Recent political developments in post-Soviet countries have raised novel issues regarding the stability of the post-Cold War world order. A new direction in policy has been exemplified by the recent bolstering of a number of post-Soviet political and economic institutions - such as CSTO, SCO and the Eurasian Economic Union - in which the role of Kazakhstan is considerable. In addition to its unique geopolitical location, Kazakhstan’s importance in regional integration structures and international relations more broadly is reinforced by its rich oil and uranium deposits. This book centres on an exploration of the changing relations between Russia and Kazakhstan and their impact on post-Soviet interactions with the rest of the world. The role of specific factors in the formation of the post-Soviet regional system will be explored in historical perspective. The multifaceted relations between Kazakhstan and Russia from 1991 to the contemporary period will be analysed in terms of relations in several spheres: political, military and security, Kazakhstan’s nuclear withdrawal, ethnicity and national identity, economic, foreign policies, regionalism and international trends and the impact of historic trends. An important analysis of Kazakhstan, the second largest country in the post-Soviet world, this book is of interest to researchers of International Relations, Post-Soviet Studies and Central Asia Studies.

A leading authority on Central Asia offers a sweeping review of the region's path from independence to the post-9/11 world. The first decade of Central Asian independence was disappointing for those who envisioned a straightforward transition from Soviet republics to independent states with market economies and democratic political systems. Leaders excused political failures by pointing to security risks, including the presence of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The situation changed dramatically after 9/11, when the camps were largely destroyed and the United States introduced a military presence. More importantly the international community engaged with these states to give them a "second chance" to address social and economic problems. But neither the aid-givers nor the recipients were willing to approach problems in new ways. Now, terrorists groups are once again making their presence felt and some states may be becoming global security risks. This book explores how the region squandered its second chance and what might happen next.

During the past half-decade Kazakhstan has accomplished something which no other state formed from the ruins of the USSR has achieved: beginning as a largely rural country with a small but politically powerful urban elite, it has emerged with a large and growing middle-class that increasingly seeks to make its voice heard in national affairs. Oil has been the engine of this change, but Kazakhstan is now working hard to diversify the sources of its wealth. Under any circumstances, such progress as has occurred would not have been possible without prudent reforms and innovative legislation. Nor could it have happened without a foreign policy that assured the country's security without tying it to any one outside power. In 2008, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center undertook a review of Kazakhstan's progress and current status in three areas: social evolution, political reform, and international security. This has already resulted in two monographs issued by the Joint center as Silk Road Papers: John C. K. Daly's Kazakhstan's Emerging Middle Class and Anthony Clive Bowyer's Parliament and Political Parties in Kazakhstan. With this paper by Richard Weitz, we conclude the series. Dr. Weitz, a Senior Fellow and Director for Program Management at the Hudson Institute, offers a detailed overview of Kazakhstan evolving role in regional security and economic relations, as well as its relationship with major international organizations and powers. Indeed, Dr. Weitz shows how Kazakhstan's cautious and multi-vector foreign policy has contributed to strengthening the country and making it an increasingly independent power-house in Eurasia, with balanced and positive relations with all major and regional powers. We hope readers find this of interest.

This book investigates the roles that ideas and constructs associated with Eurasia have played in the making of Kazakhstan's foreign policy during the Nazarbaev era. This book delves into the specific Eurasia-centric narratives through which the regime, headed by Nursultan Nazarbaev, imagined the role of post-Soviet Kazakhstan in the wider Eurasian geopolitical space. Based on substantive fieldwork and sustained engagement with primary sources, the book unveils the power implications of Kazakhstani neo-Eurasianism, arguing that the strengthening of the regime's domestic power ranked highly in the list of objectives pursued by Kazakhstani foreign policy between the collapse of the Soviet Union and Nazarbaev's apparent withdrawal from the Kazakhstani political scene (19 March 2019). This book, ultimately, is a study of inter-state integration, which makes use of a rigorous methodological approach to assess different incarnations of post-Soviet multilateralism, from the Commonwealth of Independent States to the more recent, and highly controversial, Eurasian Economic Union. This book offers a ground-breaking analysis of Kazakhstani foreign policy in the Nazarbaev era. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Central Asian Politics, International Relations and Security Studies.

India’s Foreign Policy features scholars specializing in different dimensions of foreign-policy analysis who examine the dynamics of India’s international relations. It reviews India’s economic growth that has propelled it to the status of a globally-recognized power, and examines its nuclear policy and maritime strategy as a register of its present capabilities and future aspirations. It also features news media as an important index to—and catalysis for—the formulation of government policies, and India’s bilateral and multilateral relations.

At the outset of independence 18 years ago, Kazakhstan's leaders promised that the country's rich natural resources, with oil and gas reserves among the largest in the world, would soon bring economic prosperity. It appeared that democracy was beginning to take hold in this newly independent state. Nearly two decades later, Kazakhstan has achieved the World Bank's ranking of a "middle economic country," but its economy is straining from the global economic crisis. The country's political system still needs fundamental reform before Kazakhstan can be considered a democracy. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise examines the development of this ethnically diverse and strategically vital nation, which seeks to play an influential role on the international stage. Praise for the previous edition of Kazakhstan: "This detailed but accessible work will be the definitive work on the newly independent state of Kazakhstan."— Choice "[Olcott]... knows more about Kazakhstan than anyone else in the West."— New York Review of Books "Not only shares the lucid insights and depth of a seasoned observer, it greatly enriches the literature on post-Soviet transitions." —Foreign Affairs