Between Marx and Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia

As each of the newly-independent Muslim-majority states of Central Asia struggles to find an identity, ethnic tensions have frequently given rise to political turbulence and civil strife. The author discusses to what extent Turkey's model of secular democracy will prevail over the fundamentalist regimes of Iran and Afghanistan; what role Russia will play in the area; and what chance the free market and multi-party democracy will have in these conditions.