New Regionalisms in Central Asia in the 1990s

Abstract

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1990-1 resulted in the emergence of fifteen newly independent states. Most media and academic publications refer to these states collectively as the ‘former Soviet Union’ (FSU) or individually, as ‘formerly Soviet republics’ (FSRs). Such terminology raises the question as to how one is to perceive the territory of the FSU: is it one region composed of fifteen states, or are there several, differentiated regions, defined along parameters bearing no relevance to the states’ collective ‘formerly Soviet’ identity?¹ The characterization of regions has always been a contested issue in the relevant literature. While there is general agreement that regions involve an element of geographic contiguity (Duffy and Feld, 1980, p.510), there is also considerable disagreement pertaining to the nature of factors determining the boundaries of individual regions, not to mention the principles according to which such factors can be sequenced in terms of importance.