Summary: The thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the independent national states in Central Asia (the former Muslim republics of Soviet Central Asia) is an occasion for retrospection and assessment of the degree of achievement of the goals set in 1991, namely: building strong, independent, and internationally significant states; unification of ethnically heterogeneous components into cohesive nations; market economy; multiparty democracy and liberal civil society.
The appearance of these states on the geopolitical map was a consequence of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the political transformations in the Eastern Bloc after the end of the Cold War. Their common historical, political, economic, and cultural heritage motivates researchers to apply regional discourse in comparative analyses examining the processes in the five republics. Such an approach is justified, especially in view of the specifics of other significant geopolitical regions. However, the truth is that during the period in question the differences in their identities became more and more visible. Only after 2018, the processes of maturing and outgrowing political selfishness gave a chance for the beginning of constructive regionalism and fruitful cooperation among the five Central Asian republics.
Keywords: Central Asian republics, former Muslim republics of Soviet Central Asia
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