Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the strengthening of regional solidarity that contributes to the stability of Central Asia’s current political authoritarian regimes and argues that a symbolic solidarity built around authoritarian values is reinforced by formal security institutions led by Russia and China.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the strengthening of regional solidarity that contributes to the stability of Central Asia’s current political authoritarian regimes. In this paper, I will look at the January 2022 violence in Kazakhstan and the subsequent intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) led by Russia as well as the enlargement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, led by China, and argue that a symbolic solidarity built around authoritarian values is reinforced by formal security institutions.

In January 2022 in Kazakhstan, an unprecedented popular uprising and a struggle between elites ended with the intervention of troops from the CSTO, of which Russia provided the largest contingents. Everything suggests that Kazakhstani President Tokayev, not having confidence in his own security forces, called on the CSTO to maintain and consolidate his authority over the state apparatus. Russia, as a dominant member of the CSTO, was presented with a great opportunity to reassert its role as a stabilizing power in a sphere of influence it already dominates. This intervention reveals a drift: authoritarian states weakened by popular uprisings can count on authoritarian regional solidarity that will help to maintain the status quo.

The paper will also address the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), created in 2001 which brings together China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The organization aims to promote cooperation between members in several domains: economic, political and military and regularly conducts military exercises. One important mission of the SCO is intended to combat extremism and terrorism. The organization, which chart does not insist on the defense of democratic rights but on the promotion of political stability, offers an attractive framework for intervention for the countries of Central Asia. Finally, I will argue that this authoritarian solidarity (Ambrioso 2008, 2016) contributes to the worrying phenomenon of the diffusion and consolidation of authoritarianism that has been taking place in the world since the beginning of the 21st century (Foa and Mounk 2016).