On November 11, 2017 a recurrent meeting of the Discussion Club of “Knowledge Caravan” took place. Our caravan is being further replenished by interesting scientists and ideas. The meeting discussed the content and viability of the Eurasian concept. Olga Kobzeva, Ph.D, presented her report on the matter of interest.
During the discussion, the participants touched the below issues:
-How relevant is the concept of Eurasianism today?
-Will the next generation of leaders in Russia and Kazakhstan (where the idea of Eurasianism was reanimated after the collapse of the USSR) be committed to this idea?
-To what extent are the geopolitical fundamentals of Eurasianism, as promoted by the Russian researcher Dugin, present in the Russian policy either openly or implicitly?
-Are the concepts of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Chinese “One Belt, One Ray” initiative compatible?
– Will Uzbekistan join the EEU?
-What choices should the Central Asian countries make in relation to the Eurasian model?
The participants were noticeably sceptical regarding the prospects for Eurasian integration; the attitude toward the Eurasianism idea ranged from its cautious recognition due to obvious Russian dominance in the post-Soviet space to seeing it as a political chimera (due to the myth of a frequently incorrect statement about the Slavic-Turanian unity allegedly being the civilizational basis of the Eurasian idea). It was concluded that Eurasianism has a chance to be meaningful only on a condition of revising its conceptual frameworks. The latter is not yet happening in the light of a powerful turn of both political and academic attention towards the Chinese initiative.