The Limits of Inner Asia: Some Soul-searching on New Borders for an Old Frontier-land

accepted Altay Asia's Asian Asian territories autochtonous axis belt border boundary Caspian Caspian sea Central Asia century China Chinese Chingiz Khan's cohesion colonial communities complementary concept conquest corridor cultural delimitation developed discrete Dzungar Dzungaria east empire ethnic ethnographic Eurasian expansionism extend feature foreign Gansu geographical glacis global Heartland historical homeland human ideology imperialism Inner Asia Iranian kagan Kazakh Kazakhstan Kazan Kievan Rus Kirghiz Kül Tigin KYZYL KYZYL KUM Lake Zaysan land limits of Inner Manchuria massive Mongolia Mongols MOSCOW Muscovy nation native natural NINGXIA nomads northern Kazakhstan PEKING peripheral political entities precisely problem Problèmes de Frontières Qinghai realm remains res nullius ritory Russian Russian/Soviet sedentary self-awareness Siberia similar Slavic Slavs Soviet sq.kms statehood statism steppe taiga Tekin Tibet Tibetans tion today's tradition Transsiberian trapezoid tribal Turkestan Turkestanian Turkic Turks typological ultimately units unlimitedness USSR Western whole Xinjiang zone