The neoliberal world was made for autocrats

Combining the prominent issues exposed in last year’s Panama Papers investigation and the mass exposure of offshore accounts with a region often ignored by our newsfeeds, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw have written what is undoubtedly the most relevant book on Central Asia today. Much of what their new book, Dictators without Borders, boils down to is in the title itself. The introduction argues that the authoritarian leaders of the five Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – are “without borders” in three ways. They operate “without moral and legal limits on their use of power – both domestically and internationally; they operate beyond borders as evidenced in their offshore accounts; and finally, they operate across borders in that they subvert the very instruments of global governance that were ostensibly set up to keep them in check”. Following this argument, the book illustrates that not only do autocratic Central Asian regimes rely on the will of leaders to cross moral and legal lines of governance, they also rely on the shortcomings of largely “western” financial institutions, and more importantly the shortcomings of private and public players within those institutions.

Dissecting authoritarianism

The academic style and structure of the book is a reflection of the authors’ backgrounds. Cooley teaches at Columbia University and Barnard College in the United States, whilst Heathershaw teaches at Exeter University in the United Kingdom. Evident from their extensive list of prior publications, Dictators without Borders largely reflects Cooley’s interests in the changing global governance mechanisms and contemporary trends in corruption combined with Heathershaw’s interests in authoritarianism and conflict resolution in post-Soviet Central Asia. These two factors help make the book a seminal piece of work, but at the same time it is also the reason that explains some of its shortcomings, such as the tendency to step into overt details of the stories themselves leaving the reader to lose interest in the overarching argument.

Nevertheless, Dictators without Borders is a must read for anyone interested in Central Asia. Reaching well beyond the borders of regional affairs, it is one of the many wake-up calls we must heed in order to reform economic globalisation mechanisms that have so far encouraged mass global corruption and embezzlement. Calling for self-reflection of European and US governments in reassessing policies towards the region, the book shows that, despite its relative anonymity, Central Asia is relevant to the everyday lives of ordinary citizens across the globe. Consequently, the hope lies in that Dictators without Borders will catch on like its namesake organisations (e.g. Medecin sans frontieres), but the concern is that Cooley and Heathershaw have not made it accessible enough for a wider-ranging audience. Its impeccable attention to detail is a testimony to the excellent research and professionalism of the book’s authors, but given the importance of the topic, Cooley and Heathershaw must begin addressing these issues in more readable ways.

Chapter by chapter, Cooley and Heathershaw dissect Central Asia authoritarianism and family politics. They discuss in detail how the monopolies of key industries, controlled by a handful of individuals, created global actors with global reach. To explain the pivotal influence of those well-connected in the region, the authors delve into four of the five Central Asian states, with each chapter focusing on an individual related to or in the government. We first learn about Kazakhstan through the story of billionaire tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov. Ablyazov rose and fell twice, first as the minister of energy in the 1990s and then as chairman of the nation’s largest bank (BTA) in 2005. Ultimately after the 2009 financial crisis, Ablyazov was accused of embezzling millions of dollars from BTA through offshore legal schemes and exiled to Western Europe. This is where the Ablyazov’s story should end, yet Cooley and Heathershaw spend an entire chapter on the intricacies and various impressions of Ablyazov across Kazakhstan and the world. This account certainly paints a thorough story and exposes patterns amongst the exiled political elite, but it does so at the expense of keeping the reader engrossed.

Deeply connected

Meanwhile, the Tajik government and society are demystified through the story of the rise of President Emomali Rahmon, who has been in power for a quarter of a century. His capture and control of the aluminium industry (TALCO), the sole profiteering sector of Tajikistan, explains how he runs the state. Moreover, it exposes the roots of the family-run nature of Tajik politics. The focus on the entire industry, and not merely the man, makes this chapter more useful and more engrossing than others.

Next, we learn about the late Islam Karimov’s daughter – Gulnara Karimova – and her global connections. However, what Cooley and Heathershaw also attempt to do is explain the somewhat schizophrenic nature of Uzbek foreign policy – for example, the extremely fluid loyalties reflected in the country leaving the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) twice within ten years. Cooley and Heathershaw show that Uzbekistan’s strategic positioning (i.e. that of neighbouring Afghanistan) gave them the upper hand with the Americans since the beginning of the war in 2001. Here we learn not only of Gulnara, but the stories of the Dutch-based Vimpelcom and other western companies that bribed their way into Uzbek markets. Suddenly, what is more shocking than the state of Central Asian affairs is the willingness of western companies to engage with them.

Finally, to understand Kyrgyzstan we read about Maxim Bakiyev, the son of the ousted president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev – or, as the authors explain, the man that made Kyrgyzstan into “the Switzerland of Central Asia”. His rise to becoming the most powerful businessman in Kyrgyzstan, Cooley and Heathershaw claim, boiled down to “authoritarian politics, liberal banking laws and global financial connections”, with London playing a central role. Even the most liberal of the five Central Asian nations appears to be dominated by autocrats and their abuse of power for personal gain.

Ultimately, by tracing the global connections of Central Asian politicians and oligarchs with financial institutions of Europe and the United States, Cooley and Heathershaw demonstrate how a region often dismissed as closed to the rest of the world due to its authoritarian nature is immensely connected. In fact, Cooley and Heathershaw argue, it is precisely the authoritarian nature of Central Asian states that make them so lucrative for international investment. They go further and draw connections to the patrimonial system of the Soviet Union and argue that its remnants were harnessed for individual gain by emerging oligarchs. Arguably, the Soviet patrimonial system itself was not harnessed but produced the corrupt post-Soviet region. Helping relatives and friends, awarding ministerial seats to fellow clan members are practices embedded in the system propagated by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1960s. It seems only natural, then, for this to translate into corruption following the privatisation of previously state-run economies.

Transparency

Cooley and Heathershaw conclude Dictators without Borders by contemplating on how to deal with this situation. They call for improvements in civil society training, enforcement of anti-corruption laws, new institutions to deal with recovery and disbursal of authoritarian assets and several other blanket policies all in the name of one cause: transparency. Is transparency the only solution? Sadly, no. While calls for improving civil society capabilities and cracking down on shady western companies that are willing to cross legal lines in their investments in Central Asia is correct, they ignore the fact that the western community must not only regulate these non-state actors but the Central Asian governments themselves. Unfortunately, like the war in Afghanistan, once in motion international developments quickly spin out of control. While the West’s presence in Afghanistan and its consequent reliance on Central Asia has somewhat wound down, creeping Chinese economic influence and the consistent Russian presence in the region has begun to fill the void. Therefore, while Heathershaw and Cooley’s policy recommendations are promising, their enforcement relies on western governments accepting not only their own shortcomings, but reconciling with the politics of the region and the fact that their influence there will always be limited.

Heathershaw and Cooley’s book highlights the dire need for further work on Central Asia as well as further research on authoritarian regimes and offshore accounts linked to them. It also indicates that such research should be more accessible to the average reader. They conclude Dictators without Borders with “we must do more”. Indeed it is difficult to argue against this sentiment. However, for writers and academics following their immense discoveries, the more we must do lies not necessarily in exposing more, but proliferating material to larger sections of societies.

Millie Radović is a postgraduate student at St Antony’s College, Oxford where she will read MSc Russian and Eastern European Studies (2017-18). She completed her BA in international relations at the War Studies Department of King’s College London. During this time she assisted Dr Filippo Costa Buranelli in his research on Central Asia and worked for INFOCORE, an EU funded project investigating the role of media within conflict in Kosovo and Macedonia.

Alexander Cooley, Authoritarianism, Book review, Central Asia, corruption, John Heathershaw