ABSTRACT
The military element of the Soviet legacy played a significant role in the way the Central Asian states proceeded with cooperative or hostile relations with each other, as well as with international partners – Russia, China, and the West. In the late 1990s and 2000s, regional security cooperation became complicated due to the nature of the Soviet military planning in the region that led to the emergence of militarily stronger and weaker states. Military institutions seldom address the real security needs of the Central Asian societies. The chapter tracks the initial Soviet legacy of military distribution, further arms transfers, enhancement and deterioration of military units in each state in the last three decades; examines reasons and implications of changes in security policies in the late 1990s; and analyses how policy shifts impact regional cooperative relations in the 2000–2010s.
