Sovereign Publishing

Sovereign Publishing is pleased to announce our new title, a hardcover print edition now available online at Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/exploring-greater-common-ground-leslie-ann-mcmillan/1147374704?ean=9781941445105

Exploring Greater Common Ground:
Western Countries and the Turkic and Tajik States
Leslie Ann McMillan
124 pages

From a Thesis to Complete a Master of Liberal Arts Degree
in the Field of International Relations at Harvard University

Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, growing cohesion among the Turkic and Tajik states is notable as international and regional power alignments shift. Western countries have coalesced to defend against Russia and develop alternatives to their dependencies on Russia. Seven Turkic and Tajik states along the Central Asian to Trans-Caspian corridor—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye—are recognized as top candidates for expanded roles in energy supply and product transport. Concurrently, the six former Soviet republics are testing the fraught potential for generational transformation toward operative independence from Russia and more reliable relationships with the West.

The research question is: To what extent has the Russia-Ukraine war led Western countries to find common ground with Turkic and Tajik states along the Central Asian to Trans-Caspian corridor? Within theoretical frameworks of linkage and leverage, agency, modernization, and structure, the project conducts empirical data collection, quantitative and qualitative content analysis, hypothesis and proposition evaluation, and policy discussion. The study covers thousands of public records gleaned from official websites of Western states and entities, and Turkic and Tajik states and entities. Background conversations and media sources help to validate or clarify official records. This thesis finds burgeoning realignments, with greater common ground among Western, Turkic, and Tajik states.

The cover image is from a recolored photograph taken by Leslie Ann McMillan, showing design elements of a traditional Kyrgyz tapestry in a three-story yurt located in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Leslie Ann McMillan is experienced in nonprofit leadership, publishing, academia, and government. She is a Chinook Indian Nation member and grants specialist; president of Sovereign Publishing in New York City; and a research assistant to Daniel Carpenter, chair of the Harvard University Department of Government, supporting his scholarship on citizen petitions in American history. With a Harvard University master's degree in the field of international relations, she also studies the Central Asian to Trans-Caspian corridor—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye. Contributors to her thesis project include Timothy Colton, thesis director, and Doug Bond, research advisor.

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