This memo hopes to revisit the old Islamism/democratization paradigm in Central Asia and to provide some new avenues for debate. It sets out from three hypotheses:
- Generational changes underway in the region are giving rise to new ways of formulating the place of Islam in the public space;
- these new ways are vastly in favor of giving Islam an increased role, whether Islam is understood as an alternative ideology to the post-Soviet consensus still in place, or as a social practice to rival the operations of ruling regimes; and
- these new kinds of Islamism and their proponents will likely be called upon to play a role in the upcoming broader ideological diversity of Central Asian public spaces. […]
Revisiting Islamism: A Factor for Democratization in Central Asia?
PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 298
By Marlene Laruelle
Research Professor; Director, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES); Director, Central Asia Program; Director, Illiberalism Studies Program; Co-director, PONARS Eurasia
Affiliation
Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Expertise
Ideology, Political Philosophy, Nationalism, Far Right, Extremism, Populism, Illiberalism, Great Power Competition, Russia, Europe, Arctic, Central Asia
