With 30 years having passed since Central Asia and the South Caucasus emerged on the international stage, a new approach to understanding its contemporary dynamics is required. This volume argues for a multidimensional analysis of international, regional, and domestic cooperation and conflicts in the region. The authors analyze foreign policies of great powers such as Russia, China, U.S., EU, Japan, and Iran toward this part of the world. The work looks at regional issues and regionalism, including the Eurasian Union and the Belt and Road Initiative. A series of chapters study domestic processes ranging from clan politics, identity construction, the media, to non-state actors. The publication applies theoretical pluralism and utilizes realism, liberalism, constructivism, and FPA.

This book focuses on the problem of regionalism, the crucial phenomenon in international relations at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Regionalism is analyzed both in terms of regional economic and political integration, as well as regional competition and conflict. The book is divided into three parts, based on the functional and geographical criteria. The first part is devoted to the theoretical setting, including brief introduction to regionalism problems and classical theories of integration, as well as new approaches to regionalism, which are followed by the analysis of regions in the context of regional security complexes concept. The second part of the book focuses on Asian and African challenges to regionalism and the third, and final, part is devoted to the most developed subregional order, namely the European region.

This book discusses the applicability of Western International Relations (IR) theories to Asia and Africa and the rise of non-Western IR theories (especially in Asia), with case studies focused on the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Sub-Saharan African regions. Theoretically grounded studies of Asia and Africa are still in high demand, as International Relations scholarship on and in those regions seems underdeveloped in this regard. This is the case both in the application of Western theories in research on Asia and Africa, but especially IR theory-building by scholars in both regions. The book is driven by the question, whether we need specific Asia and Africa-oriented IR theories to describe, explain and predict developments in regional international relations or can we apply or adapt the so-called Western IR theories.