Politics of Regionalism in Central Asia

This book addresses how to mitigate regional tensions and enhance cooperative opportunities through well-designed regional institutions and organizations among countries in geographical proximity. We use the case of Central Asia (i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to employ our conceptual framework of 'externally guided regionalism.' The following questions guide the study: How and by what forces has Central Asian regionalism evolved, and what are the main characteristics and political implications of the continuously evolving regional institutions? We discuss not only the extra-regional influential actors (i.e., Russia, the United States, the European Union, and China), but also intra-regional initiatives, strategies, and struggles in securing stability and sovereignty. Extra-regional actors' growing competition over molding their own kind of multilateralism involving this region has contributed to the current direction of Central Asia's regionalization. Concurrently, Central Asia's political conditions and constraints interactively contribute to ever-increasing institutional sprawl.

JeongWon Bourdais Park is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China. She teaches International Organization, Comparative Politics, and Public Policy and publishes widely on regional security, nuclear politics, political communication, and global environmental politics.

Aigul M. Adibayeva is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies and Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences at KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her publications are in the areas of Central Asian studies and the political history of Kazakhstan since the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

Danial Saari is a Professor of Practice and Head of Political Studies at the Center of the School of Politics and Law at Almaty Management University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. His main research fields are foreign policy analysis, regional studies, international business, and world history focusing on Central Asian countries.