Global capitalism in Central Asia and competing economic imaginaries

This article examines how the US, Russia and China have proposed different visions and strategies of economic development (including neoliberalism, economic union and trade corridors) for Central Asia. It will argue that these different economic imaginaries reflect the global powers’ imperative to manage contradictions and crises inherent in advanced and emerging capitalist economies. The global powers’ attempts to fix Central Asia are partly based on past failures to regulate their own economic problems and contradictions.