A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Summary and conclusion 315
the border to Kazakhstan.Meanwhile the Mongols across the border in
China’s Mongol Autonomous Region present a certain analogy to the
Uighurs of Sinkiang, and here too Mongolia is as eager as Kazakhstan
to maintain good relations with Beijing.
The destinies of the five Central Asian republics, Sinkiang, and
Mongolia have throughout the past been intertwined, or run parallel
courses, or collided, and as a result they have gathered enough common
heritage to be viewed as a unique community.Their position in the heart
of the Eurasian continent adds a special dimension to this uniqueness.
In the past, it made them the crossroads or recipients of international
trade, cultures, and religions.At present it makes them a landlocked area
depending on their neighbors to export some of their possibly fabulous
riches in return for no less promising material rewards.Some of these
neighbors are world powers, some are countries beset by complex internal
and international problems.This situation may further draw the
Inner Asian states together or generate similar pragmatic policies.It
makes economic and cultural cooperation between them desirable and
feasible.It also makes realistic relations with the two giant neighbors,
Russia and China, mandatory.The particular case of Sinkiang and
Inner Mongolia only underscores this fact; here, China has become a
special but most probably permanent member of the Inner Asian community.As
for Russia, this former member has become a no less permanent
partner.In Moscow they now like to call Kazakhstan and Central
Asia their “near abroad,” implying a relationship not unlike that of the
United States with Mexico and Central America.The issues display
remarkable analogies: security, economy, even the problem of narcotics
flow from south to north.
There of course remains one unanwered question: the future role of
Islam in Central Asia.As we have pointed out, the educated society there
seems to be basically secular; some members of the intelligentsia even
hold the conservative features of this religion responsible for their
society’s falling behind Russia and subsequent colonial status.As the
economic and social conditions improve, more balanced views are likely
to prevail and Islam will play a role similar to that of Christianity in the
West – a spiritual heritage to be cherished by all those who feel inclined
to do so, but which does not combat the accepted axiom of modern
democracy: separation of church and state.