Water resources in Central Asia: regional stability or patchy make-up?

This article explores the cooperation after independence on four Central Asian transboundary rivers. The paper shows that, even though the Central Asian states agreed in 1992 to continue with the basic water-sharing principles, new agreements had to be made. New agreements were only made in basins with large-scale water-control infrastructure, which have transboundary significance or are transboundary themselves. The inequitable water allocation between the riparian states has continued and has not triggered new agreements.     

The rise of the Jama'at al Tabligh in Kyrgyzstan: the revival of Islamic ties between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia?

After two centuries of close relationships, especially under the Mughals, Islamic ties between India and Central Asia have been considerably weakened, first after the Tsarist colonization and then by Soviet religious repression and ideological isolation. However, when Central Asian post-Soviet republics became independent in 1991, they renewed all kinds of links with the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, the revival of Central Asian Islam benefited from inspirational international Islamic sources from Turkey, the Arab countries and India. The latter drew less attention from analysts than other sources of influence, although it has gained ground all over the region in past years, particularly in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where the India-based Jama'at al Tabligh has achieved significant success. This Islamic organization, established in British India in the 1920s, defines itself as a non-radical and non-political movement, promoting ‘basic’ Islamic faith and practice. So far, the Jama'at al Tabligh has been tolerated by local authorities who would rather use them as a shield against the more radical Islamic groups that are openly opposing the regime.     

东北亚油气合作的现实选择:来自中国在中亚的成功经验

东北亚和中亚地区凭借丰富的油气资源,在世界能源版图中的地位日渐上升。近年来,中亚地区油气合作发展迅速,但是在资源总量上更具优势的东北亚油气合作之路却充满曲折。在地区性统一能源市场形成之前,政府间多边协调机制仍然是东北亚油气合作的现实选择。中国在互利双赢的理念指导下,以良好的政治互信为基础,以油气运输管线为纽带,通过以双边合作为主、双边合作带动多边合作的方式,循序渐进地稳步推进了与中亚国家的油气合作。因此,中国在推动地区油气合作方面积累了一定的成功经验,提高了驾驭复杂局面的能力,理应在推进东北亚油气合作方面发挥更积极的作用。     

Performing statehood: Afghanistan as an arena for Central Asian states

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.     

Governance and order-making in Central Asia: from illiberalism to post-liberalism?

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together five different angles on the question as to whether and how political regimes and forms of order-making can and should be researched through the concept of ‘illiberalism’. The discussion engages critically with this and associated concepts, such as ‘illiberal peace’ and ‘authoritarian conflict management’, which have been developed out of the Central Asian / Eurasian context and discussed in their wider global ramifications and, within the framing of ‘illiberal peace’, explored in various contexts in and beyond Central Asia. While further assessing the relevance and implications of this approach, this forum also attempts to think beyond ‘illiberalism’ by introducing and discussing the idea of ‘post-liberalism’. This way, the authors engage in an exchange that serves to probe both concepts and to determine their strengths and limitations when it comes to analysing and understanding politics and societal processes in Central Asia.     

Negotiating state and society: the normative informal economies of Central Asia and the Caucasus

ABSTRACT

This special issue introduces new research on informal markets and trade in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The research presented here was conducted in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Beijing, Guangzhou, Yiwu and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The following eight articles illustrate how informal markets and trade in Central Asia and the Caucasus provided spaces for people across the region to negotiate state and society in the last three decades; the articles also suggest that informality should be seen as constitutive of a normative order for polities in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Informal markets and trade in Central Asia rest on three factors: the inability of the state to measure commercial transactions; markets and trade becoming places from which citizens built personalized networks that required individualized networking and oral agreements based on social relations, particularly trust; and markets being embedded within states in which clientelism frequently thrives.     

Undermining Western democracy promotion in Central Asia: China’s countervailing influences,powers and impact

This article examines whether and to what extent China’s involvement in Central Asian countries undermines the democracy promotion efforts of the European Union and the United States. Findings confirm that China does indeed challenge Western efforts, but in an indirect way. First, Chinese provision of substantial and unconditional financial assistance makes Western politically conditioned aid appear both ungenerous and an infringement of sovereignty. Second, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, inclusive of China’s leadership role, creates an institutional means through which the (semi-)authoritarianism of member states is legitimized and challenges Western emphasis on democracy and human rights. Finally, by the power of its own example, China demonstrates that democracy is not a prerequisite for prosperity, the rule of law and social well-being.     

