ABSTRACT
This chapter opens my analysis of the different strategies whereby the regimes in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have managed the pandemic. As it focuses on the response phase of authoritarian pandemic management, the chapter places its attention on the onset of emergency politics in Central Asia, its contribution to regime-building across the region, and its impact on rights and liberties of everyday Central Asians. ‘States of Emergency’ is in this sense a study of the political implications of lockdowns, quarantines, and travel restrictions enforced in Central Asia during March 2020–March 2022.
