Murad Ismayilov | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)

Books by Murad Ismayilov

This book offers a detailed account of the dynamics behind the religious-secular divide in Azerba... more This book offers a detailed account of the dynamics behind the religious-secular divide in Azerbaijan over the past two decades of independence and the conditions underlying the ongoing process of normalization of Islamic discourse and the rising cooperation across the country’s secular-religious political landscape and looks into some future dynamics this transformation is set to unleash. It begins with an outline of hybrid intentionality behind the elite’s manifold attitudes to Islam, with particular focus on the strategy of separation between religion and politics in which those attitudes have found expression. It then proceeds to show the complicity of civil society and the broader populace, as well as the international community and the country’s Islamic stratum itself, in the reproduction of the narrative of Islamic danger and the resultant religious-secular divide in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The study then continues with an account of a number of dialectical tensions inherent in policy outcomes to which the hybrid nature of elite intentionality has given rise. It then follows on to discuss key factors contributing to the ongoing normalization of Islam across the public realm and the gradual bridging of the religious-secular divide amidst the ongoing state repression. The volume concludes with a comparative insight into some common features and conditioning factors behind the dynamics underlying the religious-secular nexus in Azerbaijan and across the broader region of the Middle East. It also offers an insight into some future potentialities that the current dynamics have laid bare.

An east-west axis of Azerbaijan and Turkey has grown into prominence within the broader structure... more An east-west axis of Azerbaijan and Turkey has grown into prominence within the broader structure of regional dynamics in Eurasia over the past two decades. Yet few, including among policy advisors and policy makers in either of the two states, have attempted to look deeper into the forces that lie behind the workings of this important regional nexus, a reality that resulted in a dual crisis in bilateral relations towards the end of the second decade of interaction.

This volume investigates the underlying causes that shaped the dynamics within the structure of the bilateral relationship between Azerbaijan and Turkey. It features chapters by both scholars from the region and international experts in the field, and therefore provides both in-house and outside perspectives on developments within the complex structure of the relationship. With its analysis portfolio including historical, political, economic, socio-cultural, ideological, and international underpinnings of this regional alliance, the volume offers the most systematic and broad ranged analysis of the matter available to date.

The book will serve as an important resource for students and scholars of post-Soviet Studies, Central Asia and the Caucasus, and the Middle East, while also being of interest to those of International Relations and political science disciplines.

The multicultural region of Central Eurasia is living through its early post-independence years a... more The multicultural region of Central Eurasia is living through its early post-independence years and as such serves as an ideal case to study and analyse theories of identity and foreign policy in a non-European context. Looking to re-introduce identity as a multidimensional factor informing state behaviour, this book analyses the experiences of the different Central Eurasian states in their post-independence pursuits.

The book is structured into two broadly defined sections, with the first half examining the different ways in which the combination of domestic, regional, international and trans-national forces worked to advance one national identity over the others in the states that comprise the region of post-Soviet Central Eurasia. In the second half, chapters analyse the many ways in which identity, once shaped, affected foreign policy behaviours of the regional states, as well as the overall security dynamics in the region. The book also looks at the ways in which identity, by doing so, enjoys an intricate, mutually constitutive relationship with the strategic context in which it bears its effects on the state and the region. Finally, given the special role Russia has historically played in defining the evolutionary trajectory of the regional states, the book discusses the ways in which Russia itself and its post-cold war policies towards its former colonies have been conditioned by factors associated with Russia’s evolving post-Soviet identity.

Placing the region firmly within existing theories of identity and state practices, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of Central Asian Politics, Security Studies, Foreign Policy and International Relations.

