The research project addresses the theme of regime complexity using the example of counterterrorism in Central Asia. Regime complexes consist of principles, norms, rules, and procedures that are formed by two or more separate but functionally overlapping institutional arrangements. Seven security institutions that have developed counterterrorism strategies in Central Asia are the focus as their pertinent institutional arrays form a counterterrorism regime complex in this region: the UN, the EU, the OSCE, the SCO, the CSTO, the CIS, and NATO’s PfP. The project traces the emergence and development of this complex, investigates linkages and (non-)interactions across the IOs as well as dissatisfaction with norms and practices, and in so doing explores the naissance and increased coherence or fragmentation of the complex during the last three decades.

Principal investigator/project team: Dr. Sebastian Mayer; Filipp Semyonov

Project period: 01/07/2021 - 31/12/2023

Collaborating organization(s): Center for Conflict Studies, University of Marburg, Germany

Funding: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

An increasing number of regions is prone to water-related conflict risk: the probability that water scarcity critically adds to the likelihood that violence between or within states occurs. Central Asia is one of the most critical but thus far under-researched examples where water-related conflict risk surfaces. Yet, whether conflict appears hinges similarly on additional variables, such as economic change with less (or more) water intensive businesses, demography, unclear boundary lines, and ethnic fractionalization. The project wishes to create an explanatory framework that can elucidate the conditions under which water-related violent conflict in Central Asia materializes. To avoid a selection bias towards cases where violence already occurred which is prevalent in much of the existing literature, the project develops three qualitative case studies with varying levels of tensions.

Principal investigator/project team: Dr. Sebastian Mayer; Stefanie Wesch

Project period: 01/07/2021 - 31/12/2023

Collaborating organization(s): Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany

Funding: -

This book project with an envisaged edited volume is conceptually anchored within the EU integration studies literature. It seeks to elucidate how we can describe and explain European Union (EU) conduct towards Central Asia: seen from Brussels as a far-off region which is labelled a “neighbor of the neighbors”. It moreover wishes to ascertain how the responses of Central Asian state and non-state actors, which range from enthusiasm to downright opposition, shape actual policy outcomes. More tacitly, the project similarly assesses the (un-)success of the EU in achieving its stated objectives in this region – the overall ones and those in specific policy fields. Theoretically, the project specifically utilizes the concept of “Europeanization”: broadly understood as the integration of EU norms, rules, practices and procedures into the domestic level.

Principal investigator/project team: Dr. Sebastian Mayer; Prof. Jakob Lempp

Project period: 01/07/2021 - 31/12/2023

Collaborating organization(s): Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW), Kleve, Germany

Funding: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)