https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1725-5152
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Abstract
The Central Asian states face the challenge of containing Russia’s revisionism in the post-Soviet space while maintaining cooperative relations with it and integrating diplomatically and economically into the international system. This essay argues that the Central Asian states are managing this revisionism through a strategy we refer to as ‘balancing regionalism’: cooperating among themselves and with multiple actors to insulate themselves from great power revisionist power politics and from the establishment of an exclusive sphere of influence in their region. This balancing regionalism operates through the following three mechanisms: bridging, dovetailing, and branding.
Notes
1 ‘Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s Address and Answers to Questions at the 53rd Munich Security Conference, Munich, February 18, 2017’, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, available at: http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/minister_speeches/-/asset_publisher/7OvQR5KJWVmR/content/id/2648249, accessed 24 January 2020.
2 For initial research on how Russia’s revisionism has affected its relations with other CIS members, and in particular the Central Asian states, see Allison (Citation2017) and Costa Buranelli (Citation2018).
3 All three quotes are from ‘Putin’s Re-election not Good News for Central Asia—Pundits’, BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 22 March 2018, available at: https://www.nexis.com/search/EnhXMLCrossLinkSearch.do?ersKey=23_T27729495578&returnToId=20_T27729499017&csi=10962&A=0.018261650288989295&sourceCSI=162599&indexTerm=%23PE0009U46%23&searchTerm=Vladimir%20Putin's%20&indexType=P, accessed 18 July 2018.
4 See also Hynek and Karmazin, and Allison in this special issue.
5 See also the Introduction to this special issue.
6 See also Allison (Citation2017).
7 See, for example, Schweller (Citation2015), Sakwa (Citation2017, Citation2019), Cooley (Citation2019).
8 Cooley (Citation2012, p. 51) refers to Russia’s ‘resurgence’ in the region in this period.
9 See also Trenin (Citation2014). Ivan Krastev noted as early as 2005 that the Kremlin regarded Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution’ as its own ‘9/11’ (quoted in Cooley Citation2019, p. 599).
10 In other words, balancing regionalism relies on a logic of ‘alignment’ rather than of ‘alliance’ (Nourzhanov Citation2012; Contessi Citation2015).
11 As Wohlforth notes, ‘balancing can also occur against regional states pursuing revisionist policies … . Here offensive intentions matter more than sheer military capabilities’ (Wohlforth Citation2004, p. 7).
12 See, for example, Cameron and Orenstein (Citation2012), Laruelle (Citation2012), Snetkov (Citation2012), Kaczmarska (Citation2015).
13 ‘SCO States are Strengthening Trade and Economic Cooperation’, SCO, 26 September 2019, available at: http://eng.sectsco.org/news/20190926/583587.html, accessed 13 May 2020.
14 ‘Press Release on the Results of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council Meeting’, 8–9 June 2017, available at: http://eng.sectsco.org/documents/, accessed 8 May 2020.
15 All data have been taken from https://tradingeconomics.com/, accessed 13 May 2020, and refer to 2018 with the exception of Kazakhstan, for which the data refer to 2019.
16 Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are currently upgrading their relations with the EU through an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, while Uzbekistan is in the negotiating phase and Tajikistan has expressed interest in an enhanced partnership. EU relations with Turkmenistan are governed by the 2010 Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related matters, as the European Parliament made ratification of the PCA signed in 1998 contingent on the existence of a system to check progress on human rights. ‘Central Asia’, Fact Sheets on the European Union, available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/178/central-asia, accessed 13 May 2020.
17 For an interesting parallel with respect to East Asia and how small states there balance against surrounding great powers, see Goh’s notion of ‘omni-enmeshment’ (Citation2005).
18 ‘Nazarbayev Calls for Expanding SCO Cooperation with International Organizations’, Central Asia General Newswire, 6 April 2017, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=795827b2-571a-472a-bea0-f1d7f43967b5&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5N86-V731-JC92-P1HK-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=295076&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=616a9357-6d5e-4247-aa8a-5e7b57f8d2a6, accessed 24 September 2019.