Islam by Murad Ismayilov

Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2019

Not unlike the global dynamics and the developments in the rest of Central Eurasia, Islamic disco... more Not unlike the global dynamics and the developments in the rest of Central Eurasia, Islamic discourse in Azerbaijan over the past two decades has not reflected the micro-level shifts in the country’s social-cultural landscape. Rather, it has been formed and evolved as a collateral product of the elite’s tactical pursuit of legitimation across domestic and international planes of power. Grounded in its quest for tactical and strategic survival, the elite’s pursuit of Western (and broader international) recognition, in particular, has stood at the core of the elite’s policies toward Islam and molded the confines of state-promoted Islamic discourse. The regime’s overall strategy has been to continuously reinforce the representation of Islam as an imminent danger to the stability and secular nature of Azerbaijani statehood, while positioning itself—in the eyes of both the “liberal,” “democratic” West and the secularized population at home—as the sole force capable of staving off the Islamic threat. At that, the narrative of Islamic radicalism in Azerbaijan has centered around three principal dynamics: the regime’s anti-hijab policies, the regime’s policies toward the settlement of Nardaran in Baku’s suburbs, and the activities of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (IPA). This article provides a closer look at all three to expose the elite’s intention of using these as their primary trigger mechanisms and reference points in the quest for Western—and secular domestic—legitimation and, as such, the pursuit of the negative representation of Islam as a threat to secularity and modern statehood.

Baku Research Institute , 2019

There has been much hype surrounding the alleged “radicalization” of Moslems, both across the pos... more There has been much hype surrounding the alleged “radicalization” of Moslems, both across the post-Soviet space and globally. The narrative of radicalization has tended to point to two underlying tendencies to vindicate its message: one, growing sectarian division and inter-sectarian violence within Islam and the militarist disposition of certain Islamist groups towards the governments of countries in which they operate; and two, ISIS’ documented success in attracting Moslem recruits from both within the Western milieu and across Moslem-majority landscapes, including the post-Soviet space. An analysis of reasons for the recruitment success of the likes of ISIS should be the first port of call in any enquiry about “Moslem extremism,” since other manifestations of alleged radicalization, including inter-sectarian tension and violence and militarist dispositions towards their respective governments, are in large measure derivatives of this reality, with many Moslems falling prey to the propaganda machine of the few extremist organizations that exist, either through online exposure thereto or upon return from a field engagement. In light of this, this paper critically discusses some major factors behind the recent wave of seeming radicalization of Moslems worldwide, using the relevant dynamics in Azerbaijan and elsewhere as a comparative case study to demonstrate its arguments.

Central Asian Affairs, 2018

By the time Azerbaijan became independent in 1991, it had spent seven decades subsumed into the m... more By the time Azerbaijan became independent in 1991, it had spent seven decades subsumed into the militant atheism of the Soviet modernization project. Moreover, it emerged into the staunchly secular international context of Western modernity. These two factors combined with the tough reality of the country’s precarious geography to promise a sustained indigenous effort to desacralize the country’s political space and exclude religion from politics, a blueprint common to the modern world and one which Azerbaijani state and society have united to pursue over the course of the country’s independent existence. Yet the specific dynamics facing the country in the third decade of independence and the changing contours of its international engagements have been working to loosen up the latter formula, laying the groundwork for a quintessentially Azerbaijani pathway of statehood that will combine the nation’s historical embeddedness in an Islamic milieu with its century-old practical experience of modern policymaking.

Azerbaijan’s independence came after seven decades of militant atheism of the Soviet modernisatio... more Azerbaijan’s independence came after seven decades of militant atheism of the Soviet modernisation project and emerged into staunch secularism of Western modernity, two factors that, on a par with the country’s precarious neighbourhood, promised a sustained indigenous effort towards a desacralisation of the country’s political space and the associated exclusion of religion from politics, a modern blueprint that the Azerbaijani state and its society have stood united to diligently follow over the cause of the country’s independent existence. Yet the specific dynamics facing the country in the third decade of independence and the changing contours of its international engagements have gradually been working to loosen up the latter formula and lay the groundwork for a quintessentially Azerbaijani pathway of statehood to follow, one combining the nation’s historical embeddedness in an Islamic milieu with its century-old practical experience of modern policy making.

