At the present stage of globalization, the concept of national security expands its contours and encompasses various elements, previously unconnected. Often these elements penetrate the most diverse areas of public relations and entail a series of challenges and threats to which the states of Central Asia are extremely vulnerable. The most important national security challenges in individual Central Asian states stem from a number of factors, the principal one being the widespread instability in the region. The article analyzes the impact of the Middle East crisis on the states of Central Asia. For Central Asian states, any military threat emanating from the Middle East, i.e. civil wars, conflicts, and terrorist attacks are a serious cause for concern. Due to the permeability of borders, Central Asian states are becoming vulnerable to the inflow of radical ideas, terrorists and recruiters, who head from the Middle East towards Central Asia, and from there to Russia and Europe. Special attention in the text is paid to the historic ties of Central Asia and the Middle East as well as the specifics of religious radicalism in Central Asia states. The author believes that the situation in the Middle East exerts a massive impact on the internal political processes in Central Asia states. The methodology of the article includes institutional, systemic and historical methods that allow us to identify and analyze the dynamics of political processes in the region. It is concluded that the situation in the Middle East is projected onto the Central Asian region, therefore it is important to identify the sources of threats and understand the pattern of their dynamics.
Central Asia; the Middle East; Russia; integration; terrorism; religious extremism; social crisis phenomena.