The Chinese Constitution of Central Asia Regions and Intertwined Actors in International Relations

China's commitments in Central Asia illustrate how regional foreign policy works and how long-standing principles of Chinese foreign policy might be revised in the near future. China's rise has 'moved' Asia, which is why it seems that what we have traditionally regarded as the geographic and political scope of Asia might actually considerably change in the near future. Nadine Godehardt gives crucial insights into the Chinese expert discourse on Central Asia - analyzing how Chinese experts define Central Asia when they talk and write about policy issues related to China's immediate Western neighbourhood. In this context, she gives an inside perspective on Chinese voices whose meanings are rarely examined in Chinese International Relations studies.

Nadine Godehardt is Research Associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs based in Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include China's foreign policy, political theory in International Relations, narratives beyond the West and the political constitution of spaces in international politics.

1. Introduction
2. The Study of Regions in International Relations Theory
3. The Political Constitution of Regions
4. The Regional Embeddedness of Intertwined Actors
5. China and Central Asia: Twenty Years of a Demanding Relationship
6. The Chinese Constitution of Central Asia
7. Conclusion