Abstract
This chapter argues that the relationship between politics and cultural symbols/‘images’, became particularly relevant for states that emerged in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. These were essentially states that had not seen the development of an independent movement prior to the implosion at the centre, and their emergence raised questions about the legitimacy of the state/nation not just from within the state but also from the global arena. How the ‘new’ states legitimized their existence as separate entities and redefined themselves in a new form, both internally and externally, therefore assumes importance. In the course of this redefinition competing images were articulated and new discourses were generated. Nation building and nationalist rhetoric, therefore, was intended as much for the international public as the domestic audience whether it was the projection of Kazakhstan as the ‘Heart of Eurasia’ or Kyrgyzstan as the ‘Island of Democracy’. Though not as well articulated the image that the Uzbek state presented was that of an ‘ancient state at the crossroads of civilization’. Here, the shaping of a ‘post-Soviet’ future, through the performative role played by the state in the arena of culture, historical memory, images and rhetoric, assumes significance. While most states actively promote an international ‘image’, in the Eurasian space the Uzbek and the Kazakh cases are interesting since they provide remarkable contrasts that are largely reflective of their heritage. This chapter focuses on a brief review of the history of the state in the Central Asian region since it points not only to the long history of statehood in the region, but also to the fact that the nature of the present state can only be understood in terms of an understanding of these pre-existing state forms.
The state in short will have to become the State.
Peter van Ham
The Rise of the Brand State
Foreign Affairs
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See www.brandhorizons.com for information on nation branding.
- 3.
For details of the organization of the Timurid state see Akhmedov (1996).
- 4.
- 5.
For instance, the diary of Alexander Burnes (1834).
- 6.
See for instance Vámbéry’s description of Bukharan ishans in his Sketches (1868).
- 7.
- 8.
For a detailed discussion on social, economic and political aspects of the quarters see Sukhareva (1976, pp. 13–40).
- 9.
Buirabufon, for instance, was a quarter where there were people from Khwarezm and Turkmens.
- 10.
References
Akhmedov, B. (1996). Timur the great, his life, social and political activities. Tashkent: Abdullah Kadiri National Heritage Publishers.
Allworth, E. (1967). Central Asia: A century of Russian rule. New York and London: Columbia University Press.
Anholt, S. (2003). Brand new justice: The upside of global branding. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Anholt, S. (2007). Competitive identity: The new brand management for nations, cities, regions. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Anholt, S. (2010). Places, identity, image and reputation. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Aronczyk, M. (2013). Branding the nation: The global business of national identity. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Askarov, A. A. (1997). Nekotoriye Voprosi Istorii Stanovlyeniye Uzbekoi Gosudartsvo. Obshestvenni Nayuki v Uzbekistane, No. 3–4.
Barthold, V. V. (1962). Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Becker, S. (1968). Russia’s protectorates in Central Asia, Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Biran, M. (1997). Qaidu and the rise of the independent Mongol State in Central Asia. Surrey: Curzon Press.
Boulger, D. C. (1879). England and Russia in Central Asia. 2 Vols. London: W.H. Allen & Co.
Burnes, A. (1834). Travels into Bokhara. Being an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia. 3 Vols. London: John Murray.
Cummings, S. (2010). Inscapes, landscapes and greyscapes: The politics of signification in Central Asia. In Cummings (Ed.), Symbolism and power in Central Asia, the politics of the spectacular. London and New York: Rutledge.
Dave, B. (2007). Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. London and New York: Routledge.
D’Encausse, H. C. (1966). Islam and the Russian empire: Reform and revolution in Central Asia. London: I.B.Tauras.
Dinnie, K. (2008). Nation branding, concepts, issues, practise. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Dinnie, K. (2009). Japan’s Nation branding: Recent evolution and potential future paths. www.brandhorizons.com
Eitzen, H. (1998). Refiguring ethnicity through kazakh genealogies. Nationalities Papers, 26(3), 433–451.
Ergaliev, I. E. (1999). Problema prav cheloveka v traditsiyah kazakhskoi kulturi. Almaty: In Stanovleniye grazhdanskogo obshchestva v stran Tsentralnoi Azii.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1969). The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fullerton, J. A. et al. (2007). Attitudes towards American Brands and Brand America. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 3.