Journal of Strategic Security, Jan 1, 2010

Identity and nation-building by Murad Ismayilov

Azerbaijan presents itself as a country fitting in with Western values while simultaneously adher... more Azerbaijan presents itself as a country fitting in with Western values while simultaneously adhering to Islam and associated traditional values, while also sharing some identity features with Russia and Turkey. This article provides a brief, yet critical, analysis of the dynamics of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy and the country’s national identity to make the case for the mutually derivative—and hence contingent—nature of the two.

Drawing on a critical discussion of Wendt and others as a key starting point, this framing chapte... more Drawing on a critical discussion of Wendt and others as a key starting point, this framing chapter re-introduces identity as a multi-dimensional factor informing state behavior and, as such, develops a case—including by integrating constructivist nationalism scholarship with IR constructivism—for a single conceptual platform, upon which exogenous and endogenous channels of state socialisation in post-Soviet Central Eurasia could be examined and studied in sync. The chapter concludes by outlining the ways in which the case studies to follow in the collection build upon, and further expand, the research agenda it stands to frame.

Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Nov 2012

Albeit often—and fairly—degraded in the world of high culture as a populist and politicised repre... more Albeit often—and fairly—degraded in the world of high culture as a populist and politicised representation of music, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC)—by sheer virtue of the populist and politicised nature of its essence—stands among the most consequential cultural encounters to which post-independence Azerbaijan has been exposed, in that the extent to which Baku’s victory in the ESC-2011—and the further developments this victory has generated—can potentially impact on, and contribute to, the very process of nation-building and national identity formation, with which this post-Soviet Muslim-majority country is currently struggling, is unparalleled by any of the state’s earlier encounters of the kind. This paper focuses on, and examines, four intimately related ways in which the ESC and Azerbaijan’s successful involvement with the latter worked to interfere with the country’s nation-building: as a dubious factor in the evolution of the Western sense of self among Azerbaijanis; as a unifying force within the structure of the country’s rapidly maturing civil society; as a medium working to open up a channel through which Western popular cultural elements could interfere with the evolving dynamics of, and work to globalise , indeed de-endogenise, indigenous Azerbaijani culture, on one hand, and unify the discursive realm within which the country’s cultural domain is to further evolve, on the other; and, finally, as an important element serving to decouple the evolving processes within the country’s cultural domain from the unfolding dynamics of conflict settlement and hence conducive to the diversification of public discourse in Azerbaijan.

The article examines the interaction among education, national identity, and external players att... more The article examines the interaction among education, national identity, and external players attempting to influence post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The authors argue that in the circumstances surrounding transition, education became a major political tool for outside powers to advocate their own political philosophy among Azerbaijanis. It is argued that the policies of the U.S., Europe, Russia, and Turkey to provide education opportunities to Azerbaijanis in hopes of affecting Azerbaijani society resulted in a stratification of Azerbaijani civil society, which in the short to medium-term hinders the democratisation process with which the country is currently struggling, and in the long run may induce potentially profound conflicts of interests among the various domestic groups.

Chapter conclusion: As the analysis evinced, although the two regional states—Azerbaijan and Geor... more Chapter conclusion: As the analysis evinced, although the two regional states—Azerbaijan and Georgia—displayed behavioural patterns that fit well under the explanatory notion of the ‘struggle for recognition,’ what recognition is, how its end-state is understood, and what its dynamics and ultimate effects on collective identity formation have been is different in each of the two cases; a variation conditioned by, and contingent upon, ‘brute material’ influences that the pipeline/energy politics had to bear upon the states in the region.

Geopolitics and foreign policy by Murad Ismayilov

Russian Politics, 2019

Since Heydar Aliyev, the father of the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev, became the country’s pre... more Since Heydar Aliyev, the father of the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev, became the country’s president in 1993, Azerbaijan has been known for its staunch pursuit of a so-called “balanced” policy in its relations with the outside world, particularly Russia and the West. Whereas in the past this policy tended to be “balanced” more in favor of the West as far as Azerbaijan’s strategic interests were concerned, Baku’s political disposition has shifted decidedly towards Russia in recent years. Over the past decade, several developments on the national, regional, and global levels have worked to gradually alter the long-established regional dynamic and alignment patterns, bringing Azerbaijan back into the Russian fold. This article’s objective is to critically examine those developments to shed more light on the nature of Azerbaijani-Russian relations today and their prospects for the future.

