중동부유럽

sector, the book argues that Russia through its parastatal company Gazprom-interacts mainly on a bilateral level and with a short-term strategic outlook with individual Central Asian states, while China`s attempts to redirect the Central Asian hydrocarbon flows involve all Central Asian countries, there by potentially fostering regional cooperation and regionalisation. In this way, the chapter makes a significant contribution to the literature on the political-economic impact of energy materiality in the Central Asian region, although the author does not explicitly engage with the relevant concepts, except for frequent references to the `obduracy` of infrastructure.There are plenty of studies on the political dimension of infrastructure. While most of them focus on infrastructure success and failure as driver or result of political processes, Krasnopolsky uses infrastructure as an intervening variable to explore Russia`s and China`s impact on region-building in Central Asia. I would argue that this unusual approach is both the biggest strength and the greatest weakness of this book. On the one hand, it provides a novel view on international relations in Central Asia; on the other hand, the dual focus on regionalisation and infrastructure is at times confusing and leads to a misleading title and a disconnect between conceptual and empirical chapters. However, my main criticism of this book is the lack of careful editing that the content would have deserved. There are overly convoluted sentences and minor errors. At times, the logical progression of the argument is unclear. I also would have enjoyed more granular information on the underlying data collection and analysis. While I appreciate interview participants` need for anonymity, a rough description of the interviewees and information on the length, times and places of field work and the interview process would have been helpful.Overall, the book is recommended for international relations and geopolitics scholars as well as for scholars interested in Central Asia`s political-economic development, especially in relation to Russian and Chinese investment in the region. While the defining role and legacies of Russian imperial and Soviet infrastructure building for the political-economic trajectory of the Central Asian countries are well documented, the impact of contemporary infrastructure development in the region is less well researched. I would argue that this gap in our knowledge not only applies to infrastructure`s impact on regional cooperation but constitutes a wider gap. Therefore, and in conclusion, this book is a welcome and timely addition to the fields of Central Asian studies and international relations.