Course information

This module intends to combine International Relations Theory and Central Asian studies, exploiting the potential synergies of IR and Area Studies in a fruitful way for students’ learning. The module, which relies on an English School approach to international relations, examines how norms, rules and institutions regulating international politics at the global level, such as sovereignty, diplomacy, international law and great power management are understood, applied and discussed within the Central Asian context, thus addressing issues of norm localization and adaptation. This module has three main goals. The first aim is to show how norms and practices that we assume to be universal find in fact specific applications and interpretations in different regions (in this module, Central Asia). The second aim is to understand how ‘order’ is achieved in the region, and to what extent the Central Asian states have managed to use norms and rules to avoid regional conflict. The third aim is to portray the Central Asian states as performers of international relations, and not just as ‘consumers’. In fact, this is the only module that sees international relations from the perspective of the Central Asian states, thus escaping the prevailing narrative of considering them as ‘pawns’ in the New Great Game and considering them as full protagonists in world politics.