This timely volume analyses the quality of statehood in Central Asia by assessing the complex dynamics of Central Asian state-making and focusing on the simultaneous patterns of socialization and internalization in the region - thus bringing Central Asia into the mainstream of systematic interrogation.

Emilian Kavalski is Associate Professor of Global Studies at the Institute for Social Justice, Australian Catholic University (Sydney). He is currently working on (i) the encounter of International Relations with life in the Anthropocene, especially the conceptualization of and engagement with non-human actors; and (ii) the nascent Asian normative orders and the ways in which they confront, compliment, and transform established traditions, norms, and institutions. Emilian contends that in both these areas the application of Complexity Thinking has important implications for the way global life is approached, explained, and understood. At the same time, these research foci sketch a prolegomenon to the conceptual contexts of theory-building and policy-making intent on facilitating economic, social, and environmental interactions that promote the well-being of people in ways that are just, equitable, and sustainable.

The international politics of fusion and fissure in the awkward states of post-Soviet Central Asia, Emilian Kavalski; Part 1 Analytical Perspectives on the Post-Soviet Statehood of Central Asia: Applying the democratization literature to post-Soviet Central Asian statehood, Paul Kubicek; The problems of the 'clan' politics model of Central Asian statehood: a call for alternative pathways for research, David Gullette; The international political economy of Central Asian statehood, Martin C. Spechler and Dina R. Spechler; Central Asian statehood in post-colonial perspective, John Heathershaw. Part 2 Insights from the Processes of Localization in the Dynamics of Central Asian State-Making: International democratic norms and domestic socialization in Kazakhstan: learning processes of the power elite, Kirill Nourzhanov; International agency in Kyrgyzstan: rhetoric, revolution and renegotiation, Claire Wilkinson; The limits of international agency: post-Soviet state building in Tajikstan, Lawrence P. Markowitz; Turkmenistan: flawed, fragile and isolated, Steven Sabol; Stalled at the doorstep of a modern state: neopatrimonial regime in Uzbekistan, Alisher Ilkhamov; Bibliography; Index.