Regionalism and Regional Collaboration in Central Asia

Central Asia in the post-Soviet period turned into a region with sufficiently weak social and economic linkages. It looked like a geographical area, which was significant for external powers from security or geopolitical perspective. The internal cohesion of the region was rapidly disappearing. Various attempts have not only failed at regional integration by the Central Asian states, but many of those initiated by external powers Like Russia, China and the United States, also yielded limited results. However, a new trend is visible since 2016 when a new leader became president in Uzbekistan. Improved bilateral relations and summits of leaders of the region create hope for a new regionalism in Central Asia that is based on the internal cooperative dynamics within the region. This may not replace the already existing mechanisms or organizations. However, the process itself is conducive for intra-regional cooperation and would be helpful in keeping the region free from the geopolitical competition of external powers. The question is why the regionalization process in Central Asia has not been successful so far? the hypothesis is that inter-regional political, security, economic and cultural Factors and barriers ant also Trans-regional actors Interference, led to the failure of regionalism in Central Asian.