On April 24, Andrei Prudnikow, PhD candidate in Comparative Politics at ICS-ULisboa, will be the guest speaker at the SPARC Research Group Seminar. The topic of this session will be Eurasian Idea as a Banner of Integration Paradigms in Central Asia: A Comparative Analysis. The seminar will begin at 2:30 PM, in Room 2 at ICS-ULisboa and online (ID: 975 6636 2593, pass 124396).

What role does the "Eurasian Idea" play in a region where multiple actors offer competing geopolitical visions? To determine how political elites in Russia, Kazakhstan, other Central Asian regional players, and Turkey use Eurasianism as a symbolic resource and strategic tool, this study focuses on the use of Eurasianism as a symbolic and strategic resource.

Using discourse theory, discursive institutionalism, and the performativity of political ideas, the study examines how Eurasianism functions not as a unified ideology but rather as a contested narrative field whose narratives are appropriated, framed, and manipulated based on national interests and geopolitical positions.  In contrast to Russia's imperial-geopolitical Eurasianism and Kazakhstan's pragmatic, sovereignty-preserving Eurasianism, Turkey maintains a pan-Turkic orientation and tactical alignment with other regional powers.
Using a comparative discourse analysis of public speeches, policy rhetoric, and institutional discourse, this study identifies how the Eurasian Idea is utilized to legitimize projects such as the Eurasian Economic Union, the Organization of Turkic States, and other regional balancing strategies. Eurasianism, in this reading, is less a coherent ideological doctrine than a contested symbolic framework in which regional actors compete to define integration's purpose and direction.