From Colonial Periphery to New Eurasian Crossroads

On Central Asia’s Economic History, 1880s-2020s
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-35282-8
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 618 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies in Economic History

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Central Asia's (CA) modern economic history from the 1880s to the 2020s. It is a sequel to the author’s previous book, “Central Asia and the Silk Road,” which covers the region’s pre-modern economic history up to the 1880s and was published by Springer in 2017. Through an analysis of numerous sources, materials, and data, the book explains how the region, which had just seen the end of the Old Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century, was largely conquered and colonized by Russia and integrated into the European-led capitalist world economy as a supplier of raw materials.

The book also presents developments from World War I through Soviet state-driven modernization and centrally planned transformation efforts, as well as partial industrialization during and after World War II. The book then examines the return to liberalization and reintegration into the global economy in the 1980s and 1990s for the now-independent former Soviet republics, or the "Stans," as well as Xinjiang-Uighur, which benefited from Chinese economic reform policies. In that context, it offers an insight into the growing Chinese influence in the region.

Finally, the book presents the most recent development: Central Asia (CA) is profiting from its strategic location at the crossroads of the reemerging and strengthening overland links between East Asia and Europe, as embodied by China’s New Silk Road endeavor (Belt and Road Initiative).

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barisitz, Stephan

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie Wirtschaftsgeographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.- Central Asia CAs dependent integration into capitalist world economy 1880s to WW I.- CA subject to communist/state-driven modernization efforts WW I – 1980s.- CAs varying paths of economic liberalization/reforms and re-integration into global economy 1980s-2000s.- From land-locked to land-linked CA in focus of efforts to renew Eurasian integration and forge new Silk Road 2010-25.- Some lessons and findings of this study.

Über Autor(innen)

Stephan Barisitz retired from his position as Senior Economist in the Foreign Research Division of the Austrian Central Bank (OeNB), Vienna, in May 2025. He had worked for the OeNB for over two decades and focused on country research and monitoring of Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics, notably Central Asian countries, as well as on banking and financial sector analysis. He has written over a hundred articles, many of them in refereed journals, and several of them on the New Silk Road. In 2008, Stephan passed his habilitation exam in economic history at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). His habilitation thesis deals with banking transformation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union since the 1980s. From 2009 to 2013 he was lecturer at the Institute for Economic and Social History and has been carrying out research and published books on the economic history of Central Asia and the Silk Road. From 1995 to 1998, Stephan worked  as an economist at the OECD in Paris, where, together with a colleague, he was in charge of the Russia-CIS-Bulgaria Desk of the OECD Economics Department. Before that he was from 1992 to 1995 with the Austrian Institute for East and South-East European Studies (OSI), Vienna, responsible for economic research and editing of the institution’s publications. Stephan started out his career as an economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) in 1986. He had studied economics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and, after a research stay at Carleton University, Ottawa, passed his doctorate the same year.