Nationhood through Neighborhood? From State Sovereignty to Regional Belonging in Central Asia

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the importance of reconsidering the meaning of the nationhood within artificially created borders in Central Asia in both theoretical and regional settings. This paper argues that there is a dichotomy in the images used to describe CA regional relations and nationhood in the IR discipline that either extensively relies on arguments along the lines of rivalry, domination, and spheres of influence or, alternatively, attempts to go beyond rationalist rhetoric by focusing on local understandings of various concepts and termswith little, dialog between these two theoretical camps. This paper emphasizes the way neighborhood in Central Asia is tightly integrated into the nationhood construction through the notions of brotherhood/fraternity (birodarlik/kardoshlik/baurlastyk) and of the shared norms of endurance (sabr) and informal collective decision-making (maslahat) for nationhood and region building. Unpacking these meanings contributes to the task of creating a more diverse and inclusive IR discipline reflective of various regional specificities.

KEYWORDS:

• Central Asia
• neighborhood
• nationhood
• regional sovereignty
• consultative meetings

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS [grant number 21K12400]; Nippon Foundation; JSPS [grant number 21H00686].