What are the Obstacles to Central Asian Integration?

In 1904, British geographer, Halford John Mackinder, argued that the‘heartland’ of Eurasia (Central Asia) was the key to the global balance ofpower, the state that would dominate this area would dominate Eurasia thenthe whole world. His ideas were widely neglected, however since thecollapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, his ideas have experienced arenaissance in the study of International Relations of Central Asia. Thecollapse gave birth to five new independent states, blessed with industrialskills, educated populations and some with resources but all with sinkedeconomies (Megoran and Sharapova, 2013). Historically, these countries had a lot in common apart from Soviethistory - Turkic, Iranian and Muslim roots (Megoran and Sharapova, 2013,p.3). The region was once united under ‘Turkestan’, however, as an outcomeof the Soviet legacy and the ‘divide and rule’ strategy, the region had beensplit (Haugen, 2003). Since 1991, the republics have sought to establishthemselves as independent actors in the regional stage and rather thanunifying, they started moving away from each other (Megoran andSharapova, 2013, p.3). As a result, regional integration has stagnated andthe political situation in the region has been understood as a zero-sum game(Collins, 2009). The lack of development and the rising external threats have indicatedthat a regional integration is needed to ensure socio-economic progress. Atthe same time, the zero-sum nature of the region is dangerous as it cancause minor conflicts to escalate into larger ones. In order to have disputeand conflict settlement mechanisms, as well as to improve inter-statediplomatic relations, the republics need to integrate politically andeconomically (Collins, 2009).