Whose Voice Gets the Ear? Soft Power, Language and Regionalization in Central Asia

Abstract

China’s and Russia’s limited effect on promoting regional cooperation in Central Asia is further demonstrated in the analysis of their engagement in the information sector in the region. The limited effects on regionalization can be attributed to the differences in the levels of political leverage held by the two major powers in Central Asian countries. The telecommunication sector provides a more encompassing view on the role of infrastructure in Central Asia and offers a unifying context for the political influence of the major powers and the physical infrastructure utilized to spread the ideas that develop this political influence. The key attribute of telecommunication networks is their ability to serve as the channel for extending ‘soft power’. The actors, who control the means of communication and media, have the capacity to influence the type of information disseminated through these channels. Creation, development and maintenance of the channels is clearly dependent on the material capabilities of the actors involved in these processes. The chapter evaluates the political considerations of Russia and China in their approaches in the telecom sector and analyzes the existing and potential effects of these approaches on regional cooperation. The first section underlines the role of Russian language as an instrument for regional cooperation in Central Asia. The second section evaluates the interplay between the major powers and the three states that made active moves to displace the Russian language, i.e. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The third section examines major powers’ external media engagement in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—the state where Russian language retained comparably more privileged status.