Bilateral partnership as an instrument of political stabilization in Central Asia: evidence from Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan relations
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Existing scholarship on Central Asian regionalism documents in detail the structural barriers to cooperation among the five Central Asian states, including sovereignty concerns, uneven resource distribution, and unresolved border and water disputes. It does not fully explain how a single bilateral pair can convert these risk factors into functioning stabilization mechanisms. This article examines how bilateral political stabilization was achieved in Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan relations between 1999 and 2026, and whether the mechanisms involved are transferable to other bilateral pairs. The study uses a single-case design with an embedded comparison to Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan relations (most-similar-systems logic). Evidence consists of treaty texts, official statements, trade statistics, and reports by monitoring organizations. Four stabilization dimensions (border delimitation, water-energy management, security cooperation, and economic stabilization) are operationalized through observable indicators.
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