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Tajikistan amidst globalization: state failure or state transformation?

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02634937.2011.554070

1465-3354

John Heathershaw,

China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations

Abstract This paper considers the nature of Tajikistani statehood in an era of globalization. It takes as its foil a recent report of the International Crisis Group, ‘Tajikistan: on the road to failure’. The paper interrogates this claim and finds that it is based on a poor conceptualization of the state which disregards advances in state theory made in the last two decades. However, this problematic declaration cannot simply be dismissed but, being from an authoritative source, must be considered for its constitutive functions for Tajikistani statehood. The paper thus considers Tajikistan's position in world politics theoretically in terms of the sociological and anthropological literature on global assemblages, particularly Sassen's concept of denationalization. It goes on to investigate a single case of the contemporary Tajikistani state: the state-owned Tajik Aluminium Company's (Talco) international trading arrangements and tolling agreements. The paper argues that the post-Soviet, post-conflict Tajikistani state is not simply captured by elite networks or a shell for the personnel of the regime. Rather, whilst an explicitly ‘nationalizing state’, it has been transformed along the lines of denationalization. Tajikistan's official institutions, in cooperation with global actors from multinational corporations to donor agencies, have been incorporated within certain global economic and political assemblages. The paper discusses the implications of all this in terms of the consequent hollowing out of the national-territorial state model and the establishing of lines of economics and politics which make the state, in parts, global. Keywords: Tajikistanstate formationstate failurestate buildingglobalizationglobal assemblagesdenationalizationnationalism This article is part of the following collections: Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies: 40 Years of Central Asian Survey Acknowledgements I would like to thank Tim Epkenhans, Daniel Neep, Madeleine Reeves, Chad Thompson and an anonymous Central Asian Survey reviewer for contributing comments that aided in the development of this paper. Following the Oxford conference, a second draft was presented at both the workshop ‘Capturing the political: how to analyse power beyond state politics’, Humboldt University, Berlin, 21–23 October 2010, and the University of St Andrew's Middle East and Central Asian Studies seminar series, 16 November 2010. Thanks are due to the participants and organizers of these events, especially Klaus Schlichte and Sally Cummings. Notes For a discussion of approaches to factionalism in the study of Central Asian politics see Gulette (2007) Gulette, D. 2007. Theories on Central Asian factionalism: the debate in political science and its wider implications. Central Asian Survey, 26(3): 373–387. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]. For approaches to factionalism through networks and neo-patrimonialism in neighbouring states, see Radnitz (2006) Radnitz, S. 2006. What Really Happened in Kyrgyzstan?. Journal of Democracy, 17(2): 132–146. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] and Ilkhamov (2006) Ilkhamov, A. 2006. Neopatrimonialism, interest groups and patronage networks: the impasses of the governance system in Uzbekistan. Central Asian Survey, 26(1): 65–84. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]. As numerous authors have shown, Tajikistan's elite networks are not simply constituted of sub-ethnic or ‘clan’ solidarity (Collins 2009 Collins, K. 2009. 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This suggests that the logical contradiction of building sovereignty through intervention does not prevent the emergence of new, hybrid forms of political order. There may then be a historical basis for the transformation of statehood in Tajikistan described below. However, post-1991 transformation, shaped by the emergence of global assemblages, is of a qualitatively different kind to Soviet era nationalization and internationalization. Antoine Buisson, ‘Twelve years after the peace agreements: what lessons have been learnt from the civil war and its causes’, presentation to the conference, ‘Tajikistan: birth and rebirth’, 14 October 2009, St Antony's College, Oxford. See Held and McGrew (2003) Held, D. and McGrew, A. 2003. The global transformations reader: an introduction to the globalization debate, 2, London: Polity. [Google Scholar] for the debate between globalists and sceptics. See Brenner (1999) Brenner, N. 1999. Beyond state-centrism? 