foir_3880

FOI-R--3880--SE
The incoherence of discourse space, state weakness and the emphasis on internal
security shared by all the countries of Central Asia adversely affect the already
weak relations between them. Central Asia has yet to acquire a holistic nature
forming structural relations of a regional security complex (Buzan et al., 1998:
13). As the analysis of dominant discourses showed, the threat of Islamism is
understood differently in each of the Central Asian countries and cannot
therefore be a unifying factor, despite regular pronouncements about the need for
joint regional action. The regimes in Central Asia often point to a link between
the challenges from Islamism and the situation in Afghanistan. The Islamist
challenge is, however, actually primarily an internal factor. In sum, few
developments in Central Asia today indicate that the challenges from Islamism to
the region’s regimes will abate or that today’s responses are likely to change in
nature.
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