Geopolitics
The Cotton Cage: How Western Standards Enforce Underdevelopment in Tajikistan
Tajikistan's textile industry remains trapped in exporting raw cotton despite policy efforts, because European bankability standards, stringent regulations, and the digital traceability gap create insurmountable barriers for small economies. This is a stark indictment of a neo-colonial global system that systematically excludes the Global South from high-value industrial development, forcing nations into perpetual raw material servitude.
