Associate Professor Kirill Nourzhanov
Areas of expertise
- Middle Eastern And African History 210310
- Comparative Government And Politics 160603
- Asian History 210302
- Social Change 160805
- International Relations 160607
- Policy And Administration 1605
- Other Studies In Human Society 1699
Research interests
Politics, international relations and security in contemporary Central Asia. Social change in the post-Soviet space.
Biography
Kirill Nourzhanov has an MA from Moscow State University and a PhD from the ANU. His main research specialisation is on Central Asian politics and international relations, but his interests also cover Islamic radicalism, Eurasian geopolitics, and history of the USSR.
Kirill has worked as an academic consultant on the World Bank-funded projects in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. He has served as Associate Editor of the Asian Politics and Policy journal and has been a member of the executive of the Australian Society for Inner Asian Studies. He has served as the President of the Australasian Association for Communist and Post-communist Studies twice. His research has previously been awarded funding by the Australian Research Council.
Kirill teaches Politics in Russia, Politics in Central Asia, and New States of Eurasia: The Emerging Issues in Politics and Security in the undergraduate program, and five courses in the graduate coursework program. He also supervises a number of PhD and Masters students working on relevant topics. His recent publications include The Spectre of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia (2021) co-authored with Amin Saikal, and Soft Power in Central Asia. Politics of Influence and Seduction (2021) co-edited with Sebastien Peyrouse.
Researcher's projects
Sacred geography of Kazakhstan
Regional Security Complex in Central Asia
History of social banditry in Turkestan, Bukhara and Khiva
Current student projects
Primary supervisor for PhD projects
Beth Harris, 'The imagined geography of Central Asia produced by Western travel writing'.
Marcus James, 'Fleeing Communism: The Russian Refugee Diaspora in Iran and its Resettlement in Australia and the United States, 1930-1960'.
Margaret Norington, 'Going green: The European Union and its role in Central Asia’s energy mix'.
Ian Parmeter, 'Russian Policy towards the Middle East in the Putin Era'.
Dana Rice, 'The Dragon Next Door: Demotic Discourses on China in Kazakhstan'.
Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva, 'Internationalisation versus Securitisation: Nation-building through Higher Education in post-Soviet Uzbekistan'.
Past student projects
Primary supervisor for completed PhD projects at the ANU
Azima Akhmatova, “Transnational Movements in Central Asia (1991–2015): A Social Movement Theory Analysis”, 2023.
Berikbol Dukeyev, “The Politics of Memory and History Production of the Soviet Past in Kazakhstan (1992–2019)”, 2022.
Victoria Guo, “Converging Interests, Differing Motives: Understanding and Explaining China–Turkey Relations, 2002-2018”, 2022.
Zaid Alsalami, “The Philosophical Discourse of Mir Damad: A Comparative Study of Meta-Temporal Origination and Mulla ?adra’s Origination by Renewal”, 2021.
Dirk van der Kley, “An Organisational Approach to the Study of Chinese Foreign Policy in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 2006 to 2016”, 2020.
Elisabeth Yarbakhsh, “Iranian Citizens and Afghan Refugees in the City of Shiraz”, 2017.
Shuhrat Baratov, “Hero-making as ontological security practice: Tajikistan's identity politics and relations with Uzbekistan”, 2017.
Tom Vangelovski, “Macedonia: Ethno-Religious Conflict (1991-2016)”, 2017.
Yahya Haidar, “The Debates Between Ash’arism and Maturidism in Ottoman Religious Scholarship: A Historical and Bibliographical Study”, 2017.
Aminat Chokobaeva, “Frontiers of Violence: State and Conflict in Semirechye, 1850-1938”, 2017.
Brenton Clark, “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Relations with the Republic of Tajikistan in the Post-Soviet Period”, 2016.
Grigol Ubiria, “From Tribes to Modern Nations: Soviet Nation-Building in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan”, 2013.
Christian Bleuer, “The Blurred Lines of Uzbek and Tajik 'Identity': Local Solidarity Groups and Factions during the Tajikistan Civil War”, 2012.
