Central Asia emerged as an internationally important region after the five republics gained their independence from the USSR in 1991. The new regional identities that gained independence in Central Asia soon had the potential to motivate the regional integration process in this region. Until recently, the region’s independent identity was often blurred by Eurasia, as it was not unanimously recognized as a separate geopolitical region. At present, nearly three decades after independence, these countries yet could not break the spell of traditional interstate interaction. Central Asia is the only region in the world that lags behind other regions in terms of indigenous regional integration. The purpose of this article is primarily to emphasize that Central Asia is an influential regional entity with an independent identity. Second, it focuses on the factors behind the regional integration process or situation and the absence of an indigenous regional institution. It is argued that regional distinctive features and influence of interregional actors have frozen the regional integration process in Central Asia.

Historically, hegemony has been a vital aim and feature of political units and international systems. The search for hegemony is crucial for the achievement of survival and then domination. In the context of international relations, hegemony refers to the dominant position of a particular state or group of states in the global system. The relationship between subaltern states and the hegemon has changed in proportion to their power. For this reason, the cyclical and actor behaviors of the international system that existed in the past and the current structure also contain similar and different aspects in terms of hegemony. This study aims first to discuss the conceptual framework concerning hegemony and the decline of hegemony. This discussion will study the fall of hegemony from a neo-Gramscian perspective. In this research work, we assumed that hegemony's emergence, survival, and decline are not only based on material elements, but non-material components also play a prominent role. In this sense, we analyzed the fall of liberal hegemony from three aspects: i)the weakness of the hegemon's ideology, iii) divergence among the hegemon's allies, and iii) material and non-material warfare. In conclusion, the fall of hegemony can highlight the importance of understanding the material and conceptual dimensions of power and the need to analyze the dynamics of conflict and cooperation in the global system.