Central Asia: Is there an alternative to regional integration?

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 25, Issue 1-2, 2006, Pages 75-91

  Bobokulov, Inomjon ^a  

^a Center for System Studies   (Uzbekistan)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POLITICAL INTEGRATION;

ASIA; CENTRAL ASIA; EURASIA;

EID: 33750453053     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: 14653354     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634930600903056     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Martin C. Spechler, 'Regional non-cooperation in Central Asia: A pathology', in Economic Developments and Reforms in Cooperation Partner Countries: The Interrelationship Between Regional Economic Cooperation, Security and Stability, Colloquium, 2-4 May 2001, Bucharest, Romania (NATO, 2001), p 272.
2. On regional security complex theory see Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
3. Analyzing Central Asia's natural and human resources Frederick Starr emphasized that 'they would be the envy of any developing region on earth. Under normal circumstances, they would easily combine in a kind of chemical reaction to create wealth. But in this region at the heart of the Eurasian land mass, circumstances are far from normal.' Frederick S. Starr, 'A new phase of regional cooperation in Central Asia', Foreign Policy Magazine, suppl. Autumn 2004.
4. According to Asian Development Bank estimations, the average literacy rate of people ages 15 and above in Central Asia is 99.3%. Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Member Countries: Regional Cooperation Strategy and Program (2005-2007), ADB, July 2004, p 56.
5. Spechler, op cit, Ref 1, p 267.
6. Shirin Akiner, 'Regional integration in Central Asia', in Economic Developments and Reforms in Cooperation Partner Countries: The Interrelationship Between Regional Economic Cooperation, Security and Stability, Colloquium, 2-4 May 2001, Bucharest, Romania (NATO, 2001), pp 199-200.
7. One of the principles on which donors and countries agreed during the London conference on the seven low-income CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, The Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) is that 'the CIS-7 are to cooperate with each other in their respective subregions'. Johannes Linn, Transition Years: Reflections on Economic Reform and Social Change in Europe and Central Asia (New York: The World Bank, 2004), p 52.
8. Kazakhstanskaia Pravda, 25 June 1990.
9. Quoted from Martha Brill Olcott, Central Asia's New States: Independence, Foreign Policy, and Regional Security (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press), p 53.
10. Olcott, ibid, p 52.
11. Also were established the Council of the Heads of Governments, the Council of the Ministers of Foreign affairs, the Council of the Ministers of Defense and so on.
12. Kyrgyzstan joined the agreement in 1998.
13. Bakhtior A. Islamov, The Central Asian States Ten Years After: How to Overcome Traps of Development, Transformation and Globalization (Tokyo: Maruzen Co. Ltd., 2001), p 176.
14. Ibid.
15. Raymond Aron, Peace and War (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), pp 462-463.
16. Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands.
17. Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
18. Akiner, op cit, Ref 6, p 204.
19. For example, the extent of road networks of two countries, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, is respectively, 87,000 and 78,000 km. The extent of rail networks - 13,841 and 3460 km. See Regional Economic Cooperation in Central Asia, Asian Development Bank, July 1998, pp 87, 97.
20. For example, in 2001 the Central Asian countries' GDP was estimated at US$41.6 billion (Economist Intelligence Unit estimate). Quoted by Ludia M. Buyers (ed.), Central Asia in focus: Political and Economic Issues (New York: Nova Science, 2003), p 229.
21. In 2002, the region's GDP was US$45 billion. Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Member Countries: Regional Cooperation Strategy and Program (2005-2007), ADB, July 2004, p 10.
22. Liechtenstein is another country in Europe with the same status, but Uzbekistan is the single country in the world, which is as distant from the nearest seaport as 3000 km away. See S. Safaev, 'The Black Sea region and Caspian Sea basin - the European rim of Asia: Regional and global challengers. An arc of crisis?', Presentation delivered in Club of Rome, Annual Conference Ankara, Bilkent University, October 2002), http://www.clubofrome.org/docs/confs/safaev.pdf (last accessed April 2005).
23. Starr, op cit, Ref 3.
24. 'Kazakhstanskaya neft' - vostochniy vector', Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 18 April 2005.
25. Aftab Kazi, 'Transit-route politics and Central Asia's Indus Basin Corridor', 4 July 2001, http://www.cacianalyst.org (last accessed April 2005).
26. Soviet scholars tried to prove the thesis that the establishment of national republics was the realization of the will of the Central Asian population. See A. A. Gordienko, Sozdanie sovetskoi natsionalnoi gosudarstvennosti v Srednei Azii (Moskva: Gosiurizdat, 1959)
27. R. Tursunov, Natsionalnaia politika kommunisticheskoi partii v Turkestane (1919-1924gg) (Tashkent: Uzbekistan, 1971).
