Sovereignty, State Capacity, and Regional Relations: Challenges of Peace building in Central Asia

The challenges that confront attempts at peace building both within and between the key states of the Central and West Asian space are numerous, and relatively easy to list. This chapter seeks to locate these challenges within a wider framework. The region faces a set of interlocking dilemmas. The basic units of which it is comprised are 'sovereign states', but a number either lack the capacity to prevent their territory from being used by revisionist non-state actors, or actively support such actors as tools in the pursuit of their own geopolitical objectives. When 'quasi-states' genuinely cannot prevent the misuse of their territory, the credibility of their commitments is likely to suffer. Furthermore, when states are covert backers of extremists, this likely involves them in a considerably amount of duplicity, which in turn militates against the development of trust between different actors in the region, closing a vicious circle from which it is very difficult to escape. To escape from the vicious circle, it is necessary that states disposed to act in this destructive fashion take steps to moderate their behaviour. There is no guarantee that this will happen, but diplomatic means can be used to try to encourage more constructive patterns of engagement.