Performing statehood: Afghanistan as an arena for Central Asian states

Abstract

Afghanistan is often mentioned as a threat to the Central Asian states. Potential spillovers of violence, extremism, terrorism and dangers related to the drug trade are seen as significant security issues for the region. This article takes a different approach. Taking a performative view of statehood, we see state identities as socially constituted, partly by involvement in regional and global processes. From research on border management, the Northern Distribution Network, and various forms of bilateral cooperation between Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, we argue that Afghanistan has become an arena where the Central Asian states can participate. How the Central Asian states bordering on Afghanistan are treated as relevant participants, regardless of actual state capacity or the effectiveness of their policies, serves to constitute and confirm their sovereignty and relevance to the international community, and ultimately their statehood. By emphasizing the important state effects of their performance, our perspective differs from accounts of Central Asian states as either ‘weak’ or ‘strong’, and the tendency to depict Central Asian engagement in regional initiatives as mere window-dressing.

Keywords:

• Central Asia
• Afghanistan
• performativity
• state theory

Acknowledgements

We thank Minda Holm for excellent research assistance, and Stein Sundstøl Eriksen, Stina Torjesen, Julie Wilhelmsen and Indra Øverland for helpful comments on earlier drafts. We also thank the reviewer. Any errors or misinterpretations remain the responsibility of the co-authors.

Funding

This article was produced under a research grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Defence [Grant number 2011/02091-FDII].

Notes

1. The President of Tajikistan officially changed his name from Emomali Rakhmonov to Imomali Rakhmon in March 2007. In the text we refer to him by the name that is used in the cited sources, thus Rakhmonov in the cited reference is the same as Rakhmon elsewhere.

2. This is also the case for most academic research that takes the state as a natural and pre-existing entity. See Weber (1998) for a critique.

3. This includes the OSCE Border Management Academy in Dushanbe, which gathers law enforcement officials from all Central Asian countries plus Afghanistan – interviews with representatives of the OSCE and the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), Dushanbe, 26 and 28 September 2012.

4. Interview with a journalist in Dushanbe, 26 September 2012.

5. Interview with a representative of the Tajikistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dushanbe, 9 October 2012.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Interview with an international expert, Dushanbe, 25 September 2012.

9. Interviews with two scholars at the Academy of Sciences, Dushanbe, 25 September 2012.

10. Interview with representatives of a women's NGO, Kulyob, 5 October 2012.

11. Kazakhstan is even in the process of establishing an aid agency, KazAid, ‘to provide technical assistance to Central Asia and other Muslim countries’; see Zakon (2012).

12. Interview with a diplomat, Oslo, 20 November 2012.