Policy Press

Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia

Imaginaries, Discourses and Practices of Social Ordering

By Philipp Lottholz

Published

May 25, 2022

Page count

266 pages

Browse the series

Spaces of Peace, Security and Development

ISBN

978-1529220001

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

May 25, 2022

Page count

266 pages

Browse the series

Spaces of Peace, Security and Development

ISBN

978-1529220025

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia
Download via OAPEN

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Drawing on decolonial perspectives on peace, statehood and development, this illuminating book examines post-liberal statebuilding in Central Asia. It argues that, despite its emancipatory appearance, post-liberal statebuilding is best understood as a set of social ordering mechanisms that lead to new forms of exclusion, marginalization and violence.

Using ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Kyrgyzstan, the volume offers a detailed examination of community security and peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through its analysis, the book highlights the problem with assumptions about liberal democracy, modern statehood and capitalist development as the standard template for post-conflict countries, which is widespread and rarely reflected upon.

Philipp Lottholz is a post-doctoral fellow at the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Dynamics of Security’ and the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University of Marburg.

1. Introduction

2, Theorizing Post-Liberal Forms of Statebuilding and Order-Making Globally

3. From Imaginary to Practice: Capturing the Multiple Meanings of Peace, Security and Order

4. Imaginaries and Discourses of Social Order in Kyrgyzstan

5. Local Crime Prevention Centres and the (After) Lives of the State in Rural Kyrgyzstan

6. Shaping Peace, Social Order and Resilience: Territorial Youth Councils and the Field of Youth Policy

7. Reform Deadlock for Stability? The Civic Union ‘For Reforms and Result’

8. Conclusion