Diplomacy of Spirit in Kazakhstan
This past October in Astana, Kazakhstan, I sat down with Ambassador Bulat Sarsenbayev, the chairman of the board of the Nazarbayev Center for Development of Interfaith and Intercivilization Dialogue, who kindly agreed to take some of my questions. As a career diplomat with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sarsenbayev served in a number of sensitive…
For Astana, Diplomacy, Investment Not a Zero-sum Game
Roman Vassilenko, Kazakhstan’s deputy foreign minister, captured the essence of his country’s foreign policy at a press conference in Astana on October 23: “Kazakhstan has positioned itself as a unifying mediator between East and West.” His words evinced his country’s pragmatic approach to foreign affairs and the precedence it gives to diplomacy even in our…
Tackling East Asia’s Demographic Implosion
Over the past several decades, much of Asia, from Singapore to Seoul, has been experiencing a demographic implosion of unsettling proportions – just look at Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Kazakhstan and its Central Asia neighbors, meanwhile, stand out as exceptions to the regional norm. Asian states jittery about their below-replacement birth rates – less…
Middle Powers Face Down Great Powers at Astana Forum
At the Astana International Forum on June 8-9, Kazakhstan launched a new diplomatic initiative that calls for dialogue among the Middle Powers as a way “to amplify voices for peace, progress and solidarity” at a time of heightened polarization and unprecedented geopolitical divisions across the world. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s keynote address at the forum’s…
Kazakhstan Calls For Solidarity Among ‘Global Middle Powers’
In a February 7 op-ed in The Astana Times, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan, announced that his country will be hosting the Astana International Forum on June 8-9. The article sheds light on his thinking about the state of world affairs and challenges heads of state and diplomats “to come together to find a…
High Noon in Almaty
Kazakhstan – seldom in the news – found itself at the epicenter of global concern when, on January 2, well-organized armed militants (mainly, though not exclusively, home-grown) sought to turn peaceful, mass demonstrations into a springboard for an anti-government coup d’état. The unrest went on for 10 days. Blood flowed in the streets of Kyzylorda…
