Central Asia: Fractured region, illiberal regionalism

Abstract

Central Asia is a region that lacks meaningful regional institutions, has a weak regional identity, and is beset by a complex litany of political, economic, and social divisions, both within and between states. While acknowledging the significance of these underlying fractures, in this chapter I suggest a more complex, multilevel reading of regional interactions in which a focus on the role of shared ideas, norms, and beliefs provides a framework for some limited regional cooperation within a common discourse that is sharply at odds with the liberal norms that underpin most Western theories of regionalism. The result is a form of “illiberal regionalism,” which does not offer a resolution of fundamental fractures within and between societies but often provides an effective means to suppress their political articulation.