Barry Naughten, “US foreign energy policy and grand strategy choice: The challenge of global and regional systemic crises”, 2011.
Bruce Drummond, “Armed Sub-state Actors and the Persistence of Social Order in Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea”, 2011.
Victoria Kelly-Clark, “The Tribalisation of the State in Central Asia”, 2011.
Wendy Levy, “The politics of governance in post-war Sudan”, 2010.
Hamish McGregor, “Nationalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran 1979-2007”, 2010.
Shayeq Qassem, “Afghanistan: Prospects for Stability in Relation to Central andSouth Asia”, 2008.
Matthew May, “Economic transition in Central Asia: a comparative approach”, 2005.
Enayatollah Yazdani, “US policy towards Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union: changing objectives, priorities, and means”, 2005.
Rizwan Hussain, “Pakistan and the emergence of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan: a politico-historical analysis”, 2004.
Publications
- Nourzhanov, K 2022, 'Battling COVID in Tajikistan: a peculiar story of authoritarian resilience', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 21-36.
- Nourzhanov, K & Saikal, A 2021, The Spectre of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia , I B Tauris, United Kingdom.
- Nourzhanov, K 2018, 'Tajikistan's Multi-Vector Foreign Policy: Constructing Relations with Russia, China, and the United States', in Marlene Laruelle (ed.), Tajikistan on the Move: Statebuilding and Societal Transformations, Lexington Books, Lanham, USA, pp. 87-108.
- Nourzhanov, K 2017, 'From hero worship to organized oblivion: representations of the People's Front in Tajikistan's national memory', Nationalities Papers, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 140-157pp.
- Nourzhanov, K 2017, 'Kazakhstan and the Eurasian Economic Union: The dilemmas of alliance-making in the post-Soviet period', in Fish, M. Steven, Gill, Graeme, Petrovic, Milenko (ed.), A Quarter Century of Post-Communism Assessed, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 319-344.
- Nourzhanov, K 2016, 'State-Society Dynamics and Authoritarian Stability in Central Asia', in Amin Saikal (ed.), Weak States, Strong Societies: Power and Authority in the New World Order, I B Tauris & Co Ltd, London and New York, pp. 123-148.
- Saikal, A & Nourzhanov, K, eds, 2016, Afghanistan and its Neighbors after the NATO Withdrawal, Lexington Books, New York.
- Nourzhanov, K 2016, 'Russia's Afghanistan policy after 2014: Staying an arm's length and preparing for the worst', in Amin Saikal and Kirill Nourzhanov (ed.), Afghanistan and Its Neighbors after the NATO Withdrawal, Lexington Books, Maryland, United States, pp. 163-178.
- Nourzhanov, K 2015, 'Nation-building and Islam in post-Soviet Tajikistan', in Mariya Y. Omelicheva (ed.), Nationalism and Identity Construction in Central Asia Dimensions, Dynamics, and Directions, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, USA, pp. 71-90.
- Nourzhanov, K 2015, 'Bandits, warlords, national heroes: interpretations of the Basmachi movement in Tajikistan', Central Asian Survey, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 177-189.
- Nourzhanov, K 2014, 'Central Asia and the Arab Spring: Discourses of Relevance and Threat in the Region', in Amin Saikal, Amitav Acharya (ed.), Democracy and Reform in the Middle East and Asia: Social Protest and Authoritarian Rule After the Arab Spring, I B Tauris & Co Ltd, London, UK and New York, USA, pp. 121-141.
- Nourzhanov, K 2014, 'Divergent prospects flow from Central Asian oil riches', East Asia Forum Quarterly (EAFQ), vol. Vol. 6, no. No. 1, pp. 34-35.
- Nourzhanov, K 2013, 'Mackinder on the Roof of the World: Contemporary Geopolitical Discourse in Tajikistan', in Megoran, N. and Sharapova, S. (ed.), Central Asia in International Relations: The Legacies of Halford Mackinder, C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd, United Kingdom, pp. 149-170.
