Dictators Without Borders

Power and Money in Central Asia

By: Alexander A. Cooley PhD, John Heathershaw

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Weak, corrupt, and politically unstable, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are dismissed as isolated and irrelevant to the outside world. But are they? This hard-hitting book argues that Central Asia is in reality a globalization leader with more extensive involvement in economics, politics, and security dynamics beyond its borders than any other world region. Yet Central Asia's international activities are mostly hidden from view, with disturbing implications for world security.

Based on years of research and involvement in the region, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw reveal how business networks, elite bank accounts, overseas courts, third-party brokers, and Western lawyers connect Central Asia's supposedly isolated leaders with global power centers. The authors also uncover widespread Western participation in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying by autocratic governments, and the exploiting of legal loopholes within Central Asia. Riveting and important, this book exposes the global connections of a troubled region that must no longer be ignored.

©2017 Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Insightful and topical - a comprehensive take on a neglected region." (Edward Lucas, senior editor, The Economist))

Oh gosh.

This book opened my eyes to the true nature of politics in Central Asia. It completely disillusioned my ideas that the region was closed off and gave me insights on matters I wouldn't have even considered on my own.

Academic Case Study

This book is an excellent overview of Central Asian globalization, containing primarily narrative case studies of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. However, it did not discuss Turkmenistan in-depth.

It is a good book, but highly academic and written in a manner that requires some prior knowledge of international institutions and banking systems as well as the basics of recent Central Asian political history. The narration is great, and lends itself very well to the narrative tone that read more as chapters of a story rather than an academic analysis. While it mentions and discusses some political movements, it largely focuses on the stories of elite government officials and a few unique dissident cases. I would highly recommend for anyone interested in learning more about post-Soviet Central Asian political dynamics.

Interesting content, frustrating narration

Very unique geopolitical & financial content, sometimes dry but interesting at the same time. Very few writers are covering these Central Asian topics.

Sadly, I found the narrator really hard to bear -- he consistently mispronounces basic words, like Kazakh and Kazakhstan and major leaders' names... which get repeated endlessly in the text. Very distracting. Basic coaching & homework in advance would have solved this.