ABSTRACT
Geopolitical perceptions of Eurasia have evolved in conjunction with patterns of mobility and immobility. Where historical trade routes once linked East to West and North to South across the world’s largest landmass, the advent of the Soviet Union truncated these flows and reoriented their lesser versions toward and from Moscow. Since 1991, however, new points of origin, traversal, and destination have emerged in Central Eurasia and by consequence reshaped perceptions of Eurasia. For some scholars and analysts, these patterns suggest the reification of an historic Eurasian concept that predates the Tsarist and Soviet eras. Others argue that Eurasia is simply a referent to post-Soviet space. Still others see a completely new Eurasian region forming with vectors of power and influence as yet undefined. This chapter seeks to ascertain if a Eurasian geographic imaginary is warranted beyond a referent to the Russian sphere of influence and how such a conception or the absence thereof may influence global economic and political systems.