- Nourzhanov, K & Bleuer, C 2013, Tajikistan: A Political and Social History, ANU ePress, Canberra.
- Nourzhanov, K 2012, 'Omnibalancing in Tajikistan's Foreign Policy: Security-Driven Discourses of Alignment with Iran', Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 363-381.
- Nourzhanov, K 2008, Russia and Eurasian Security: Pragmatism and Geopolitical Ambitions in the CSTO.
- Nourzhanov, K 2010, 'International Democratic Norms and Domestic Socialization in Kazakhstan: Learning processes of the power elite', in Emilian Kavalski (ed.), Stable Outside, Fragile Inside? Post-Soviet statehood in Central Asia, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Farnham, UK and Burlington, VT, USA, pp. 107-129.
- Nourzhanov, K 2009, 'Central Asia's Domestic Stability in Official Russian Security Thinking under Yeltsin and Putin: From Hegemony to Multilateral Pragmatism', in Colin Mackerras, Michael Clarke (ed.), China, Xinjiang and Central Asia: History, Transition and Crossborder Interaction into the 21st Century, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, pp. 151-172.
- Nourzhanov, K 2009, 'Changing Security Threat Perceptions in Central Asia', Australian Journal of International Affairs, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 85-104.
- Nourzhanov, K 2008, 'Reassessing the Basmachi: warlords without ideology?', Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 41-67.
- Nourzhanov, K 2006, 'Caspian Oil: Geopolitical Dreams and Real Issues', Australian Journal of International Affairs, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 59-66.
- Nourzhanov, K 2006, 'Coloured Revolutions as Elite Circulations: the Case of Central Asia', in Fethi Mansouri and Shahram Akbarzadeh (ed.), Political Islam and Human Security, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK, pp. 201-220.
- Nourzhanov, K 2006, 'Book Review: Global Change, Peace and Security', ARIES DUMMY JOURNAL for when you haven't got the journal you want, pp. 201-202.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, Coloured revolutions revealed to be hollow at core.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, The Downfall of Akaev, pp. 6-7.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, 'Saviours of the Nation or Robber Barons? Warlord Politics in Tajikistan', Central Asian Survey, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 109-131.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, A Pyrrhic victory for Uzbekistans hardline leader.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, Russia-Afghanistan Relations after the Taliban: Potential, Problems and Prospects, pp. 4,15.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, Too much mistrust for bloc to succeed.
- Nourzhanov, K 2005, Chechen conflict unlikely to be affected by Maskhadovs death.
- Nourzhanov, K 2004, For now, terrorists hold the initiative.
- Nourzhanov, K 2004, Chechen disaster shows risks of client regimes.
- Nourzhanov, K 2004, Ukrainian political tussle is more about power than democracy.
- Nourzhanov, K 2002, 'The Politics of History in Tajikistan: Reinventing the Samanids', in Craig Benjamin & Samuel N C Lieu (ed.), Walls and Frontiers in Inner-Asian History, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout BELGIUM, pp. 159-182.
- Nourzhanov, K 2001, 'The Politics of History in Tajikistan: Reinventing the Samanids', Harvard Asia Quarterly, vol. Five, no. One, pp. 21-30.
- Nourzhanov, K 2000, 'Review of Don McCaskill and Ken Kampe (eds), Development or Domestication? Indigenous Peoples of Southeast Asia', Asian Ethnicity, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 73-81.
- Nourzhanov, K 2000, 'Politics of National Reconciliation in Tajikistan: From Peace Talks to (Partial) Political Settlement', in Benjamin, David Christian & Craig (ed.), Realms of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 161-179.
- Nourzhanov, K, Jukes, G & Alexandrov, M 1998, 'Race, Religion, Ethnicity and Economics in Central Asia', Quest for Models of Coexistence, ed. Koichi Inoue and Tomohiko Uyama, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, p. 40.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Afghanistan and Central Asia: regional security dynamics in a new strategic environment (Secondary Investigator)
