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Paper short abstract:

This article examines the demise of the US proposal to re-establish a military base in Uzbekistan through the perspective of international and domestic factors. In addition, this work analyzes the counterfactual and repercussions on relations between Russia and Uzbekistan

Paper long abstract:

Doha Agreement was unable to bring about peace and end the protracted military conflict in Afghanistan. Moreover, experts had overlooked the importance of regional powers, apart from Pakistan, in fostering regional security and misinterpreted their interests and concerns. This paper focuses on the diplomatic efforts of the United States to re-establish a military base in Uzbekistan in the first nine months of the Biden administration, in the context of American withdrawal and collapsing security in Afghanistan. The brisk Taliban takeover may have crossed out the relevance of any such proposal, but it is vital to research the not-taken roads and examine factors that influenced that particular outcome. This work provides a historical overview of the previous short-lived experience of hosting a US base in the wake of the 2000s. It argues that domestic and international constraints contributed to the current proposal's demise for the military footprint. We identify several domestic variables that have contributed to that, such as the election of a new President of Uzbekistan in 2016, a different approach to the southern neighbor, and international factors, such as hostile bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. Lastly, this study aims to explore the counterfactual of the re-establishment of the US military base and the implications for bilateral relations between a Central Asian state and Russia.

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Paper short abstract:

This study is about the local conceptualisation of nation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004-2021). Based on an examination of primary resources including school textbooks and interviews conducted at the Ministry of Education, the study uncovers the content of the “nation of Afghanistan.”

Paper long abstract:

The departing point of this study is to understand the implications of “nation-building” as a Western initiative in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004-2021) particularly in terms of the local conceptualisation of nation or millat. Based on this larger question, the goal of this study is to reveal the idea of nation as presented in the discourse of education constructed by the state of Afghanistan. To this end, the study employs three major primary resources: official state documents, school textbooks and expert interviews conducted at the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan. Pursuing a qualitative research methodology, the study uncovers four major elements that make up the idea of the “nation of Afghanistan” or the millat-e Afghanistan: (1) Islam, (2) watan (homeland), (3) qawm, and (4) Afghaniyat (Afghanness). Reflecting a very specific understanding of nation that is peculiar to the context of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, this study concludes that the Western-imposed form of nation has a local content which struggles hard to keep the idea of nation together.

Note: This study has, very recently, been accepted as an article to be published in the journal titled Nations and Nationalism.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to answer the following questions (i) how China and Russia define their neighborhood in the context of post-Soviet Central Asia, and (ii) why neighborhood policy is important for Russia and China in this regard.

Paper long abstract:

The pursuit of effective policy in the neighborhood is one of the most important foreign policy objectives. Engagement in the neighboring areas may generate profits from trade, foster mutual investments, or be a step for achieving regional power status. Therefore, the activity in the neighborhood became an important element of foreign policy for Russia and China.

Geographically, the Central Asian region constitutes a neighborhood for both: Russia and China. Thus, the paper aims to answer the following questions (i) how China and Russia define their neighborhood in the context of post-Soviet Central Asia, and (ii) why neighborhood policy is important for Russia and China in this regard.

The main conclusion is that each country defines its neighborhood differently. China defines it in geographical terms, as states and regions neighboring Chinese provinces. Russia, on the other hand, perceives it as the former territory of the USSR. However, the major goal of neighborhood policies for both Russia, and China is the same – security. For China, it is the securitization of Xinjiang province, and for Russia the reduction of U.S. interference.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper may help us test the explanatory power of three major research programs of international relations to explain the places and roles of Central Asian states in which they have and play at regional and international levels and how dealing with Russia.

Paper long abstract:

Theories on international relations have always been in the spotlight and consider as a solid base for understanding and explaining different security and economic issues and why the states take certain positions and have either common or competitive interests and policies. Interests and policies of states may cause cooperation or competition among the states. The debates on how to deal with each other have been generalized and found in research programs in theories of international relations. Therefore, IR schools or research programs – a series of theories that share similar assumptions – have emerged. As none of the schools can embrace and explain all the diverse issues of world politics, thus, they formed a symbiosis to simplify the reality and give a rational explanation for particular events. Therefore, in some cases, the core assumptions of these theories have common features that explain the logic of events in the same manner.

It is worth attempting to understand motivations that states decide in cooperation or competition with each other and understand what conditions international relations theories can explain this process. In this paper, I am taking the Central Asian states as my case and will try to apply three major research programs of international relations (realism, liberalism, and constructivism) to the common security and economic issues related to the Central Asian states when they deal with Russia, a hegemonic power of the region.

The application of different theories likely helps us to understand the current foreign policies of Central Asian states. This is because the power, political regimes, perceptions, identities, economic capacities of the Central Asian states influence their place in the international system and define their roles in regional world politics. Therefore, applying one theory to specific state policies is essential to understanding security and economic issues. However, on the other hand, theories may do a good job separately covering economic and security concerns.

This paper may help us test the explanatory power of three major research programs of international relations to explain the places and roles of Central Asian states in which they have and play at regional and international levels and how dealing with Russia.