This thesis analyses regional co-operation in Centr al Asia and asks why the Central Asian states so often failed to co-operate effectiv ely in the period 1991-2004. The thesis assesses the usefulness of international rel ations theories in accounting for this pattern, and finds that theories stressing conflict ing national interest among the local states offer, on the whole, a plausible account for why regional co-operation failed. It is, nevertheless, essential also to pay attention t o two important features of the Central Asian states - authoritarian rule and state weaknes s - in order to provide a full understanding of why and how regional co-operation proved unsuccessful. The exploration of failed regional co-operation in Central Asia also sheds light on a number of related questions. The thesis offer insig hts on the nature of Russian hegemony in the post-Soviet area and also illustrat es the ways in which the character of post-Soviet states mattered for the kind of inte r-state politics that unfolded in the post-Soviet space. With regards to international re lations theory, the thesis highlights the possible implications of state-weakness for for eign policy. Lastly, the thesis offers new insight on Central Asia: it encourages a move a way from Great Game analysis and introduces instead the concept of 'patchwork ge opolitics'. The thesis also argues that rather than forming part of an 'arc of instabi lity', the intra-regional relations of
Topics: Environment, Transboundary Water Management,
