EU’s geopolitical turn: implications for strategic autonomy and authoritarianism in Central Asia

This article explores the current rapprochement of EU-Central Asia relations and its implications for Central Asia’s domestic governance and international positioning. Using the theoretical lens of bordering, it identifies a shift in the guiding logic of the EU’s policy towards the region after 2022, based on the re-imagining of Central Asia as Europe’s geopolitical frontier to contain Russia. The article shows how simultaneous de-bordering and re-bordering processes enable the intensification of EU-Central Asia relations based on flexible, dynamic and issue-specific integration in several areas. It also finds that while de-bordering in such spheres as trade, connectivity and mobility, and high-level political engagement has strengthened Central Asia’s strategic autonomy, re-bordering has contributed to the downplaying of the normative component of EU policy. This not only makes the EU an unexpected agent enabling authoritarian diffusion in Central Asia but also highlights Central Asian governments’ agency in the bordering process.