ABSTRACT
In the 1990s the Central Asian states showed little commitment to undertake the fundamental reforms necessary to establish efficient if small national military forces out of their Soviet military heritage or to develop a framework for substantive regional military cooperation, although lip service was paid to both these goals.1 The first of these objectives could not be advanced seriously in conditions of inadequate military budgets, an absence of any basic consensus about the nature of military threats and the appropriate restructuring necessary to meet such threats, and continued adherence to unrealistic blueprints for CIS military frameworks formulated by Russia. The second objective was frustrated by broader challenges to regionalism: the Central Asian states had unresolved territorial disputes, held different perspectives on relations with their southern neighbours and on military ties with Russia, they pursued different economic programmes, and adopted different models of political development.
