Marlene Laruelle (editor) - Tajikistan on the Move: Statebuilding and Societal Transformations

Tajikistan on the Move

Contemporary Central Asia: Societies, Politics, and Cultures

Series Editor

Marlene Laruelle, George Washington University

At the crossroads of Russia, China, and the Islamic world, Central Asia remains one of the worlds least-understood regions, despite being a significant theater for muscle-flexing by the great powers and regional players. This series, in conjunction with George Washington Universitys Central Asia Program, offers insight into Central Asia by providing readers unique access to state-of-the-art knowledge on the region. Going beyond the media clichs, the series inscribes the study of Central Asia into the social sciences and hopes to fill the dearth of works on the region for both scholarly knowledge and undergraduate and graduate student education.

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Tajikistan on the Move: Statebuilding and Societal Transformations , edited by Marlene Laruelle

Tajikistan on the Move

Statebuilding and Societal Transformations

Edited by Marlene Laruelle

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Laruelle, Marlene, editor.

Title: Tajikistan on the move : statebuilding and societal transformations / edited by Marlene Laruelle.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, 2018. | Series: Contemporary Central Asia : societies, politics, and cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018015728 (print) | LCCN 2018016021 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498546522 (Electronic) | ISBN 9781498546515 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: TajikistanPolitics and government1991- | TajikistanForeign relations1991- | TajikistanSocial conditions1991- | Institution buildingTajikistan. | Social changeTajikistan.

Classification: LCC DK928.865 (ebook) | LCC DK928.865 T35 2018 (print) | DDC 958.6086dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015728

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acronyms

ACMAuthoritarian Conflict Management

AIDSacquired immunodeficiency syndrome

AKDNAga Khan Development Network

ARVantiretroviral therapy

CISCommonwealth of Independent States

CNRCommission on National Reconciliation

CPCCountry of Particular Concern

CSTOCollective Security Treaty Organisation

DFIDDepartment for International Development

DPTDemocratic Party of Tajikistan

EAECEurasian Economic Community

EEUEurasian Economic Union

FMSFederal Migration Service

FPEforeign policy executive

FPIforeign policy intellectual

G24Group 24

GBAOGorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region

GDPgross domestic product

GKNBState Committee of National Security

GNPgross national product

HDIHuman Development Implementation

HDIMHuman Development Implementation Meeting

HIVhuman immunodeficiency virus

IDUinjection drug use

IMFInternational Monetary Fund

IMUIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan

IRPTIslamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan

ISISIslamic State of Iraq and Syria

LGBTlesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

MDGMillennium Development Goal

MFPmulti-vector foreign policy

MPIMultidimensional Poverty Indicator

MVDMinistry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation

NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization

NGO non-governmental organizations

OECDOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OMONspecial police units of Federal Police within the National Guard of Russia

OSCEOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

PFTPopular Front for Tajikistan

PTSDposttraumatic stress disorder

QCAQualitative Comparative Analysis

SDGSustainable Development Goals

TALCOTajik Aluminum Company

TBtuberculosis

TNUTajik National University

UNUnited Nations

UNAIDSUnited Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

UNDPUnited Nations Development Programme

UNHCRUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNODCPUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNTOPUnited Nations Tajikistan Observation Mission

USUnited Statesalso Washington

USAIDU.S. Agency for International Development

USSRUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics

UTOUnited Tajik Opposition

WUA Water User Association

Political map of Tajikistan (2001).

University of Texas Libraries.

Introduction

Marlene Laruelle

The southernmost and poorest state of the Eurasian space, Tajikistan collapsed immediately upon the fall of the Soviet Union and plunged into a bloody five-year civil war (19921997) that left more than 50,000 people dead and more than half a million displaced. After the 1997 Peace Agreements, Tajikistan stood out for being the only post-Soviet country to recognize an Islamic party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), a key actor in the civil war but also in post-war reconstruction and democratization. The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan was unique to the region in that it was a democratic Islamic party that accepted the secular nature of the state and parliamentary representation. However, this recognition was short-lived: in 2015, the authorities accelerated the authoritarian move that had been set in motion several years earlier and decided to ban the Islamic Party on thefalsepretext of its links with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The IRPT ban raised little domestic backlash from Tajik society, confirming very low levels of social mobilization in favor of political actors.

Tajikistans political stability has always been precarious. In the restive Rasht Valley and the autonomous region of Gorno-Badashkhan, situated in the Pamirs, tensions have regularly flared between local elites and Dushanbe. Labeled Islamist insurgencies by the authorities so as to receive international support and strengthen the governments domestic legitimacy, these insurgencies have involved several conflicts of interest within the shadow economy (mostly around the trafficking of drugs and cigarettes), as well as the rebalancing of influence between former warlords and central Dushanbe. As such, scholars continue to debate whether these events suggest state weakness or, on the contrary, success in recentralizing the polity around Rahmon, who has removed presidential term limits and looks set to establish a multigenerational dynasty by promoting his son Rustam Emomali as his successor.