中亚市场一体化模式及功效比较

本文认为中亚市场一体化是经济现代化的主要因素.作者首先确定降低国家间交易成本障碍的潜在的渠道("一体化模式").其次考察这些渠道的形成并指出两种困惑:单个国家集权化的成功相对于它们之间国际合作的失败,公司和贸易网络非正式合作的成功相对于政府协调行动的缺失.最后探究致力于权力平衡的中亚市场一体化模式的相对成功及其影响.     

俄国驻中国喀什噶尔领事彼得罗夫斯基与近代英俄大博弈

尼古拉·费奥多罗维奇·彼得罗夫斯基是俄国驻我国新疆喀什噶尔第一任领事,其任期正值近代英国与俄国的中亚大博弈时期.彼得罗夫斯基利用其在当地的影响力,精心编织情报网络,培训情报人员,收集新疆地区军事政治要情,为俄国推行对华侵略政策提供信息服务,并严密监视英国动向,协助俄国军队占领我国帕米尔地区.在经济方面,彼得罗夫斯基通过扩大俄国商圈、打压英国在新疆的贸易和扰乱金融体系等手段,帮助俄国扩大对新疆的贸易.此外,彼得罗夫斯基利用职务之便在我国新疆喀什噶尔及其周边地区大肆劫掠文物,并与俄国国内积极互动,为俄国考察者提供文物信息和物质支持,在此方面,也将英国视为最大竞争对手.在彼得罗夫斯基的苦心经营下,19世纪末20世纪初俄国在新疆地区的影响力得到极大的扩张,无论在政治、经济还是文物掠夺方面,相对于英国均占据了先机.     

俄罗斯、中国及中亚的权力制衡:融合还是竞争?

近年来,中亚地缘政治结构出现重大变化,传统地缘关系被打破,新的地缘政治格局尚未完全形成.中国、俄罗斯由于自身实力的变化,以及各自在中亚目标存在异同,双方在中亚形成既融合又竞争的态势,而作为中俄在中亚共同的平台――上海合作组织,同样也面临着复杂的发展前景.随着时间的推移,不可确定因素的增加,中亚可能成为更复杂的"舞台".     

中国与中亚国家的能源合作及中国的能源安全——地缘政治视角的分析

能源安全是当今世界的一个焦点问题.经济处于快速发展阶段的中国对能源的需求与日俱增,能源安全已经成为中国国家安全最主要的内容之一.目前中国把开展各种形式的国际合作作为解决能源安全问题的主要手段之一,其中与中亚国家的能源合作占有相当重要的地位.中国与中亚国家的能源合作既有坚实的客观物质基础,也有与之相符的主观合作愿望,已经取得了较大的成果.从长期来看,这种合作并不仅仅是中国与中亚之间经济互利的需要,更有地缘政治利益上的考量和需要,对于未来中国的能源安全有着十分重要的意义.     

‘Don’t become a lost specimen!’: polygyny and motivational interconnectivity in Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT

Why would a woman agree to wed a legally married man when the state would neither recognize her marriage nor grant her alimony, child support or inheritance rights? Although the Communist Party curtailed the rate of openly acknowledged polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz, its work was undone by glasnost and perestroika, which ushered in a permissive environment. This article highlights constructions of gender as a driver of polygyny in Kyrgyzstan from the perspective of women who voluntarily become second wives. The Kyrgyz case suggests that the cultural value of marriage and motherhood – traditions that grant women communal identities, power and prestige – might lead a woman to consent to second-wife status. I employ the concept of motivational interconnectivity, defined as two or more related reasons women make important personal decisions that have societal repercussions, to explain a woman’s decision to become a second wife.     

Between national and European foreign policy: the role of Latvia and Romania in the EU’s policy towards Central Asia

This article explores whether and to what extent new member states of the European Union (EU) seek to pursue their national foreign policy goals towards Central Asia through the EU rather than bilaterally. To do so, it focuses on Latvia and Romania. While the article finds evidence of Romanian attempts to project its interests in the region onto the EU level, Latvia appears to rely more extensively on the EU level to pursue its goals towards Central Asia. Using insights from the literature on Europeanization of national foreign policy, the article explains this finding with reference to four variables that determine whether a member state will seek to upload its national foreign policy preferences onto the EU level, namely the perceived salience of the policy goals, the extent to which member states can carve out a niche, their perceived capabilities and the level of Europeanization of their national foreign policies.