Russian Analytical Digest, 2019

This article examines the recent shifts in Azerbaijan’s balancing of relations between Russia and... more This article examines the recent shifts in Azerbaijan’s balancing of relations between Russia and the West. It argues that the Azerbaijani elite have been undergoing a shift from placing more emphasis on its relations with the West, towards an emerging strategic accord with Moscow. There are both micro- and macro- geopolitical developments driving this process. On a micro-level, the Azerbaijani elite have gradually come to distrust the West’s intention to and capability of supporting them in their core security and state development aims. From a macro-perspective, shifts in geopolitical alliances around Azerbaijan are acting to attract Baku towards Moscow, and away from Brussels and Washington.

Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2019

Baku Research Institute , 2019

Central Asian Affairs, 2018

Journal of Strategic Security, Jan 1, 2010

Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Nov 2012

Russian Politics, 2019

Russian Analytical Digest, 2019

This framing chapter offers a brief analysis of a number of agential, structural, and processual ... more This framing chapter offers a brief analysis of a number of agential, structural, and processual parameters of contingency within which Azerbaijan’s relations with Turkey have unfolded over the past two decades and which, loosely, form the subject of further discussion in the chapters to follow

Caucasus Survey, Nov 2014

This article examines the ways in which Azerbaijan’s energy abundance and the energy diplomacy th... more This article examines the ways in which Azerbaijan’s energy abundance and the energy diplomacy the latter made possible—combined with inherent weaknesses attending the state’s young post-colonial polity—conditioned the limits of the desirable by which the country’s post-independence elite was guided and, as such, limited the range of directions—cognitive and spatial—in which Azerbaijan’s foreign policy evolved during the first decade following independence. The study then examines how energy-induced growth in state capacity on the one hand, and the perceived failure of the state’s previous practices to help resolve outstanding security problems on the other, coupled with the effects of a number of endogenous and exogenous shocks (particularly, the colour revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine; Kosovo’s recognition by the West; the Russia-Georgia 2008 war; global economic crisis; and Turkey’s short-lived attempt at rapprochement with Armenia) and the perceptual shifts those shockwaves worked to engender, served to broaden the spatial and conceptual boundaries within which Azerbaijan’s foreign policy practices were conceived and effected, including by virtue of the energy resources the country has got in possession. The paper concludes by tracing the particular ways in which the broadening and deepening of the country’s foreign policy practices have occurred.

Azerbaijan’s perceptions about the great powers and its place in the world have changed over time... more Azerbaijan’s perceptions about the great powers and its place in the world have changed over time. In the initial post-independence period, Azerbaijan placed great hope on the west in securing its three main goals: retaining independence, restoring territorial integrity, and securing economic recovery and self-sufficiency. Since then, however, it has grown disappointed in the west’s ability and willingness to address its key interests and has begun to diversify its ties, including to Russia and Iran.

Conclusion: It is thus U.S. reluctance to become more constructively involved with Baku’s outstan... more Conclusion: It is thus U.S. reluctance to become more constructively involved with Baku’s outstanding security problems, especially the Nagorno – Karabakh conflict and its ignorance regarding the rationale driving Azerbaijan’s quest to integrate with the West that have been key in alienating Baku in recent months. To make sure that these tactical shifts do not translate into a strategic transformation of Baku’s foreign policy as well as into a deeply embedded mistrust of the U.S. amongst the society at large, the U.S. should reassess its policy toward a valuable partner on a key international fault line.

The recent war in Georgia followed by Moscow’s recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and So... more The recent war in Georgia followed by Moscow’s recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, just as the US-led war on terror and the war in the former Yugoslavia and recognition of Kosovo that attended it, call attention to certain internal inconsistencies within the English School’s concept of “international society.” A rigorous analysis of three sets of the school’s contentions suggests on close reading how and why different perspectives on the concept itself lead to different understandings and interpretations of the effects these actions had on the state of international society.