28. Quoted by Arne Haugen, The Establishment of National Republics in Soviet Central Asia (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p 18.
29. This thesis is widely supported by many scholars. For example, Arne Haugen argues that according to Pipes, Bennigsen, Conquest, Carrere d'Encausse and others, the rationale of the organization of national administrative and political entities in Central Asia was to divide and rule by destroying a genuine nationalism (Turkestan nationalism) and replacing it with artificial national orientations. See Arne Haugen, op cit, Ref 24, p 14.
30. See Olivier Roy, The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations (New York: New York University Press, 2000), p viii.
31. See V. Barthold, Istoriya Turkestana Soch Vol. 2 (Moskva, 1963)
32. quoted by Saodat Olimova, Natsionalniy gosudarstva i etnicheskiy territorii, in Mnogomerniy granitsi Tsentralnoy Azii, pod redaktsiei Martha Brill Olcott and A. Malashenko (Moscow: Gendalf, 2000), p 15.
33. See Saodat Olimova, ibid, p 16.
34. See V. Barthold, Tseremonial pri dvore uzbekskih hanov v XVII v, Soch. Vol. 2 (Moscow, 1963).
35. This fact also emphasized by some international agencies. For example, according to the EU's Border Management Programme in Central Asian, 'Creation and development of their own border management capacities are particularly important in this region due to the rise in cross-border crime and moreover drug trafficking, arms trafficking, trafficking in human beings, security issues, terrorism, which require a strengthening of international assistance and cooperation'. Border Management Central Asian Programme htpp://www.cagateway.org/downloads/BOMCA%20DESCRIPTION (last accessed April 2005).
36. Necati Polat, Boundary issues in Central Asia (New York: Transnational Publishers, 2002), p 48.
37. It is necessary to note that this rule for the first time has been fixed in the Final Act of CSCE in 1975. It is one of the major bases for the European and international security.
38. Polat, op cit, Ref 31, p 55.
39. 'About three frontier localities of Kazakh-Uzbek border' (Kazakhstan parliament's Defense and Security committee chairman Sh. Omarov's briefing), htpp://www.parlam.kz.
40. See Nancy Lubin and Barnett R. Rubin, Calming the Ferghana Valley: development and dialog in the heart of Central Asia (New York: The Century Foundation Press, 1999), pp 33-37.
41. Demograficheskii ejegodnik Uzbekistana (Tashkent: Gosudarstvennii Komitet po Statistiki, 2003).
42. See Lubin and Rubin, op cit, Ref 35, p 35.
43. See Demograficheskii ejegodnik Uzbekistana, op cit, Ref 36.
44. 'Mosti drujbi mejdu stranami' http://tajikistan.tajnet.com/news/ an23052001.htm (last accessed April 2005).
45. 'Border Management Central Asian Programme' http://www.cagateway.org/ downloads/BOMCA%20DESCRIPTION.pdf (last accessed April 2005).
46. 'V Dushanbe zavershilsya summit', 18 October 2004, htpp://www.UzRepot.com (last accessed April 2005).
47. 'Putin, Karimov discussing Central Asian cooperation' http://english.people.com.cn/200410/18/eng20041018_160568.html (last accessed April 2005).
48. For example, approximately 85 per cent of all labour migrants from Tajikistan (530,000) in the period from 2000 to 2003 were working in Russia. Saodat Olimova and Igor Bosc, Labour Migration from Tajikistan (International Organization for Migration in Cooperation with the Sharq Scientific Research Center, July 2003), p 23.
49. During Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tajikistan in October 2004, several agreements were signed between Russia and Tajikistan that promised Russian investment of some US$2 billion in projects in this country over the next five years. Russia's Unified Energy Systems promised to invest US$200 million in Tajikistan's Sangtuda hydropower station. The Rusal Aluminium Company pledged to invest US$560 million into a dam at the Rogun hydropower plant and further investments in Tajikistan's aluminium plant in Tursunzoda. Uzbekistan and Russia also came to an agreement to work together in the energy sector. The Russian company Gazprom plans to invest US$1 billion to develop gas condensate fields in Ustyurt region. Russian oil company Lukoil plans to invest more than US$995 million for natural gas extraction in Bukhara-Khiva region. Bruce Pannier. 'Central Asia: Russia comes on strong' (Part 2) http://www.cdi.org/russia/331 (last accessed April 2005).
50. Kamol Abdullaev, 'Regional integration and stability - a view from Tajikistan', in Economic Developments and Reforms in Cooperation Partner Countries: The Interrelationship Between Regional Economic Cooperation, Security and Stability, Colloquium, 2-4 May 2001, Bucharest, Romania (NATO, 2001), p 245.
51. Military base in Manas (Kyrgyzstan) de-jury belongs to the Organization of Collective Defense Agreement, but de-facto it consists of the Russian military units.
52. 'Xinjiang' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang (last accessed April 2005).
53. Ernst B. Haas, The Obsolescence of Regional Integration Theory (Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies University of California, 1975), p 7.
54. Starr, op cit, Ref 3.