ABSTRACT
Today, about five years after formally declaring their independence, the six ex-Soviet Muslim republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia still give little or no indication of their future course. Any attempt at reasonable prediction is frustrated by complicated issues of ethnicity and culture, not to mention political, economic, military and religious problems — all of which are particular to each of the six, although demonstrating common features which, again, differ in impact from republic to republic. Involvement by Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other states further block not only attempts at generalization, but also at a definition of the situation in each of the six and of their future options. Nationalism is frequently unpredictable and not amenable to formulation. As we intend to demonstrate, this is even more so in the cases we shall examine.
