ABSTRACT
Post-Soviet Central Asia emerged in a global environment characterized by the end of the Cold War and the accompanying decentralization of the international system. It owed its new separateness to the dissolution of a metropolitan power, the USSR: a process over which Central Asian leaders had little control and to which they contributed little. The new Central Asian states were shaped by and subject to the security dynamics that subsequently unfolded in the region, but were poorly placed to direct these processes themselves. In particular, the ability of these states to constrain the intrusive influence on security issues of the regional hegemon-Russia-developed only gradually in the 1990S. Central Asian leaders have been hesitant and inconsistent in formulating regional agendas or structures for security cooperation.
