Short answers, pulled from the story.
Anatoly Mikhailovich Khazanov is a Soviet-American anthropologist and historian born on the 13th of December 1937 in Moscow. He is known for his studies of pastoral nomads, his argument that nomads were never economically or politically self-sufficient, and his later work on ethnicity, nationalism, and post-communist transitions. He holds the Ernest Gellner Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus) chair at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Khazanov's most widely cited work is Nomads and the Outside World, first published by Cambridge University Press in 1984 and reissued in a second edition by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1994. The book argues that nomadic peoples were never autarkic and were always dependent on relations with the sedentary world. It has been translated into several languages.
Khazanov emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1985. He joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1990.
Khazanov argued that modernization projects targeting pastoral nomads consistently failed because they did not allow for the sustained self-development of pastoralists and denied them participation in decision-making. This argument extended his earlier thesis that nomads function through relationships with the wider world rather than in isolation.
Khazanov argued that globalization by itself is unable to reduce nationalism and ethnic strife, which he predicted would remain significant for the foreseeable future. He was also among the first scholars to argue that transitions from communist rule do not automatically produce liberal democratic outcomes.
Khazanov has written six monographs and around two hundred articles. He has also edited or co-edited ten volumes of papers, with collaborators including Ofer Bar-Yosef, Joseph Ginat, Andre Wink, Stanley Payne, and Gunther Schlee.