This book focuses on the dynamics among transnational forces within and beyond Central Asia and explores the roles played by diaspora communities in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of linkages have been established between newly independent Central Asian states, or populations within them, and diaspora ethnic groups. This book explores the roles that diaspora communities play in the recent and ongoing emergence of national identities in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The loyalties of these communities are divided between their countries of residence and those states that serve as homeland of their particular ethno-cultural nation, and are further complicated by connections with contested transnational notions of common cultures and 'peoples'. Written by highly respected experts in the field, the book addresses issues such as nationalism, conflict, population movement, global civil society, Muslim communities in China and relations between the new nation-states and Russia.
This innovative book will interest students and researchers of transnationalism and Central Asian studies.

'Certainly recommendable to both an academic and a graduate readership for its contrintion to the ongoing debate on multiple and divided loyalties and for the light it sheds on less researched empirical cases.'- International Affairs