Human Rights Reforms in Kazakhstan

For several years, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program has focused its attention on the process of reform across Central Asia and the Caucasus. This online forum marks the publication of a study of human rights reforms in Kazakhstan. The country’s high ambitions for its place in the world demanded a serious re-consideration of the country's human rights record, something President Tokayev has embarked upon in recent years. Dr. Svante Cornell will present his research on the matter, documenting Kazakhstan's progress in this regard as well as challenges in the implementation of reforms.

Speakers:

Svante E. Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program

Amb. George Krol, Associate, Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Former United States Ambassador to Kazakhstan

Moderator: 

S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program

When: Thursday, June 17, 2021

The event was also live-streamed on the CACI YouTube page.  

 
Published in Forums & Events

Nuclear Disarmament: The Stockholm Initiative and the NPT Review Conference

Originally scheduled for 2020, the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is now tentatively planned for  August 2021. Ahead of this Conference, a group of 16 states from different regions and security contexts joined in 2019 to form the Stockholm Initiative on Nuclear Disarmament, in order to advance nuclear disarmament in a time of a deteriorating international security environment. At this webinar, representatives from Sweden, Kazakhstan, and Germany will discuss the Stockholm Initiative as well as the most pressing issues facing the agenda of nuclear disarmament. This includes the denuclearization of the DPRK, the fate of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, and arms control dialogue among nuclear powers.

Speakers:

Amb. Ann-Sofie Nilsson, Ambassador for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Amb. Dastan Yeleukenov, Advisor to the Director, Kazakhstan Institute of Strategic Studies and former Head of the Department for International Security, Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Commentator: 

Olaf Poeschke, Deputy Head of Division, Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Federal Foreign office, Berlin

Moderators: 

Svante E. Cornell, Director, Institute for Security and Development Policy

When: April 7, 2021

The event is now available on YouTube

 
Published in Forums & Events

Peace in Afghanistan: A Kazakhstani Perspective

Amid continued conflict in Afghanistan, Central Asian states have continued to intensify their engagement with their southern neighbor. Led by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asians are no longer seeking to contain Afghanistan but are instead actively contributing to the country’s development. Kazakhstan’s commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan is long-standing, and its contributions manifold. In this event organized in cooperation with the Embassy of Kazakhstan, Ambassador Kaliyev discussed the situation in Afghanistan, the role of foreign players and actors, Afghanistan’s impact on regional security, as well as the role of Europe and America and avenues for cooperation with Kazakhstan.

This online forum was the first of a series of events marking the 30th anniversary of the independence of Kazakhstan.

Speakers:

H.E. Talgat Kaliyev, Special Representative of the President of Kazakhstan for Afghanistan.

S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program

Moderators: 

Svante E. Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program

Aida Yermekkalieva, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Embassy of Kazakhstan, Stockholm

When: March 3, 2021, 9:30 AM EST / 3:30 PM CET

The event is now available on YouTube

 
Published in Forums & Events

Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program
Silk Road Paper
November 2020

 

Click to Download PDF 

 

Kazakh-mediation-cover 450In the past decade, Kazakhstan has emerged as an important player in the world of mediation of international disputes. Its role in convening the Astana talks on Syria are the most well-known example, but Kazakhstan’s activity goes far beyond this. In fact, involvement in international mediation has emerged as yet another facet of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, alongside its high profile in multilateral organizations.

In fact, Kazakhstani mediation builds on two aspects of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy: the country’s multi-vector foreign policy and its activism in international institutions. Landlocked, surrounded by large powers and closely tied to Russia by economics and demographics, Kazakhstan’s efforts to assert its independence have always been a balancing act. Kazakhstan’s First President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, established the country on the international scene in the 1990s primarily by his historic decision to renounce Kazakhstan’s nuclear weapons, and his careful efforts to build independent statehood in the political realm while simultaneously working to restore economic integration among former Soviet states. Kazakhstan’s model has been to maintain close relations with Russia, but simultaneously to strive to strengthen its ties with other partners – first China, then the United States, subsequently Europe and Asian powers – to obtain a positive balance in its foreign relations. This “multi-vector” foreign policy has since become a model that has been adopted by the Central Asian region as a whole.

An active role in multilateral diplomacy was key to Kazakhstan’s foreign policy from the beginning: immediately upon independence, Nazarbayev initiated the idea of a Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building in Asia, which materialized in the decade that followed. Kazakhstan also took on an active role in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, becoming the first post-Soviet state to chair the organization in 2010. Not stopping there, Kazakhstan successfully campaigned for a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, and served on the Council from 2017 to 2019.

