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" The formation of Kyrgyz foreign policy, 1991–2004 "
Thomas J. C. Wood
A. Hess
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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55685
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| Doc. No
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TL25639
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| Call number
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3178308
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| Main Entry
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Thomas J. C. Wood
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| Title & Author
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The formation of Kyrgyz foreign policy, 1991–2004\ Thomas J. C. Wood
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| College
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Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)
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| Date
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2005
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2005
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| Page No
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396
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| Abstract
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This empirical study, based on extensive field research, interviews with key actors, and use of Kyrgyz and Russian sources, examines the formation of a distinct foreign policy in a small Central Asian state, Kyrgyzstan, following her independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Lacking foreign policy traditions as a separate entity from the USSR, Kyrgyzstan synthesized a foreign policy from anew. In Chapter 1, I examine the literature on nationalism, ideology and nation-building in a post-imperial context and evaluate Kyrgyzstan as a case study from the perspective of small state literature. In Chapters 2 and 3, I analyze the arrival of the modern state and nation-building efforts in Kyrgyzstan after 1991. I argue that Kyrgyz nationalism is restrained by the need to reconcile her large non-Kyrgyz minority population, dictating a typical small state foreign policy eschewing construction of a capsule state, or irredentism. In Chapter 4, I describe the Kyrgyz foreign policy establishment, her foreign ministry, and various roles of president, parliament, and opposition, in foreign affairs. I present the sources of Kyrgyz foreign policy and recount its emerging shape, arguing Kyrgyz elites synthesized a foreign policy by grafting small state needs onto a Soviet template. In Chapter 5, I outline her relations with former Soviet neighbors since independence. In Chapter 6, I describe relations with key non-Soviet neighbors in her foreign policy, demonstrating how Kyrgyz have prioritized relations with certain states like Iran and Turkey as part of a broader foreign policy strategy, although ideological attractions of Turkish or Iranian models are negligible. In Chapter 7, I trace Kyrgyzstan's unfolding relations with China via a case study of the disputed Kyrgyz-Chinese frontier settlement. I conclude that Kyrgyz elites successfully created a strategic outlook surmounting numerous challenges since 1991, contradicting the widespread image prevalent in the literature on Central Asia of Kyrgyzstan as semi-failed state lacking any strategic foreign policy. Overall I argue that Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy is directed toward recreating a stable state system in her neighborhood to replace the vanished Soviet precursor. Kyrgyz elites have built upon the Soviet template operationalizing a new strategic outlook oriented around small state behavior but rooted in the past, arguably better at coping with conventional challenges than newer transnational threats.
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| Subject
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Social sciences; Foreign policy; Kyrgyz; International law; International relations; History; 0332:History; 0616:International relations; 0616:International law
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| Added Entry
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A. Hess
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Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)
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