From Regional Integration to Soft Institutionalism: What Kind of Regionalism for Central Asia?

The first term of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as president of Uzbekistan, has opened the country to higher levels of cooperation with its neighbours. Mirzoyev’s proactive position towards strengthening cooperation in Central Asia and support of other regional states has since 2017 attracted the interest of scholars to the dynamics of regionalization in Central Asia. The consultative meetings among CA leaders, cooperation among their governments’ strategic think tanks, and official discussions on mutual visa recognition between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are all evidence of increased collaboration in the region. Experts and journalists in the region have started to talk about regional integration in Central Asia and the possibilities for establishing a regional organization. Although the progress in cooperation has been significant, we argue that it’s not feasible and not necessary to create regional organizations at this stage, and suggest soft institutionalism as a possible way of strengthening relations in CA. Two main research questions addressed in this paper are: (1) Why do we need a new debate on Central Asian regionalism? (2) What kind of regionalism project is viable for CA?