The Limits of Cooperation: Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the New Silk Road

Abstract

[...]being Muslim and Central Asian, and sharing a Soviet legacy of both colonization and development, has not facilitated a sense of shared identity, much less cooperation, among the Central Asian states themselves. Since 1991, multiple external attempts at regional integration have either failed or remained hollow shells of international agreements.1 Mistrust among Central Asian leaders has often led these countries to the brink of armed conflict on their interstate borders and rarely fostered cooperation. [...]the Central Asian regimes and their populations are increasingly convinced that the U.S. presence in the region was short-term and self-serving, while Russia and China remain for the long-haul.