Professional Affiliation

Associate Scholar at the Institute for International and Strategic Research (IRIS, Paris) Member of the Center for Study of the Post-Soviet Societies (INALCO, Paris)

Expert Bio

My first academic research focused on the Christian minorities (Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic) living in Central Asia during the Soviet regime and after its collapse, and on the development of missionary movements in these republics. The book, Christians between Atheism and Islam, looks upon Christianity as an introductory element giving a better understanding of the complex relations between politics and religion in Central Asia. After this monograph on Christianity, I decided to study the European minorities living in Central Asia and switched to a new focus, the Russian minority as a "rest" of the imperial past. On this topic, I published a second book, Russians in Kazakhstan: National identities and new States in the Post-Soviet space, that argues that the Russian minority experienced difficulties to elaborate identity tools in order to manage the post-soviet context. Through this example of an « imperial minority », the book questions some important topics of the post-soviet nationhood as the contradiction between ethnic and civic identities, between the imperial symbolic and the current nationhoods.After these first two studies it seemed logical to broaden my research spectrum. During the three years I spent at the French Institute for Central Asia Studies as a fellow in residence (2002-2005), I edited an issue of the Cahiers d'Asie centrale on Managing Independence and the Soviet Legacy in Central Asia (no. 13-14, 2004) and a collective book about Islam and Politics in the Former Soviet Union (2005). The first publication addresses the question of continuity between Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia, and aims to remind about the difficulty in carrying out research about Central Asia without a deep knowledge of the Russian-Soviet experience, essential in order to avoid the mirage of a "rebirth". The second publication analyzes how the new States of Central Asia and the Volga-Oural republics instrumentalize their religious identity in order to assert their nationhood and statehood. I have also analyzed in several papers the contemporary political situation in Central Asia and published a new book, Central Asia, a drift towards authoritarianism (2006). This books reviews the fifteen years following the independence and focuses on the political authoritarianism and the worsening of the economic and social situation of the five republics. My longstanding interest is to understand the position that Central Asia holds on the scene of world affairs: is it to be thought of as a Post-Soviet space and therefore approached in the same way as other countries such as Putin's Russia or Lukashenko's Belarus, or should it be inserted into the Middle-Eastern world? Does it belong both culturally and politically in the Muslim world or should it rather be compared with the neo-communist or post-communist regimes in South-East Asia and China? Such an undertaking should allow a better understanding of Central Asia's place within the Area Studies and, therefore, help in the definition of the concepts and methods which are necessary to the evaluation of the risks of political turmoil in the region. This would allow this research to overstep the limits of Central Asian studies and to come out within the scope of global processes, to obtain a clearer view of the position held by Central Asia among the Area Studies and to prove the relevance of the study of this area in order to gain a better understanding of more general phenomenon such as the globalization of the Muslim world and the Post-Soviet space.

Education

B.A. (Licence) in Slavic Studies, inalco, Paris, 1993; M.A. (dea) in Slavic Studies, inalco, Paris, 1996; Ph.D. in Political Science, inalco, Paris, 2002

Subjects

Central Asia

Experience

• Post-doctoral Fellow at the French Institute for Central Asia Studies (ifeac), Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2002-05
• Lavoisier Fellow (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Moscow, Russia, 2002 - present
• Doctoral Fellow at the French Institute for Central Asia Studies (ifeac), Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1998-2000

Expertise

Contemporary political, religious and social situation in Central Asia; Soviet and Post-Soviet history of Central Asia

Wilson Center Project

"Islam and Politics in Post-Soviet Central Asia: A Response to Globalization?"

Project Summary

Since their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, both the future and stability of the five republics of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan) depend widely on the submission of Islam towards the political powers, on its ability to serve as the regulator of social tensions, on its "nationalisation" and the fact that it is being placed under state control, on the way it deals with the minority issues and on its relationship with foreign institutions. In a context such as the authoritarian hardening of the political regimes and generally speaking a growth in the limitation of freedom, the connection between the political authorities, the official institutions of Islam, the prohibited Islamist radical movements and the different national minorities make up the main matrix for stability of these new states. How will they manage to steer clear of conflict in a region which is already under worldwide influence and which is racked by vigorous religious and political tensions? What are the factors which may help in preserving the peace?

Major Publications

• Asie centrale, la dérive autoritaire. Cinq républiques entre héritage soviétique, dictature et islam [Central Asia, a Drift Towards Authoritarianism. Five Republics between the Soviet Legacy, Dictatorship and Islam], coauthor with Marlène Laruelle (Paris: Autrement, 2006)
• Les Russes du Kazakhstan. Identités nationales et nouveaux Etats dans l'espace post-soviétique [Russians in Kazakhstan: National Identities and New States in the Post-Soviet Space], coauthor with Marlène Laruelle (Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004
• Des chrétiens entre athéisme et islam: regards sur la question religieuse en Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique [Christians between Atheism and Islam: A Study of the Religious Question in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia] (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2003)