Central Asia: Contemporary Security Challenges and Sources of State Resilience

Taking a deliberately narrow conception of security, defined as the organizational effectiveness of regimes, this paper considers recent incidents of violence in Central Asia (the second revolution in Kyrgyzstan; events in Osh, Zhanaozen and Pamir; and various “terrorist” incidents) to ask which factors have shown their potential to cause conflict and destabilization. In light of this, the paper discusses the sources of legitimacy and state capacity in Central Asian states, concluding that they are “Machiavellian principalities”.

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