2024, “Central Asian International Relations in Decolonial Age” , Central Asian Affairs (Brill), Volume 10, Issue 3, pp.344-348, 2024-1 (original) (raw)
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Decolonial Central Asia or a Post Liberal One
Timur Dadabaev’s Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations is an innovative piece of work in two ways. First, it represents an attempt to think in a decolonial manner about the practices of international relations in Central Asia, pointing to a distinct way of doing world politics in this region. It attributes an equal agency to Central Asian states, with a focus on Uzbekistan, and some of their major international partners, such as Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. It explains rationalities on both sides of interactions, without seeing Central Asia merely as an object of interest of major powers. Second, the book engages with the discipline of International Relations (IR) of Central Asia from a decolonial perspective—as new a way of thinking about world politics in the scholarly community.
Central Asia has seen dramatic yet peaceful change since the end of the Soviet Union as it has once again become a world region of sovereign powers. The relatively low levels of political violence and the concomitant authoritarian stabilization of the region’s postcolonies are both remarkable and poorly understood. This chapter argues that IR theory is of little use in this regard because it is focused on external powers and systemic factors, be they material or normative, and fails to account for the Central Asian actors and transnational processes that have shaped the transformation. This weakness has been mirrored in scholarship that until recent years was produced overwhelmingly by scholars from outside Central Asia and in accordance with debates that have minimal relevance for the region. The largely peaceful decolonization of Central Asia is best understood from decolonial perspectives that emphasize the importance of the region’s particular ideas and practices and how these have been formed in conditions of globalization.
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Drawing on an English School approach, this chapter argues that in Central Asia there is less than a liberal would hope for, but more than a realist would think. Instead of being hopelessly marked by competition as a Hobbesian state of nature, or representing an integrated region resting on liberal principles, Central Asia is akin to a society of states, relying on specific norms and institutions and aiming at achieving and maintain coexistence. By adopting a constructivist epistemology and a socio-structural framework of analysis, this chapter maintains that the institutions of sovereignty, diplomacy, international law, authoritarianism, and great power management provide the region with a degree order and stability often neglected by other International Relations (IR) approaches, thus providing a more fine-grained account of Central Asian regional politics.
INDEPENDENCE AND DECOLONIZATION IN CENTRAL ASIA
Asian Perspective, 1997
The disintegration of the USSR in the early 1990s created fifteen new nation-states. Among these were five former Soviet republics of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These entities existed for decades as administrative jurisdictions within the Soviet Union but never exercised the autonomy of true states. Prior to the Soviet period, none of them had existed as independent countries; furthermore > they shared the ties of tradition, history, language, culture, and a common administrative system. Yet the dynamics of independence has propelled them in different and sometimes conflicting directions. The politics and economics of decolonization are exerting a continuing influence on these countries, affecting the way in which they relate to one another and to the outside world. This article surveys the new Central Asian states, comparatively analyzes the circumstances of independence and decolonization, and draws conclusions regarding integration with greater Asia.
Central Asia as a Region in International Relations
Reality Of Politics, 2022
‘Central Asia’ is a unique and diverse region of the world that a landmass distinct from other regions and sedentary civilisation is one of the characteristics. The geography of this region is considered a controversial discourse among scholars in international relations and, Europeans prefer to call them ‘Central Eurasia’, but Asian scholars frequently used the term ‘Central Asia’. However, the history of Asia was not stable and similar to the past. In this regard, this article tries to find the status of Central Asia in international relations from a historical to the empirical discussion in academia. Through the discourse analysis applied here to trace scholars, historians, institutions, governments, and sociologists’ perspectives on how they treat ‘Central Asia’, whether it is a deeply profound ‘region’ or precise existence. The initial argument says that Central Asia is more significant due to the geostrategic point of view and attracts superpowers in the ground of diplomacy play.
Coming to terms with the complexity of external agency in central Asia
Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2011
During the 1990s, Central Asia emerged as an idiom for the uncertainty pervading the post-Cold War climate of global life. This paper therefore queries the intertwining of the region in world politics and the ways in which the dynamics of international affairs affect Central Asia. In this respect, the investigation explores the scope and connotations of the "new Central Asia" label. Its framing provides a context for the conceptual engagement with the Central Asian agency of international actors. This assessment details the perception of a regional power vacuum and the emergence of awkward statehood as key contributing factors to the construction of Central Asia as a permissive environment for external agency. Consequently, the confrontation with the proliferation of "actorness" in Central Asia accounts for the dynamics of the "new great game" and the patterns of "hegemonic fragmegration" in the region.
Foreign Relations in Central Asia: A Comparison Between the Soviet and Post-Soviet Era
2021
Central Asia's pivotal geographical position allowed it to play an essential role in relations among nations of Eurasia in the Middle Ages as the bridge between China and Europe. Yet, during the Russian and then the Soviet rule in Central Asia, the region's republics had no independent position in international relations as foreign affairs was formed and managed by the central government in Moscow. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 made salient the geopolitical, economic, and cultural importance of the fi ve former Soviet Central Asian republics. They reemerged as independent actors in the global interstate system and could have played a significant role in international affairs during the last three decades. The article aims to discuss the Central Asian region's position in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. It explores how Central Asia as a "closed" region during the Soviet period changed its geopolitical position and became an influential actor in globa...