- The Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics
- Peaceful Change: The Interwar Era and the Disciplinary Context
- Peaceful Change after the World Wars
- Peaceful Change: The Post–Cold War Evolution
- Realism and Peaceful Change: A Structural and Neoclassical Realist First-Cut
- Liberalism and Peaceful Change
- International Institutions and Peaceful Change
- Economic Interdependence, Globalization, and Peaceful Change
- Constructivism and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in English School Theory: Great Power Management and Regional Order
- Critical Theories and Change in International Relations
- Gender and Peaceful Change
- Civilization, Religion, Peaceful and Non-Peaceful Change in Asia
- Evolutionary Theorization of Peaceful International Changes
- International Law and Peaceful Change
- Nuclear Weapons and Peaceful Change
- The Political Economy of Peaceful Change
- Climate Change, Collective Action, and Peaceful Change
- Democracy, Global Governance, and Peaceful Change
- Status Quest and Peaceful Change
- Science, Technology, and Peaceful Change in World Politics
- Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in US Foreign Policy
- China’s Peaceful Rise: From Narrative to Practice
- Russia and Peaceful Change: From Gorbachev to Putin
- Germany and Peaceful Change
- Japan and Peaceful Change in the International System The Persistent Peace Nation
- India and Peaceful Change
- South Africa and the Idea of Peaceful Change
- Indonesia’s Contribution to Peaceful Change in International Affairs
- Peaceful Change in Western Europe: From Balance of Power to Political Community?
- Origins and Evolution of the North American Stable Peace
- Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System: A Stony Road
- Peaceful Change in Africa
- Peaceful Change in Southeast Asia: The Historical and Institutional Bases
- South Asia’s Limited Progress toward Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in Northeast Asia: Maintaining the “Minimal Peace”
- The Middle East and Peaceful Change
- Explaining Peaceful Change in Central and Eastern Europe
- Central Asia: A Decolonial Perspective on Peaceful Change
- A Research Agenda for the Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics
Abstract and Keywords
Central Asia has seen dramatic yet peaceful change since the end of the Soviet Union as it has once again become a world region of sovereign powers. The relatively low levels of political violence and the concomitant authoritarian stabilization of the region’s postcolonies are both remarkable and poorly understood. This chapter argues that IR theory is of little use in this regard because it is focused on external powers and systemic factors, be they material or normative, and fails to account for the Central Asian actors and transnational processes that have shaped the transformation. This weakness has been mirrored in scholarship that until recent years was produced overwhelmingly by scholars from outside Central Asia and in accordance with debates that have minimal relevance for the region. The largely peaceful decolonization of Central Asia is best understood from decolonial perspectives that emphasize the importance of the region’s particular ideas and practices and how these have been formed in conditions of globalization.
Keywords: Central Asia, decolonization, postcolonial change, transition, great powers
University of Tsukuba
University of Exeter
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- The Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics
- Peaceful Change: The Interwar Era and the Disciplinary Context
- Peaceful Change after the World Wars
- Peaceful Change: The Post–Cold War Evolution
- Realism and Peaceful Change: A Structural and Neoclassical Realist First-Cut
- Liberalism and Peaceful Change
- International Institutions and Peaceful Change
- Economic Interdependence, Globalization, and Peaceful Change
- Constructivism and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in English School Theory: Great Power Management and Regional Order
- Critical Theories and Change in International Relations
- Gender and Peaceful Change
- Civilization, Religion, Peaceful and Non-Peaceful Change in Asia
- Evolutionary Theorization of Peaceful International Changes
- International Law and Peaceful Change
- Nuclear Weapons and Peaceful Change
- The Political Economy of Peaceful Change
- Climate Change, Collective Action, and Peaceful Change
- Democracy, Global Governance, and Peaceful Change
- Status Quest and Peaceful Change
- Science, Technology, and Peaceful Change in World Politics
- Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in US Foreign Policy
- China’s Peaceful Rise: From Narrative to Practice
- Russia and Peaceful Change: From Gorbachev to Putin
- Germany and Peaceful Change
- Japan and Peaceful Change in the International System The Persistent Peace Nation
- India and Peaceful Change
- South Africa and the Idea of Peaceful Change
- Indonesia’s Contribution to Peaceful Change in International Affairs
- Peaceful Change in Western Europe: From Balance of Power to Political Community?
- Origins and Evolution of the North American Stable Peace
- Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System: A Stony Road
- Peaceful Change in Africa
- Peaceful Change in Southeast Asia: The Historical and Institutional Bases
- South Asia’s Limited Progress toward Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in Northeast Asia: Maintaining the “Minimal Peace”
- The Middle East and Peaceful Change
- Explaining Peaceful Change in Central and Eastern Europe
- Central Asia: A Decolonial Perspective on Peaceful Change
- A Research Agenda for the Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics
