed.) Boulder, Colorado and Oxford, UK: Westview Press, 1994, xii, 254 pp, $54.95/£40.95

The New Central Asia and its Neighbours Peter Ferdinand (Ed.) The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, Pinter Publishers, 1994, 120 pp, £9.99, paper

Central Asia. 130 Years of Russian Dominance, a Historical Overview Edward Allworth (editor) Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, London: Academic & University Publishers Group, 1994, 647 pp, illus., £25.50/£65

Commonwealth or Empire? Russia, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus William E. Odom and Robert Dujarric Indianapolis, Indiana: Hudson Institute, 1995, 290 pp, $12.95 paperback

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the former Soviet Union Archie Brown, Michael Kaser and Gerald Smith (editors) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 604 pp, illus, index, £40

Kyrghyzes and Their Ancestors: untraditional overview on the history and modernity T. Koychuev, V. Mokrynin and V. Ploskih Kyrghyzy i ih predki: Netraditsionnyi vzglaid na istoriu i sovremennost.Bishkek: Kyrghyzskaia Ensiklopedia, 1994, 128 pp, ISBN 5–89750–058–6

Independent Kyrghyzstan: Third Approach T. Koychuev & A. Brudnyi Nezavisimyi Kyrghyzstan: Tretii put. Bishkek: Ilim, 1993. 143 pp

Russians in the Former Soviet Republics Paul Kolstoe London: Hurst & Company, 1995, 272 pp, biblio, index, £37 hardback

The Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union Ronald Grigor Suny Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press/Cambridge University Press, 1993, 200 pp, £10.95 paper

Black Sea Neal Ascherson London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, 306 pp, chronology, index, £17.99

Turkey in Post‐Soviet Central Asia Gareth Winrow London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 53 pp, £9.50

The Rise of the Indo‐Afghan Empire, c. 1710–1780 Jos J. L. Gommans Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994, 219 pp, appendices, index, biblio, $65.75

Revolutionary Horizons. Regional Policy in Post‐Khomeini Iran John Calabrese Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Press, 1994, 221 pp, biblio, index, £40

The Cambridge History of China/Volume 6, Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368 Dennis Twitchett (Ed.) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994, xxix + 864 pp, £80

China Deconstructs. Politics, Trade and Regionalism David S. G. Goodman and Gerald Segal (Eds) London: Routledge, 364 pp, 1994, £40/£12.99 paperback     

Book reviews

Roger Pethybridge, One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward: Soviet Society and Politics under the New Economic Policy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, xi, 453pp., $80.00.

Masami Arasi, Turkish Nationalism in the Young Turk Era. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1992, 168pp., index, $45.

Alastair Lamb, Kashmir: a Disputed Legacy 1846–1990. Hertingfordbury, Herts: Roxford Books, 1991, xiv + 368pp., £25 hardback, £12.50 paperback.

Peter Hopkirk (ed.), Reginald Teague‐Jones, The Spy who Disappeared. Diary of a Secret Mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918. London: Gollancz, 1991, £5.99 paperback.

Suroosh Irfani and Fazal‐ur‐Rahman (eds), Afghanistan: Looking to the Future. Islamabad, Pakistan: Institute of Strategic Studies, F‐5/2, 158 pp., $6 paperback.