Kazakhstan’s first initiative in the field of international mediation took place already in late 1991, when President Nazarbayev partnered with Boris Yeltsin to seek to mediate the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But it is in the past decade that these efforts have been rekindled, against the background of a gradual intensification of geopolitical competition in Eurasia writ large. Kazakhstan’s first effort took place during its OSCE Presidency, when it intervened to attenuate the crisis in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. By assisting in removing ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from the country, Kazakhstan contributed to easing tensions in the country.

Kazakhstan next focused on nuclear diplomacy, an issue with which the country had considerable familiarity. After offering to host an international Low Enriched Uranium Bank, President Nazarbayev succeeded in hosting two successive summits in Almaty on the Iranian nuclear program in 2013. These efforts aimed at seeking a negotiated solution that would halt the escalation of tensions that risked a greater military conflagration. While talks in Almaty did not resolve the matter, they directly paved a way for the Geneva talks that eventually led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.

Over the following several years, Kazakhstan focused on alleviating tensions among its close partners – Russia, Turkey and the West. In 2014, Nazarbayev sought to bridge the divide between Russia and the West on Ukraine. Kazakhstan played an active role in facilitating dialogue among Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany that manifested in the Normandy Format. Two years later, Kazakhstan took a hands-on approach in resolving – at least for a time – the dispute between Russia and Turkey that resulted from the Turkish downing of a Russian jet over the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015. The next year, building on this initiative, Turkey and Russia agreed to President Nazarbayev’s offer to host talks on the Syrian conflict. Several rounds of “Astana Talks” have taken place since, involving the Syrian government, opposition groups, and the key external powers in the conflict – Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

What, then, has been the function and rationale of Kazakhstani mediation efforts?

Kazakhstan’s mediation has not been focused on faraway lands: it has been focused very much on those areas that affect the geopolitical stability of Eurasia, which in turn is the determinant for Kazakhstan’s own stability. Thus, it has concentrated on crises right on Kazakhstan’s doorstep, like in Nagorno-Karabakh and Kyrgyzstan, as well as on disputes that involve the regional and great powers of Eurasia. Both types of crises involved confrontations that threatened to destabilize the geopolitics of Eurasia, and thus posed a threat to Kazakhstan’s own security. Kazakhstan’s economic development and strategic stability is directly correlated to the relative harmony of the broader Eurasian geopolitical environment, and it has been in its interest to work to mitigate such threats to stability.

Kazakhstan’s efforts strengthen its sovereignty in at least two ways. First, it adds another layer of goodwill and recognition to Kazakhstan’s international profile. Secondly and more importantly, it provides regional powers with a strong rationale to accept Kazakhstan’s neutrality in their mutual disputes. Kazakhstan has been able to demonstrate that it is more useful for everyone as a neutral power that does not take sides – in other words, more useful as a mediator than as a supporter. For example, while Russia would have liked Kazakhstan’s endorsement of its policy in Ukraine, Kazakhstan showed that it could, uniquely, serve as a go-between that allowed Russia a way to manage its relations with Western powers, something that would be impossible in the absence of Kazakhstan’s sovereignty and international credibility.

This strategy has pitfalls. Its success requires that the level of conflict between Eurasian regional powers remains manageable; and that these powers are, at all, interested in maintaining a dialogue. If regional powers are in mortal competition against each other, Kazakhstan’s efforts would be undermined.

Against this background, the impact of Kazakhstan’s efforts become clearer. Kazakh leaders were realistic about the limited prospects of success in resolving the thorny issues they addressed. Instead, they were focused primarily on managing the fallout of these conflicts on a geopolitical level, seeking to prevent their escalation in a way that would jeopardize the broader stability of the Eurasian continent.

Kazakhstan’s efforts in international mediation have been closely tied to the personality of its First President, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Will Kazakhstan continue to play a role in mediating the great power politics of Eurasia in the longer term? There is reason to believe it can, for two key reasons. First, Kazakhstan’s meritocratic approach to personnel policy in foreign affairs has enabled the country to develop a considerable pool of officials with experience of high-level international politics, beginning with its current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has among other served as Head of UN offices in Geneva. Second, demand for this type of efforts is not likely to abate, as strategic competition in Eurasia continues to intensify and efforts to mitigate the fallout of great power competition in Eurasia appear to be more necessary for every passing year.

