Small state as order-maker: the case of Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Union project

Birzhan Bakumbayev

Post-Soviet Affairs, 2025, vol. 41, issue 3, 219-241

Abstract: This paper conceptualizes a small state as an order-maker. As specified by international relations theory, a small state is an order-taker rather than an order-maker because it is the privilege of great power to be an order-maker. However, this paper argues that small states can behave as order-makers. The case of Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Union (EAU) project announced in 1994 is an example of how post-independent Kazakhstan undertook order-making in the absence of great power after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Crucially, the EAU initiative meant not to challenge or oppose post-Soviet integration but to correct the course of regional integration from “disintegration” toward a new regional integration in the post-Soviet regional context. Thus, this paper concludes that when there is no great power, small states can behave as order-makers in a specific issue area and in the role of issue-corrector.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2025.2486892

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