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I prefer the process (‘territorialization’) to the state (‘territory’) because it allows us to consider incomplete processes of making and remaking territories as much as the emergence of new territories themselves. Sassen speaks of the global city and Special Economic Zones as examples of new territories made under globalization as well as ‘emergent institutionalizations of territory that unsettle the national encasement of territory’ (2008, p. 64). In the case of Tajikistan we see new territorializations and spatializations occurring under the dynamics of land reform and seasonal labour migration networks (see also Heathershaw 2009 Heathershaw, J. 2009. Post-conflict Tajikistan: the politics of peacebuilding and the emergence of legitimate order, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 164–169). The question of the depletion or transformation of the state-idea is more complex and shall be considered only in the conclusion of this paper. Asia-Plus, ‘TALCO receives report on audit of its financial activity’, 4 August 2010, http://www.asiaplus.tj/en/news/54/68017.html [Accessed 11 August 2010] Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors [2005] EWHC 2241 (Ch) (21 October 2005), para 22–23, available from: http://www.bailii.org/ [Accessed 14 August 2010]. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), para 59. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 28, 60. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 61. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 81–85. In fact the barter agreements of 2000 and 2003 were made under the jurisdiction of English Law in the form of the London Court of International Arbitration. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), para 23. In particular, the judgment of Justice Blackburne of 21 October 2005, Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), and the subsequent Settlement Agreement between Hydro Aluminium and Tajik Aluminium Company, 20 December 2006. Available from: http://johnhelmer.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/taj-trial-hydro-tadaz-agreement-of-dec-20-2006.pdf [Accessed 15 August 2010]. It seems that these moves began in at least 2003 as Ermatov, by his subsequent testimony, was pressured by Sadulloev to transfer Talco accounts to Oriyonbank. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), para 63. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005). Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 74, 191. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 75, 76. This ‘breach of contract’ action referred to a 2003 barter agreement between the two parties where Talco had failed to deliver US$128 million in aluminium shipments. Justice Blackburne states: ‘TadAZ [Talco] claims that CDH is ultimately owned by Orienbank [sic]. The evidence lends support to the view that Orienbank is controlled by close members and/or associates of President Rakhmonov's family.’ Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), para 180. Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), para 182. Justice Blackburne states: ‘It is difficult to see why TadAZ should have wished to enter into an agreement of this kind with an off-shore shelf company, as CDH was, which had no track record in alumina, aluminium or any other kind of dealings.’ Tajik Aluminium Plant v Ermatov & Ors (21 October 2005), paras 181, 183–4. The agreement also includes ‘settlement sums’ totalling $94 million made in instalments from 31 December 2006 to 31 December 2010. Settlement Agreement between Hydro Aluminium and Tajik Aluminium Company, 20 June 2006, pp. 5, 21–25. See also Helmer 2008e Helmer, J. 2008e. 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Eurasianet, Tajikistan: suit settlement brings no resolution. 1 December 2008, available from: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav120208a.shtml [Accessed 10 August 2010]. World Bank, World development indicators 2009. Available from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator. [Accessed 10 August 2010]. Nazarov's lawyer, John Doctor QC, estimated the losses of Talco to be $450 million from 2005 to 2005 whilst the profits of CDH/TML were around $500 million, all of which were transferred directly to CDH/TML unknown owners (Helmer 2008e Helmer, J. 2008e. Tajik Aluminium court case ends in defeat for president Rahmon [online]. Dances with Bears, 27 November 2008. Available from: http://johnhelmer.net/?p=632 [Accessed 20 May 2009] [Google Scholar], no pagination). ‘Press-reliz po auditu’, Talco, 3 August 2010. Available from: http://www.Talco.com.tj/index.php?l=2&action=newslist&id=153&page=1. [Accessed 14 August 2010]. ‘Press-reliz po auditu’, Talco, 3 August 2010. Available from: http://www.Talco.com.tj/index.php?l=2&action=newslist&id=153&page=1. [Accessed 14 August 2010]. The survival of a state-idea which jars with state practice may be explained by a traditional analysis of authoritarianism in terms of a passive populous, weak press and relatively strong capacity for coercion. However, this seems incomplete partly because the effect of globalization on the state remains invisible in democratic states (Sassen 2006 Sassen, S. 2006. Territory, Authority, Rights: from medieval to global assemblages, Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 12). Moreover, whilst the analysts of ICG were open to the idea of state failure, their own neo-Weberian idea of the state left them ignorant of the globalization of the state. The vitality of the ideas of national statehood and state sovereignty, despite considerable evidence to suggest frequent violations of the principles of both, is a product, in part, of the hegemony of the modern discourse of nationalism. This raises issue beyond the scope of this paper.