ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the first in a trio of interconnected studies of the operational facet of regime neo-Eurasianism. Initially, the chapter’s narrative is centred on Kazakhstan’s efforts to institutionalise supra-state integration in Central Asia’s narrow political milieu. Explaining the alternation of the few successes and, most importantly, the many failures encountered by Kazakhstani-led initiatives of regional integratsiya in Central Asia, has to be seen as the core aim of the initial part of Chapter 3. In the chapter’s later segments, the reader is presented with an innovative analytical framework that compares the neo-Eurasianist undertones of Kazakhstani-sponsored regionalism with the different constructs underpinning the vision of regional hegemony framed by the leadership of Uzbekistan during the long presidency of Islam A. Karimov (1992–2016).
