Karolina Kluczewska
Geopolitical Reorientations in Central Asia
Since the Soviet collapse, Central Asian states have been largely oriented towards Russia, seeing it as a reference point in foreign and domestic policies. Russia was even attributed with a status of a “strategic partner”. This suddenly changed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 which prompted Central Asian policymakers, businesses and civil society to look for new, more reliable partners in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Using a critical geopolitics lens, my project analyses the new “strategic” partnerships emerging in the region. It investigates actors and rationalities of the ongoing geopolitical reorientation, as well as formal and informal practices characterising this process.
Biography
Since the Soviet collapse, Central Asian states have been largely oriented towards Russia, seeing it as a reference point in foreign and domestic policies. Russia was even attributed with a status of a “strategic partner”. This suddenly changed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 which prompted Central Asian policymakers, businesses and civil society to look for new, more reliable partners in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Using a critical geopolitics lens, my project analyses the new “strategic” partnerships emerging in the region. It investigates actors and rationalities of the ongoing geopolitical reorientation, as well as formal and informal practices characterising this process.
Publications
Post-Soviet Dependence with Benefits? Critical Geopolitics of Belarus’s and Tajikistan’s Strategic Alignment with Russia
Post-Soviet Power Hierarchies in the Making: Postcolonialism in Tajikistan’s Relations with Russia’, Review of International Studies
Donor-funded Women’s Empowerment in Tajikistan: Trajectories of Women’s NGOs and Changing Attitudes to the International Agenda
Studies in Comparative International Development 57, no. 1 (2022): 63-84
