High-Level Document Signing Patterns in the Commonwealth of Independent States (1992–2023)

Abstract

This dataset captures original data on the signing behaviour of member states within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from 1992 to 2023, focusing on high-level agreements in the security, political, and economic fields. It was developed to empirically investigate the strategies of secondary states in post-Soviet Eurasian regionalism, particularly their exercise of bandwagoning, hedging, and balancing strategies within a Russia-led regional organisation. Scope and Structure Temporal Coverage: 1992–2023 Geographic Coverage: All CIS member states during this period, including changes in membership (e.g., Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova’s partial or full exits). Unit of Analysis: State-document pairs indicating whether a given country signed a specific high-level document. Fields of Policy: Security, Political, Economic Document Types: Agreements, Protocols, Decisions Documents are those under the competence of the CIS Council of Heads of State, reflecting binding high-level commitments. Methodology The dataset is based on the legal-document registry of the CIS. Each document is classified into one of the three policy fields and coded for each member state based on their participation (signed/not signed). Hierarchical cluster analysis, using Jaccard distance, is employed to identify patterns of alignment and divergence among member states over time. Provenance This dataset was developed within the research project “Understanding Eurasian Regionalism – Actorness and Interaction in Economy and Security” (Project ID: 444058835), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project, based at the University of Giessen, explores the dynamics of regional organisations and geopolitical strategies in post-Soviet Eurasia, with particular attention to the role and agency of secondary states. Significance This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive dataset on CIS document signing patterns since prior studies (e.g., Libman & Obydenkova, 2013). It enables both descriptive and comparative analysis of member-state behaviour in post-Soviet regionalism and provides a replicable model for analysing state strategies in other regional organisations.