WESTERN EURASIA: THE SEARCH FOR A REGIONAL SECURITY PARADIGM

Abstract

The paper analyzes the circumstances of the formation of a new security paradigm in Asian countries (former Soviet republics - Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan). The twilight of bipolarity, unfortunately, did not open a new qualitative page in the system of regional security. Global socio-economic transformations and political upheavals have added to political instability and uncertainty. Against this historical and political background, Russia's war against Ukraine became a bifurcation point for such a region as Western Eurasia. The relevance of the research topic is determined by the international political processes that are taking place today in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The security format of the former republics of the Union is traditionally considered mainly in the regional - post-Soviet geopolitical context. Therefore, when analyzing the foreign policy features of the region, one should take into account the fact that the Asian republics were part of the USSR for a long time. At the same time, the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union did not fundamentally change the specific status of Russia in the Eurasian “Heartland”. For a long time, Russia and the southern republics of the former Soviet Union were bound by ties of common imperial history, culture and values. However, the fact that Asia has been under the political roof of the Russian Empire for many years has determined the paradigm of Russia's paternalistic attitude towards the countries of the region and for many years defined the framework of the regional security paradigm. Regional political processes are an urgent problem in the system of researching processes and phenomena in the post-Soviet space, causing a clash of different points of view and practice. The focus of the research is the problem of the past and present in the countries of Asia (former Soviet republics) as international regional actors and the determination of possible prospects for the development of their foreign policy scenario. The purpose of the study is to clarify the role and place of Asian countries (former republics of the USSR) in the process of forming a new regional security paradigm from the moment of the beginning of the active phase of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. The object of research is Western Eurasia as a modern regional phenomenon of geopolitics. The subject of the study is the foreign policy of modern Asian countries (former Soviet republics) in the conditions of the formation of a new paradigm of international relations and the growing competition of world actors in the region (USA, EU, China, Russia).