The Constraints of the Past and the Failure of Central Asian Regionalism, 1991–2004

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The Constraints of the Past and the Failure of Central Asian Regionalism, 1991–2004

Published in 1 Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia 3, 245-266, 2014 which should be used for any reference to this work The Constraints of the Past and the Failure of Central Asian Regionalism, 1991–2004 Damian Rosset and David Svarin This article examines the failure of regional integration in post-Soviet Central Asia. It proposes a narrative of the rise and fall of Central Asian regionalism between 1991 and 2004 centered on the perceptions and expectations of the region’s republics. The argument is that these states did not emerge from the USSR in an ideational vacuum, where their construction of self at the inter- ȱȱ ȱȱȱęȱȱǯȱǰȱȱȱȱȱ inherited pre-existing understandings of the role and place of their respective state in the new international system. At the regional level, an actual and a perceived set of power relations led to incompatible preferences and strategies, ȱȱȱȱȱęȱȱȱȱȱȱ- alism.

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