Introduction: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Study of the Greater Middle East.

The article introduces various reports published within the issue including one by Albert Hourani which explains the many things Middle East countries have in common and another one by Mirzohid Rahimov which analyzes how the early twentieth-century incorporation of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan into the Soviet Union has affected the post-Soviet independent states of Central Asia in their process of transition.