Imagining Communities in Central Asia: Nationalism and Interstate Affect in the Post-Soviet Era

oes a nation's self-image affect the way in which it deals with other nations? D More specifically, is the politics of identity more significant than realist, cultural, linguistic, ideological, or historical factors in determining the positive or negative orientation that one state may hold toward another? The newly independent states of Central Asia provide the perfect crucible for analyzing this question. How do the new states of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan feel toward the one country that should evoke the most extreme of responses-their former imperial hegemon, the Russian Federation? What patterns emerge from an analysis of their national affectivity toward that giant? How can one explain their positive or negative affect? In the first section of this article we examine this interstate affect since 1992, with a discussion of affectivity patterns over time and aggregate affectivity scores. Each type of pattern is uniquely useful for analysis. By scoring the affective content of each interaction between Russia and the Central Asian states, we were able to discern which types of issues propel each state to act as it does. Furthermore, by viewing shifts in the affective tendency of each Central Asia-Russian relationship, we determined which relationships are consistent and stable and which are not.