Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia

by Alexander A. Cooley Ph.D., John Heathershaw

Overview

A penetrating look into the unrecognized and unregulated links between autocratic regimes in Central Asia and centers of power and wealth throughout the West

Weak, corrupt, and politically unstable, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are dismissed as isolated and irrelevant to the outside world. But are they? This hard-hitting book argues that Central Asia is in reality a globalization leader with extensive involvement in economics, politics and security dynamics beyond its borders. Yet Central Asia’s international activities are mostly hidden from view, with disturbing implications for world security.
 
Based on years of research and involvement in the region, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw reveal how business networks, elite bank accounts, overseas courts, third-party brokers, and Western lawyers connect Central Asia’s supposedly isolated leaders with global power centers. The authors also uncover widespread Western participation in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying by autocratic governments, and the exploiting of legal loopholes within Central Asia. Riveting and important, this book exposes the global connections of a troubled region that must no longer be ignored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300243192
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,028,703
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alexander Cooley is director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and the Clare Tow Professor of Political Science, Barnard College. John Heathershaw is associate professor of international relations, University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables vi

Preface vii

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction: Central Asia Beyond Borders 1

1 Inside-Outside, Onshore-Offshore: How Central Asia Went Global 28

2 Kazakhstan's Most Wanted: Economic Fugitive or Democratic Champion? The Case of Mukhtar Ablyazov 53

3 Tajikistan: The President of the Warlords and his Offshore State 80

4 Uzbekistan's Closed Polity and Global Scandal 112

5 Kyrgyzstan's Prince Maxim and the Switzerland of the East 133

6 The New Offshore Silk Roads 167

7 Political Exiles and Extraterritorial Repression 187

Conclusion: Confronting the Challenge of Global Authoritarianism 220

Epilogue to the Paperback Edition: Global Kleptocracy in the Age of Trump 232

Appendices 246

Endnotes 257

Index 297

Illustration credits 306

Editorial Reviews

This ambitious and eye-opening book shows what political science at its best  — based on real-world knowledge, free of jargon and focused on substantive concerns rather than disciplinary marginalia — can contribute to pressing contemporary debates.”—Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, TLS

“Dictators without Borders is mandatory reading for those wishing to understand the power dynamics in the region, without falling into the trap of erroneously viewing Central Asia as a region that is closed off from the rest of the world.”—Ana-Maria Anghelescu, Journal of Soviet & Post-Soviet Politics & Society
 

“A lucid, iconoclastic primer on the region that demolishes the artificial distinction between domestic and international politics in Central Asia once and for all.”—Publishers Weekly

“Salient and important.”—Foreign Affairs

“A lucid, iconoclastic primer on the region that demolished the artificial distinction between domestic and international politics in Central Asia once and for all.”—Publishers Weekly

“A milestone in the study of Central Asia and of the post-Soviet space.”—Journal of Democracy

“An intriguing introduction to globally operating authoritarian elites.”—Henryk Alff, Pacific Affairs

“A poignant account of how the ruling elites of Central Asian countries reap the benefits of interconnectedness while denying civil liberties to their populations.”—Anton Moiseienko, LSE Review of Books

Dictators Without Borders was shortlisted for the Central Eurasian Studies Society 2018 book award.

“This insightful, ground-breaking book goes to the heart of why such governments are among the worst human rights abusers in the world—all the more reason it should be widely read.”—Hugh Williamson, Europe & Central Asia director, Human Rights Watch

'This book shines an important light on the role international financial centres such as London play in facilitating grand corruption and reinforces the urgent need to address this continuing financial system weakness.'- Tom Keatinge, Director, Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies at RUSI

"Insightful and topical—a comprehensive take on a neglected region."—Edward Lucas, senior editor, Economist

'This panoramic survey of cronyism and corruption in five Central Asian republics delivers a sobering insight into how the dictators in this quarter salt away their ill-gotten gains in offshore funds. But the greatest shock comes from revelations about the apparent complicity or indifference of Western companies, banks, regulators and politicians.' - Tristram Riley-Smith, Director of Research, Department of Politics & International Studies, University of Cambridge 

From the Publisher

02/06/2017
In this timely analysis of the unexpected global dimensions of Central Asian politics, Cooley and Heathershaw, Central Asia experts at Columbia University and the University of Exeter, respectively, pull back the curtain on a region too often dismissed by Westerners as isolated and slumbering. The key to understanding the region, the authors argue, is not examining the internal dynamics of the authoritarian Central Asian states, but exploring the embedding of Central Asian elites in a vast transnational network of financial and legal creations—including offshore bank accounts, foreign arbitration, and tax havens—that are upheld by complicit Western institutions and mobilized toward ensuring the continued survival of those authoritarian regimes. “At the heart of this story is a failure in the international financial system to effectively identify money laundering when it occurs,” the authors note. But the story they tell is about much more than corruption. They adroitly tie together topics as far-flung as the effects of piecemeal economic liberalization in the former Soviet Union, the rise of a cosmopolitan Central Asian elite, and the sordid underbelly of Western-style globalization. This is a lucid, iconoclastic primer on the region that demolishes the artificial distinction between domestic and international politics in Central Asia once and for all. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

“This ambitious and eye-opening book shows what political science at its best  — based on real-world knowledge, free of jargon and focused on substantive concerns rather than disciplinary marginalia — can contribute to pressing contemporary debates.”—Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, TLS

TLS - Ricardo Soares de Oliveira