One particular group of Y-STR values within R1a shows matches in Central Asia, around the Siberian Altai and Uyghur province of Western China. The recent find of Caucasian mummies in the Takla Makan deserts of the Uyghur province prove that a race of red and blond haired people with Scandinavian features, over 6′ tall, once lived in this region. R1a is found at very high percentages in Western Norway, where it reaches 30%. Some researchers believe the Icelandic Sagas, which describe a migration of a population from Asia beyond the Ural mountains, to Norway, may actually be based in fact. Thor Heyerdahl, of Kon Tiki fame, spent the remaining years of his life attempting to prove this theory — and DNA evidence is seeming to prove him right. The Swedes have long believed this legend, and the emergence of a specific type of Scandinavian R1a with a Central Asian motif seems to support this account.

The MacDonalds have determined that their progenitor, Somerled, belonged to haplogroup R1a (of the same Central Asian motif) and it seems this holds true for most of the pseudo-aristocracy of Scandinavia. R1a is found at levels of less than 1% in most regions of Ireland, and at levels of 1-3% in England, and only slightly higher in Scotland. The highest concentrations of this haplogroup are seen in areas of Britain colonized by the Norse Vikings. One of the leading DNA experts has called R1a the only sure proof of Norse Viking origins when seen in men of deep British ancestry. One kit in our project that is R1a belongs to an indivdual with a deep and well documented ancestry in England. This R1a Y-STR is of Norwegian origin with a Central Asian motif. Therefore this kit represents the candidate signature of the original Norse Chiefs of the Clan Grant.

An extensive analysis of R1a showed a distinct Eastern European motif, and a very different Norse motif. The Norse patterns were bimodal in Norway proper, but in the Norse colonies (e.g., Iceland, Shetland, Faroe Islands, as well as the UK in general) there was a predominence of types that more closely resembled those along the Chinese border than Poland. I have charted the modal haplotype of many groups in Europe. Thanks to access given to me by genetic researchers I have been in the fortunate position of having modal values of most of the tribal groups in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and groups all the way to Turkey. The highest frequency of R1a anywhere is found among people such as the Kyrgyz, where it reaches a solid 63% of the population. It was spectacular to see my uncle being an almost exact match to most of the groups in Central Asia, but bearing very little resemblance to any group in Eastern Europe. His Altai matches were not just an anomaly.

An extensive analysis of R1a showed a distinct Eastern European motif, and a very different Norse motif. The Norse patterns were bimodal in Norway proper, but in the Norse colonies (e.g., Iceland, Shetland, Faroe Islands, as well as the UK in general) there was a predominence of types that more closely resembled those along the Chinese border than Poland. I have charted the modal haplotype of many groups in Europe. Thanks to access given to me by genetic researchers I have been in the fortunate position of having modal values of most of the tribal groups in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and groups all the way to Turkey. The highest frequency of R1a anywhere is found among people such as the Kyrgyz, where it reaches a solid 63% of the population. It was spectacular to see my uncle being an almost exact match to most of the groups in Central Asia, but bearing very little resemblance to any group in Eastern Europe. His Altai matches were not just an anomaly.

I didn’t say not to read other books–just that this one is the one, so far, that I have liked best. You are right, there are many points of view, and people are welcome to all of them. Mullerson’s speciality is human rights law, and he’s from a former Soviet-occupied state which successfully made the change to both Western capitalism and democracy, which is why I thought his perspective particularly relevant. The book was written post-Andijan, so is pretty recent. I haven’t seen anything else like it.

I agree with OldSchoolBoy. Maybe I missed something even better on the subject–if so, please do share your reviews of recent books in the field by the authors you mention.

The reason I mentioned the Chinese review is that if Chinese scholars take Mullerson seriously, and if China is active in the region, it would seem to me that is worth noting. Americans and Russians are not the only active players on and with the chessboard of Central Asia…

IMHO There’s plenty of room for differences of opinion about Central Asia. There is no one right answer. Fine–don’t believe my hype. Please get your own copy of the book (from your library if it too expensive) and come to your own conclusions. That’s all I was trying to do, share my enthusiasm for a book that seemed to deal with a number of issues in a different, and possibly more productive, way…

By the way, I also recommend Amy Chua’s WORLD ON FIRE: HOW EXPORTING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY BREEDS ETHNIC HATRED AND GLOBAL INSTABILITY (NY: Anchor Books, 2004).

But which part of his biography makes him capable of writing “the best survey of contemporary Central Asian dynamics” and “the most perceptive analysis” of Central Asia? Which life experiences have made him “uniquely qualified as a political analyst” of the region?

He was a head honcho in the Soviet Academy of Sciences. There were plenty of researches in the archipelago of research institutes that comprised the Academy. Some of them were actually experts on Central Asia. They would have held positions in Turkology or Oriental faculties of Moscow, Leningrad, Baku and Tashkent State universities. But not folks who ran a law institute. How would that help him develop expertise on Central Asia? Same question regarding his work for Gorbachev. That work would make him an expert on SALT-2, not Central Asia.

OK, he was a UN official based in the region for the duration of one year. C’mon, Laurence, there are hundreds of people who have been UN, IMF, World Bank, EU, OSCE, ADB guys in Central Asia. How’s Mullerson better than them?

OK, he holds a faculty position at a UK university. But that’s again a position in international law. What does that have to do with Central Asia? How would being a law professor enable him to go “inside the Central Asian mind and soul?”

Lawrence writes:”Lord Curzon once famously recommended that one should be neither a Russophile nor a Russophobe, but a realist about Russia.” He also says Mullerson “appears to know the Russian mentality more clearly than any American author.” That is probably true since he lived and worked in Russia. But what does Russia have to do with anything here? Russian and Central Asian are very different from each other mentality-wise. Just look at Putin and Karimov. How similar are they? What about Medvedev and Ilham Aliev or Berdymukhamedov?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure the book has its strengths (and weaknesses, too). But Laurence’s hype does a disservice to it.

P.S. If a book has been reviewed in a Chinese journal, it doesn’t follow that the author is an expert on the Chinese. A simple example, Edward Lucas’ “The New Cold War” has been published in Dutch but the guy is not an expert on Holland.

P.P.S. I’d say “a must-read for anyone who thinks seriously about Central Asia” are the articles and books written by Barnett Rubin, William Fierman and many other US scholars at such centers as Indiana U., U. of Washington, etc. If you prefer experts from the former Soviet Union, you can try Arkady Dubnov of Vremya Novostei, Oleg Panfilov, an OSCE expert and the director of cjes.ru, Bakhadyr Musaev, a sociologist and a USSR Academy of Sc. alum, and Dosym Satpaev, head of Risk Assesment Group in Almaty.