SINO-U.S. GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS IN CENTRAL ASIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Central Asia has re-emerged as a strategically significant region at the intersection of primary geopolitical, economic, and security interests. This article provides a comparative analysis of how the United States and the People’s Republic of China advance their geopolitical agendas in Central Asia through international organizations and multilateral formats. Moving beyond a bilateral perspective, the study conceptualizes international institutions as a key arena of institutionalized great-power competition. Drawing on qualitative comparative and institutional analysis, the article examines U.S.-led platforms such as NATO, the United Nations, the C5+1 format, and multilateral financial institutions alongside China-centered mechanisms, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Belt and Road Initiative, BRICS, and regional development banks. The findings demonstrate an apparent asymmetry in strategic approaches: the United States prioritizes security cooperation, political engagement, and normative influence within the framework of the liberal international order, while China emphasizes infrastructure development, energy connectivity, and credit-based economic integration with limited political conditionality. The study argues that international organizations function simultaneously as instruments of influence for external powers and as resources and constraints for Central Asian states. By engaging multiple institutional frameworks, regional actors pursue hedging strategies to strengthen foreign policy autonomy, diversify partnerships, and maximize economic benefits. However, this strategy also generates structural risks, including rising debt dependence and a gradual narrowing of strategic maneuverability. The article contributes to the literature by foregrounding the institutional dimension of U.S.–China competition in Central Asia and highlighting the active, though constrained, agency of regional states within an evolving multipolar order.