GREAT SILK ROAD AND EURASIAN INTEGRATION

Abstract

This paper analyzes institutional bases of the Eurasian integration, the role of China and the Eurasian course of Russia’s development. The Eurasian regional centers are looking for additional opportunities in international cooperation largely determined by geoeconomic mechanisms. In addressing this issue, the paper clarifies relations among Eurasian countries-leaders (China, Russia and Kazakhstan) and provides a systematic review of regional organizations. Threats of the Eurasian development are both internal (economic recession, separatism, drugs and weapons transit, environmental problems, internal conflicts) and external (the U.S. presence in the region, growth of terrorist groups, extremism, nuclear arms race). Special attention is paid to the potential of the Great Silk Road (GSR) as a factor of national and cultural rapprochement. The Chinese GSR project promotes unity of the regional organizations’ efforts, creates an image of Eurasia as a complete political and economic institution, economic and cultural “bridge” between Europe and Asia. The article argues that the Great Silk Road is a prerequisite for the revival of the states’ economic capacity as well as for strengthening of the Eurasian integration. Thus, modern Eurasian integration is a politically constructed space that emphasizes civilizational complementarity, peaceful coexistence of peoples, and formation of an “interaction zone”. However, the future of the Great Silk Road project depends not only on economic policy and ability to resist external destabilizing factors, but also on the involvement of Eurasian population into integration processes, daily practices of interaction and cross-cultural dialogue.