Golden, P. B. (1992). An introduction to the history of the turkic peoples: Ethnogenesis and state formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the middle East. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Griffin, H. (2013, April 29). Public diplomacy, nation branding and the State of Brand Israel. Thesis presented to the faculty of communication in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in public communication. https://www.american.edu/socialcommunication/…/HannahGriffin.pdf
Ham, P. van. (2001, September/October). The rise of the Brand State: The postmodern politics of image and reputation. Foreign Affairs, 80(5).
Ham, P. van. (2002). Branding territory: Inside the wonderful worlds of PR and IR theory. Millennium Journal of International Studies, 31(2).
Ham, P. van. (2003). War, lies, and videotape: Public diplomacy and the USA’s war on terrorism. Security Dialogue, 34(4), 427–444.
Holdsworth, M. (1959). Turkestan in the nineteenth century: A brief history of the khanates of bukhara, kokand and khiva. Oxford: Central Asian Research Centre, in association with St. Antony’s College, Oxford, Soviet Affairs Study Group.
Iskandarov, V. I. (1960). Bostochnaya Bukhara i Pamir v Pereod Prisoedineniya Srednei Azii k Rossi. Dushanbe: Tadjikskoe Gosudartsvo.
Istoria Uzbekskoi SSR (The History of Uzbek SSR). (1965–1968). vol. 4 Tashkent: Fan.
Kemming, J. D., Sandikci, O. (2007). Turkey’s EU accession as a question of nation brand image. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 3(1).
Khanikoff, N. Y. (1845). Bokhara, its Amir and His People (trans. Baron Clement A. de Bode). London: J. Madden.
Khazanov, A. (1983). Nomads and the outside world (trans: Crookenden, Julia). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kilich, N. (1997). Change in political culture: The rise in Sheybani Khan. In M. Szuppe (Ed.), L’Heritage Timouride Iran, Asie-central-Inde, XV-XVIII Siecles. Edisud: Tashkent-Aix-en-Province.
Kislyakov, N. A. (1962). Patriarkhalna Feudalniye Otnosheniya Sredi Osedlovo Khanstva V Konste XIX Nachale XX Beka. Moscow: Akademia Nayuk SSR.
Kolarz, W. (1952). Russia and her Colonies. New York: Praeger.
Komatsu, H. (1989). The evolution of group identity among Bukharan intellectuals in 1911–1928, an overview (p. 47). Tokyo: Memoirs of the Research Department of the Tokyo Bunko.
Marshall, S. (2011). Polishing the Police State: PR Campaigns and Authoritarian Image Building in the Middle East. APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper. www.papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm.abstract_id=1901988.
Olcott, M. B. (1995). The Kazakhs (2nd ed.). Stanford University: Hoover Institution Press.
Olimova, S. K., &Olimov, M. A. (1995). Nezavisimi Tajikistan—trydni puch peremen. Vostok, No. 1.
Olins, W. (2002). Branding the Nation—the historical context. The Journal of Brand Management, 9. www.wallycollins.com
Pierce, R. A. (1960). Russian Central Asia 1867–1917. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Potter, E. H. (2009). Branding Canada: Projecting Canada’s soft power through public diplomacy. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Pritsak, O. (1980). The origin of rus. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Sengupta, A. (2000). Imperatives of national territorial delimitation and the fate of Bukhara, 1917–1924. Central Asian Survey, 19(3–4).
Sukhareva, O. A. (1976). Kvartalnaya Obshena Pozdne Feudalnovo Gorada Bukhara. Moscow: Akademia Nayuk SSR.
Vámbéry, A. (1868). Sketches of Central Asia. London: H. Allen and Company.
Velden, D. van der, Kruk, V., & Zifroni, G. (2008). Brand States: Postmodern power, democratic pluralism and design. www.e-flux.com/journal/brand-states-postmodern-power-democratic-pluralism-and-design
Wang, H. (2003, March). National image building and chinese foreign policy. China: An International Journal, 1(1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sengupta, A. (2017). Introduction: Image, Influence and Legacy. In: Symbols and the Image of the State in Eurasia. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2392-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2392-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2391-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2392-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)