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Paper abstract:

The political landscape of Central Asia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation in December 1991 with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. While there are certain common trends, such as the shift from planned to market economies or the attempts towards some degree of democratization, the unique context of each Central Asian state has played a vital role in shaping their transition. These states have been rebuilding their disintegrated state, legal, and market structures in a peculiar combination of pre-Soviet, Soviet, and entirely new institutions, and norms (Luong, 2004; Morozova, 2004) within a political and legal landscape where Soviet, Islamic, and Western systems coexist and clash occasionally.

While these several political, economic, and legal systems operate together, the adoption of international law and standards has quickened pace since the early 2000s as various actors - states, multinational companies, NGOs, and international organizations have entered the region, increased their activities and influence on politics, economics, law, culture, and security (Morozova, 2004; Menon, 2015). As it has happened in other post-Socialist states (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, 2005; Grabbe, 2006), norms generation, reproduction, and diffusion have become a powerful force that impact the policies, laws, and institutions, pushing for political, legal, and economic changes in the region. As noted in the literature, international organizations have acted as norm entrepreneurs and played significant roles in norm diffusion processes in Central Asia.

Though it has been actively involved in the region, UNODC’s specific activities, projects, and the mechanisms by which it disseminates norms on issue areas within its mandate in Central Asia remain unexplored.To address this gap, this research seeks to answer key questions: How does UNODC foster international norms and standards in response to transnational challenges? Why is UNODC's involvement crucial in facilitating norm diffusion within Central Asia? Furthermore, the study delves into potential contestation from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) against UNODC's norm diffusion and reflects upon evolving global governance dynamics and the boundaries of norm diffusion in the Central Asian region.