Eurasian Integration: Challenges of Transcontinental Regionalism by Evgeny Vinokurov, Alexander Libman (review)

In Eurasian Integration: Challenges of Transcontinental Regionalism, Evgeny Vinokurov and Alexander Libman bring to the fore one of the most important issues of modern day economics and geopolitics: the present and future of Eurasia. As the largest, most diverse, and most promising super-continent, Eurasia hosts such giants as China, India, and Russia, as well as several other important regions. Eurasia is where two-thirds of the world’s population reside and produce more than half of the world’s GDP. The authors are quite right in pointing out that the significance of Eurasia on the world stage is likely to rise in the future. In their view, “Eurasian continental integration could become a key developmental force, driven by the integration of energy trade, non-energy trade and transport, capital and labour flows, tourism, the drug trade and epidemiological threats” (p. 1). The key question is whether the main continental powers will allow this integration, which would allow the alignment of the continent’s processes with the overwhelming process of globalization.

The multiplicity of cross-border, sub-regional, regional, supra-regional, and other frequently overlapping areas and locales requires constantly adjusting the focus and capturing different scales of each phenomenon, event, or process, addressed in the book. Indeed, comprehending the material would be very hard, if not impossible, without at least a fair knowledge of Eurasian geography, as the topic of the book is strongly related to the subject of economic geography. In order to help the reader, the book features, in addition to a dozen tables, almost two dozen figures, some of which are schematic maps depicting circles of supra-regional cooperation, economic clusters, and extensive railway networks that bind the continent.

The authors begin by (re)formulating and elaborating the concept of Eurasian integration and tracing emerging Eurasian economic integration. They do this by offering a historical background of Eurasian trade in which they follow trade, capital, and labor flows. The book then describes major infrastructural projects, including transportation corridors, electric power grids, and telecommunications. This network of overlapping and interdependent infrastructures is at the core of the integration process. The authors argue that common problems, including ecological challenges caused by growth and industrialization, may serve not as a ground for domestic and cross-border conflict, but as a platform for cooperation. Formal intergovernmental cooperation is discussed in the chapter that follows. The book concludes with a deeper analysis of the post-Soviet area, which the authors see as defined by Northern and Central Eurasia, while calling Central Asia “a laboratory of Eurasian integration” (p. 213) and “Eurasia en miniature” (p. 222). The authors present a myriad of data throughout the book to place analysis in context or to substantiate their arguments with numbers. In addition, in order to highlight different aspects of Eurasian integration, the authors use examples taken in comparative and historical perspectives.

In terms of economic development, it is clear that in the 21st century, Eurasia has been experiencing very significant growth in international trade. But the pace of growth varies region by region. The authors argue in favor of open regionalism in Eurasia as an “economically optimal component of post-Soviet integration” (p 2). In the political dimension, the authors emphasize the role of the state in negotiations at different levels that have an impact on both political arrangements and economic conditions. It is interesting that the authors suggest that post-Soviet regionalism, if properly elaborated and implemented, will not preclude the integration of its participants with the European Union. No doubt, this point goes straight to Ukraine, which continues to position itself between the Russia-propagated Customs Union and more orientation toward the EU. Indecisive, Ukraine has an option of “ensuring a preferable regime with Russia and other FSU partners but not jeopardizing its European choice” (p. 210). The most recent dramatic events in Ukraine indicate that regionalization can dominate the agenda even in relatively stable post-Soviet societies. These dramatic developments pose new challenges...