19 ‘OSCE, SCO and EU in Central Asia Discuss Cooperation in Vienna under Tajikistan Chairmanship’, Tajikistan Newsline (English), 16 July 2019, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=25f343af-1e2b-4b3a-a8cd-689bce6cfdc8&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5WKN-NT81-JDMW-J207-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=468650&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=d54afd02-1c1e-4192-ab4e-7250204fe711, accessed 24 September 2019.
20 ‘Nursultan Nazarbaev prinyal uchastie v zasedanii Vysshego Evraziiskogo ekonomicheskogo soveta v rasshirennom sostave’, Akorda.kz, 29 May 2019, available at: http://www.akorda.kz/ru/events/international_community/foreign_other_events/nursultan-nazarbaev-prinyal-uchastie-v-zasedanii-vysshego-evraziiskogo-ekonomicheskogo-soveta-v-rasshirennom-sostave, accessed 24 September 2019.
21 ‘Nazarbayev Declares Wish to Unite CICA, OSCE’, Central Asia General Newswire, 16 November 2017, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=baf895fa-98b2-4d0e-9fe1-01b45364d316&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5R00-G011-JC92-P06R-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=295141&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=0add4885-77ba-40ce-aad8-bcb1ed0bc7a9, accessed 14 May 2020.
22 ‘SCO Fails to Back Russia over Georgia’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 28 August 2008, available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/SCO_Fails_To_Back_Russia_Over_Georgia/1194578.html, accessed 28 May 2020.
23 ‘President Jeenbekov Meets CSTO Defense Ministers’, Central Asian News Service (English language), 30 April 2019, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=a19803f8-954d-4903-957e-fd9534e3c5a2&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5W0V-C5J1-JDJN-606C-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=399204&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=5b6e8db3-7d92-4fb1-802e-f125b9d47706, accessed 14 May 2020.
24 ‘NATO’s Relations with Central Asia’, NATO, 22 February 2013, available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_107957.htm, accessed 23 September 2019.
25 ‘Silk Road Economic Belt could link SCO, EAEU and EU—Nazarbayev’, Kazakhstan General Newswire, 15 May 2017, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=4eec098e-73aa-4d59-b7bc-dfb44f31d7ac&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5NJH-PC51-DYS4-D181-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=295076&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=d6bd1059-8818-4c3a-bd55-dae9b83553f1, accessed 15 May 2020.
26 ‘EAEU, SCO and BRICS could form a Common Trade Area—Nazarbayev’, Kazakhstan General Newswire, 10 July 2015, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=03fd1bff-6d7c-453c-a6ad-80cd65dd1bd4&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5GDK-CCR1-JC92-P24W-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=295076&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=9067c9b3-40cb-4f42-8677-ea8959f845c2, accessed 15 May 2020.
27 ‘Jeenbekov Reaffirms OSCE Secretary General that Kyrgyzstan Committed to Developing Parliamentary Democracy’, Central Asia General Newswire, 22 May 2018, available at: https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1519360&crid=189d1f9a-08af-4797-b3b8-21bc71d5245f&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5SCV-VPW1-JC92-P23F-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=294963&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=-pJ3k&earg=sr0&prid=02999e8a-6598-4f37-8929-89c83dc3fdaf, accessed 15 May 2020.
28 ‘Participation in the Working (Consultative) Meeting of the Heads of Central Asian States’, Akorda.kz, 15 March 2018, available at: http://www.akorda.kz/en/events/akorda_news/meetings_and_receptions/participation-in-the-working-consultative-meeting-of-the-heads-of-central-asian-states, accessed 28 May 2020.
29 ‘Rare Central Asian Summit Signals Regional Thaw’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/central-asian-summit-astana-kazakhstan-uzbekistan-tajikistan-kyrgyzstan-turkmenistan/29101686.html, accessed 20 July 2018.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Aliya Tskhay
Aliya Tskhay, Research Associate, University of St Andrews, The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9AX, UK. Email: [email protected]
Filippo Costa Buranelli
Filippo Costa Buranelli, Lecturer in International Relations, University of St Andrews, The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9AX, UK. Email: [email protected]