Click to Download PDF  

Kazakhstan in International Mediation 

The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, in cooperation with the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the United States, would like to invite you to a CACI online Forum on Kazakhstan’s role in international mediation. The event will be held at 10 AM on December 4, 2020, and will mark the publication of a new Silk Road Paper on the topic. In recent years, Kazakhstan has taken on the role of a mediator in several international disputes, ranging from the Iranian nuclear issue and the Ukraine conflict to Turkish-Russian relations and the Syrian civil war. The study, authored by Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, analyzes the reasons for Kazakhstan’s involvement in international mediation and the implications thereof.

Moderator: 

- Mamuka Tsereteli, Senior Fellow, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Speakers:

- S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

- Amb. Erzhan Kazykhanov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States

- Svante E. Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

- David A. Merkel, Associate Fellow for Geo-Economics and Strategy, International Institute for Strategic Studies

 When: Friday, December 4th, 2020, 10-11:00 AM EST 

The event is now available on Youtube

 
Published in Forums & Events

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News

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    Tuesday, 23 May 2023 00:00

    Why Russians Support the War: Jeffrey Gedmin interviews S. Frederick Starr on the resurgence of Imperial Russia.

    The American Purpose, May 23, 2023

    Jeffrey Gedmin: Do we have a Putin problem or a Russia problem today?

    S. Frederick Starr: We have a Putin problem because we have a Russia problem. Bluntly, the mass of Russians are passive and easily manipulated—down to the moment they aren’t. Two decades ago they made a deal with Vladimir Putin, as they have done with many of his predecessors: You give us a basic income, prospects for a better future, and a country we can take pride in, and we will give you a free hand. This is the same formula for autocracy that prevailed in Soviet times, and, before that, under the czars. The difference is that this time Russia’s leader—Putin—and his entourage have adopted a bizarre and dangerous ideology, “Eurasianism,” that empowers them to expand Russian power at will over the entire former territory of the USSR and even beyond. It is a grand and awful vision that puffs up ruler and ruled alike.

    What do most Russians think of this deal? It leaves them bereft of the normal rights of citizenship but free from its day-to-day responsibilities. So instead of debating, voting, and demonstrating, Russians store up their frustrations and then release them in elemental, often destructive, and usually futile acts of rebellion. This “Russia problem” leaves the prospect of change in Russia today in the hands of alienated members of Putin’s immediate entourage, many of whom share his vision of Russia’s destiny and are anyway subject to Putin’s ample levers for control. Thus, our “Putin problem” arises from our “Russia problem.”

    Click to continue reading...

  • CACI director Svante Cornell's interviewed on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election
    Friday, 19 May 2023 00:00

    Listen to CACI director Svante Cornell's recent interview on the 'John Batchelor Show' podcast regarding Turkey's 2023 presidential election. Click here!

  • New Article Series on Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus
    Wednesday, 24 November 2021 11:53

    Eurasia

  • CACI Initiative on Religion and the Secular State in Central Asia and the Caucasus
    Sunday, 24 January 2021 13:53

    In 2016, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program launched an initiative on documenting the interrelationship of religion and the secular state in the region. This initiative departed from the fact that little systematic reserch had been undertaken on the subject thus far. While there was and remains much commentary and criticism of religious policy in the region, there was no comprehensive analysis available on the interrelationship of religion and the state in any regional state, let alone the region as a whole. The result of this initiative has been the publication of six Silk Road Papers studying the matter in regional states, with more to come. In addition, work is ongoing on a volume putting the regional situation in the context of the Muslim world as a whole.

     

    Case Studies

    Each study below can be freely downloaded in PDF format.

    az-formula-SRSP

    Azerbaijan's Formula: Secular Governance and Civil Nationhood
    By Svante E. Cornell, Halil Karaveli, and Boris Ajeganov
    November 2016   




    2018-04-Kazakhstan-SecularismReligion and the Secular State in Kazakhstan
    By Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr and Julian Tucker
    April 2018

     

     

     

    1806-UZ-coverReligion and the Secular State in Uzbekistan
    Svante E. Cornell and Jacob Zenn
    June 2018

     

     

     

    2006-Engvall-coverReligion and the Secular State in Kyrgyzstan
    Johan Engvall
    June 2020

     Event video online

     

    2006-Clement-coverReligion and the Secular State in Turkmenistan
    Victoria Clement
    June 2020

    Event video online

     

     

     

    Articles and Analyses

    Svante E. Cornell, "Religion and the State in Central Asia," in Ilan Berman, ed., Wars of Ideas: Theology, Interpretation and Power in the Muslim World, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

    Svante E. Cornell, "Central Asia: Where Did Islamic Radicalization Go?" in Religion, Conflict and Stability in the Former Soviet Union, eds. Katya Migacheva and Bryan Frederick, Arlington, VA: RAND Corporation, 2018.