CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Reynolds, Julius David Alexander |
|---|---|
| Title | An Empirical Application of Regional Security Complex Theory: The Securitization Discourse in China's Relations with Central Asia and Russia |
| Summary | Security in Central Asia has traditionally been studied through a realist prism, emphasizing military concerns and the pre-eminent influence of great powers in shaping local security concerns. Russia has been considered the central actor in a security sphere encompassing Central Asia in view of military and historical legacies. China, on the other hand, has been deemed to dominate security patterns in the East Asian region, where its vital national interests are located. Scant attention has however been paid to the securitization of threats by local state-actors through discourse, and how this has generated security interdependence between China, the Central Asian states and Russia. This thesis empirically applies the “Regional Security Complex Theory” framework by Buzan & Waever (2003) to explore securitizing discourse and the evolution of structural factors in China-Russia and China-Central Asia relations in 1991-2008. The main contention is that the nature of security for these states is fundamentally non-military and trans-national in nature, rendering their geographic adjacency a major factor in promoting interdependence. Furthermore, China has become the focal point from which security issues originate for its neighboring states, both in terms of structural factors and state-actor discourse. |
| Supervisor | Fumagalli, Matteo |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/reynolds_julius.pdf |
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