Description
All too often Central Asia's international relations are seen through the lens of geopolitical competition for resources and influence. This, however, overlooks not only the considerable agency of Central Asian states but also the significant Soviet legacies shaping their international interactions and preferences. This paper conceptualizes the role of Soviet legacies of ‘techno-futurism’ in Central Asia’s particular domestic/external nexus. The region was intended as a laboratory of Soviet modernity, with explicit intent to signal Soviet techno-futurism to neighbouring regions, for example in the monumental ‘greening the steppe’ project or the space programme. Legacies of these projects have led to ecological nightmares such as the drying of the Aral sea but have also shaped post-Soviet trajectories. This includes echoes of techno-optimism as a form of ‘bricolage ideology’, no longer serving socialism but mobilized for authoritarian legitimacy and control. Central Asian authoritarian leaders have built new futuristic cities in the steppe, and more recently have become open to Chinese versions of techno-futurism, especially in digitization and digital surveillance, with large-scale Chinese surveillance projects implemented in several Central Asian cities. Echoes of Soviet ideology are beginning to shape Central Asian-Chinese interactions and anchor the specific role of China in the region.
