Asia Times Online

PART 1: The last frontier: China's far west
This is Beijing's nightmare: a people within China's border who speak their own language, keep their own time, and face Mecca when they pray. The Uighurs of Xinjiang province embody Mao's "super-chaos" - and Beijing doesn't like it. Roving Eye Pepe Escobar reports on the start of a trip along the ancient Silk Road.

PART 2: The king of the steppes
Known for his well-honed sense of grandeur, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's first and only president since 1991, fancies his country as the center of Eurasia, in pursuit of which goal he adroitly massages relations with Russia, China and the United States. Sitting on the largest unexplored source of oil wealth in the world is also an advantage.

PART 3: In pursuit of the snow leopard
Kazakhstan, quite justifiably, as the world's resource-richest country, aims to become a "Central Asian snow leopard" - a development model for other countries. Chasing the dream is one matter, catching it is another.

PART 4: Touching base
As a side effect of the "war on terror", Kyrgyzstan has become a key pawn for Russia, the United States and China. Thus there's an American military base at Manas, a Russian base at Kant and a Chinese base somewhere in the future. And that's why democracy - or the lack of it - is not an issue.

PART 5: A new learning experience
With a backdrop of stunning mountain scenery, sections of the Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan remain as evocative as they have been for centuries, and they defy any attempts at systematic commercialization. However, a truly 21st century concept of education has been embraced.

PART 6: Peaceful jihad
Variously vilified as bandits, terrorists and thugs and routinely arrested, members of the Islamic movement Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia nevertheless continue their peaceful struggle for the creation of a region-wide caliphate. But time is running out before they take up arms to achieve their "revolution".

PART 7: The American client
To call Uzbekistan a failed state is perhaps somewhat generous, given its political repression, bankrupt economy and insidious corruption. But the country ruled with an iron fist by Islam Karimov does have one thing going for it - it's firmly on side with the United States.

PART 8: The Sufi way
Myths and mystique, memories and mementos, the ancient city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan has its fill, as well as a branch of Islam that borders on insouciance.

PART 9: The Samarkand circle
Samarkand in Uzbekistan may not be the famed "center of the universe" that it once was, but being so close to the vast steppes, where all borders between Asia and Europe disappear, it is still, at least in theory, the key crossroads for all routes from Turkey to Pakistan and from the Persian Gulf to China. And it could be the center from which Central Asia could recapture its place in history.

PART 10: Turkmenbashi, it's a gas, gas, gas
At home he rules with an iron fist, in the best traditions of a despot, while in his foreign policy he treads a more rational path, of neutrality. All-in-all, though, President Saparmurat Nyazov, or Turkmenbashi, holds the destiny of Turkmenistan and its vast natural reserves firmly in his grasp.

PART 11 : Russia's 'liberal empire'
Eurasianism, a popular concept in the early 20th century, is back. This means, according to Moscow, that the people living in the Caucasus and Central Asia, as they have in the past been integrated into the Russian and Soviet empires, can legitimately be so again. The United States notwithstanding.

PART 12a : Pipelineistan revisited
With Azerbaijan and Georgia, two key players in the race for Central Asia-Caspian Sea oil and gas, both recently losing their leaders, the region's political chess game becomes even more complicated for key players the United States and Russia. This is the first article of a two-part report.

PART 12b: Pipelineistan revisited
A dreamer would see harmony between Russia, the United States and China in a sensible exploitation of Central Asia's massive oil and gas and minerals. Unfortunately, the cold reality is that there is simply too much at stake for each country for this ever to happen.

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