Regionalisation of International Initiatives: Case Study of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG)

The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), as a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)–style regional body (FSRB), synchronises national legislations across Central Asia to combat money laundering and financing terrorism through FATF mechanisms, aiming to eliminate external stresses on large economies. However, the hardening of FATF’s soft law approach through establishing power relationships with international organisations and several states, as well as mutual evaluation practices has been questioned given the imposition of minority interests on the majority through involvement in FATF activities. But, the role of individual states in FSRB activities, which directly coordinates the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime in the region, has received scant scholarly attention. Thus, using open-source data from the official EAG website and its mutual evaluation reports, I evaluated the level of participation of member-states in its activities. My analysis revealed the dominance of one state (the Russian Federation) in EAG activities, despite the presence of other economically strong member-states (China and India). This chapter shows that flexible FATF governance practices, aimed at synchronising national AML/CFT legislation, can enable dominant economies to influence regional territories aligned with their geopolitical interests.