Regulatory regionalism and education: the European Union in central Asia

Abstract

This paper investigates the purchase which Jayasuriya’s regulatory regionalism approach offers for an analysis of the European Union’s engagement in Central Asia. The European Union has a clearly articulated strategy through which to pursue what it sees as its interests in Central Asia and the development of a range of EU–Central Asia education initiatives has been given a role within this over‐arching strategy. In the first section of this paper, the core features of regulatory regionalism are identified and discussed. Then, the prospects for the EU–Central Asia strategy are discussed in relation to the extent to which the strategy exemplifies the aspirations of EU regulatory inter‐regionalism. In the second half of this paper, building on empirical research with EU and Central Asia policy actors, the EU–Central Asia education initiatives are used to explore the regulatory regional approach and to consider the extent to which it constitutes an adequate account of EU–Central Asia inter‐regionalism in the policy domain of education. The paper argues that the theory of regulatory regionalism captures something of the EU theory of its inter‐regionalism but that further theoretical and empirical work is needed in order to account for the limited traction which the education initiatives have been able to gain as part of the EU–Central Asia strategy.

Keywords:

• regulatory regionalism
• accountability communities
• European Union
• Central Asia
• EU–Central Asia education initiatives

Notes

1. The research which provides the empirical material in this paper was conducted in June 2009 and involved interviews with policy actors from the European Union institutions and in the Central Asian states. The research was funded by the EU Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM) project (www.eucentralasia.eu). Interviews were conducted on a non‐attributable basis and the author would like to thank the participants for the frankness with which they supported the research and for the access which they provided to details and documents relating to the EU–Central Asia education initiatives.

2. David Harvey’s assessment of contemporary regimes of governance and regulation is framed in terms of a critique of neoliberalism. On the structural coupling and political consequences of shifts to regionalism and regulation within neo‐liberal governance, see Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2009). Jayasuriya’s conceptualisation is congruent when he talks about how state and state‐like activity has shifted from ‘government (direct intervention) to governance (facilitating intervention)’ (Jayasuriya 2003, 205).

3. Jayasuriya terms this institutional process the locus of meta‐regulation.

4. Jayasuriya’s sense is that regulatory regionalism captures: ‘the way in which this governance provides the basis for a new form of statehood, that creates a semblance of regional frontiers within the state by transforming the “regulatory space of the state” in which political and economic governance takes place’ (Jayasuriya 2009, 7).

5. These processes of course combine with Jessop’s (2004) insistence on the emergent developments of shadow hierarchies and the concomitant development of meta‐governance. This point is echoed by Jayasuriya in terms of how: ‘Multilevel governance enables different national systems of Higher Education to retain elements of regulatory architecture, but subject to a system of meta‐governance that monitors and enforces a broad set of benchmark standards’ (Jayasuriya 2009, 7).

6. Jayasuriya talks about the de‐political in terms of how, ‘de‐politicisation – or even better, a strategy of anti‐politics – provides the underlying rationale for many governance programmes’ (Jayasuriya 2003, 206).

7. In Jessop’s (2004) sense the capacity for strategic shifts in policy content, the activity of participants’ levels and the scales of governance as the limits of each are tested and reconfirmed, are key characteristics of contemporary modes of governance.

8. One sign of the calamitous position of young people in Central Asia which constitutes a major challenge to the societies and the related demands to be made of education policy and systems, is the pressures toward migration. As Silova et al. (2007) argue: ‘when a public school system collapses – whether from poverty, moral corruption or ideological backwardness – individuals take extraordinary measures to find opportunities to learn from more viable and compelling sources… Over 70 per cent of young people in Central Asia are ready to migrate to any country in search of better educational and economic opportunities’ (174–5).

9. For example, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science from Kyrgyzstan was present and made a presentation: ‘A Central Asia perspective: Education reform in Kyrgyzstan’.

10. As early as 2001, the Commission sought to promote increased EU funding in this regard in terms of the, ‘desirability of increasing the numbers of long term grants for students from third countries seeking a full period of study in the EC’ (European Commission 2001, 5).

11. The Commission has expressed this in relation to the assertion that, ‘Europe’s political and commercial success in the world is dependent on future decision‐makers in third countries having a better understanding of and closer ties with Europe’ (European Commission 2001, 3).

12. Only Monaco and San Marino of the Council of Europe members are not signatories to the Bologna Process.

13. The Ministers met in Prague in 2001, Berlin in 2003, Bergen in 2005, London in 2007 and Leuven in 2009. It was at the Berlin meeting that the decision was made to make participation in the Bologna Process open to signatories to the European Cultural Convention. In addition to the governmental participation, the Bologna Process now has clearly defined roles for the European Commission, UNESCO and the Council of Europe as well as a series of non‐governmental bodies: the European Studies Union (ESU), the European Universities Association (EUA), the European Association of Institutions of Higher Education (EURASHE) and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

14. The original six were: (i) adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees; (ii) adoption of a system essentially based on two cycles (bachelor and masters); (iii) establishment of a system of credits; (iv) promotion of mobility; (v) promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance; (vi) promotion of the European dimension in higher education.

15. Both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have made repeated attempts to join the Bologna Process but the insuperable barrier is non‐membership of the Council of Europe.

16. The Bologna Policy Forum is to be reconvened in 2010. The participating countries in 2009 were Australia, Brazil, Canada, the PR of China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Tunisia and the US in addition to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

17. The Kyrgyz position is clear however: high level support, and this was signalled by the attendance of the Vice Prime Minister at the first meeting of the Bologna Policy Forum in April 2009.

18. For Silova, in 2005: ‘Postgraduate education in Turkmenistan does not exist. Postgraduate students continue their education at higher institutions of neighbouring countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrygzstan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and at higher institutions in the European Union, Turkey, the USA, China, Japan etc’ (Silova 2005, 57).

19. The CAREN project is another component of a developing comprehensive set of EU initiatives in network provision. CAREN will link Central Asia with the BSI (Black Sea Initiative), TEIN2 (Eastern Asia), ORIENT (China), EUROMEDCONNECT2 (the Mediterranean), ALICE2 (Latin America) and TEIN3 (Asia‐Pacific).

20. There is an underlying approach to the region from the RELEX perspective: the nature of the regimes in the region means that little can be attempted in terms of engaging with education officials until the cover of governmental approval has been provided.