Global Powers and Competing ‘Fixes’ in Central Asia

This presentation examines how the US, Russia, and China have proposed different development visions for Central Asia. While it is common to frame these visions in exclusionary or conflictual terms (such as market reforms versus state controls, the dominant Western hegemony versus rising powers, or the core versus the semi-periphery), Dr. Sanghera will argue that they reflect a shared imperative to tackle and fix structural contradictions inherent in advanced and newly capitalist economies. In this respect, there is a family resemblance among the competing fixes, rather than strong differences of economic and political ideologies. Central Asia has become an important space for global powers to shape and contest the future direction of capitalism. Drawing upon a qualitative study of international financial institutions in the region, Dr. Sanghera will also examine how Central Asian states strategically respond to different social fixes to address their own economic and political needs, often in ways that are unstable and contradictory.