Abstract

It has been almost a decade since the five Central Asian states began working more closely together to strengthen regional cooperation by seeking to effectively solve border disputes, addressing the issue of water resources, deepening economic ties, and fostering people-to-people contacts. This study attempts to review the trajectories of the scholarship on Central Asian regionalism. While earlier scholarly works looked to the European experience as a benchmark to gauge regional integration, recent insights have moved beyond using Western functionalist approaches to conceptualize Central Asian regional cooperation, emphasizing idiosyncratic region-building practices. Currently, renewed regional cooperation in Central Asia is driven by local political actors, who deliberately avoid the aim of achieving regional integration and instead prefer flexible practices based on local sociopolitical norms. Although this approach has increased political trust, resolved long-standing border issues, and promoted regional trade and economic activity, social interactions among Central Asians remain limited.

This research is based on the understanding that social sciences are not only about description but also about creating new meanings and possibilities for change. Therefore, we aim to conceptualize and propose ways in which Central Asian cooperation – and, in the future, even Central Asian integration in certain spheres – can be implemented. One of the biggest problems facing Central Asian countries is the existence of social, economic, and cultural hierarchies. From a decolonial epistemological perspective, hierarchy is a form of oppression, and a hierarchical society is an oppressive society. How can Central Asian countries cooperate if they are internally divided? Thus, this research emphasizes the importance of social rights, such as the human right to decent incomes, social payments, pensions, affordable and quality health care, and the right to education, all of which can help create more egalitarian societies in place of stratified ones. The development of social rights will minimize social and economic hierarchies and promote regional cooperation – and integration in non-sensitive sectors – in Central Asia. Importantly, models of a socially oriented but limited Central Asian state can be based on the legacy of Kazakh-Alash and Central Asian Jadid intellectuals, who in principle followed a social democratic model with a division of powers. For example, the creation of a common Central Asian labor market or a Central Asian Water and Irrigation Community can benefit all. Successful regional cooperation and integration projects were initially operationally limited but philosophically ambitious.