The Geopolitics of Sino-Russian Regionalism in Central Asia: Kazakhstan in Analysis

Abstract

Central Asia is often seen as Russia’s near-abroad. Nonetheless, recent years have shown a more active China in quest for resources, stability, and an attempt to build a Eurasian land axis, to allow a faster connection between East and West within China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Interestingly, both China (BRI) and Russia’s (Eurasian Economic Union) regionalist projects were launched in Kazakhstan, which shows the centrality of this country in the region. We will focus on the geopolitical impacts for Kazakhstan stemming from the overlapping synergies between both the BRI and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). We aim to understand whether this juxtaposition of regional initiatives could be beneficial or cause harm to Kazakhstan’s regional interests. In so doing, we aim at filling in a gap in literature, which has failed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the benefits versus handicaps caused by the overlapping generated by the EAEU and the BRI. Drawing on a qualitative methodology which encompasses primary sources (official speeches and news agencies) and secondary sources (the most respected authors on the field), we argue that Kazakhstan stance vis-à-vis the BRI and the EAEU has been proposedly ambiguous in order to maximize its interests. This being said, the conceptual lens that best serves our purposes is social constructivism. According to it, international relations are best explained by a moderate approach in which states cooperate instead of relying either on a search for survival (as realism defends) or on a utopia of liberal kindness (according to liberalism).