2012-10-23 by Richard Weitz One way Uzbekistan is responding to the new Central Asian environment is by moving closer to Kazakhstan. The two countries are the two most influential of the “stans,” having the largest land mass and population in Central Asia. Uzbekistan is also Kazakhstan’s major trading partner within Central…
4/11/12 by Richard Weitz The Strategic Warning from Astana, Kazakhstan. The logistics trail to Afghanistan is long and costly. The role of Pakistan and Kazakhstan is crucial in providing the “highway” to support Afghan operations. But both nodes are in trouble. The problems dividing the United States from Afghanistan and…
By Dr. Richard Weitz 02/20/12 - A central agenda item of Vladimir Putin’s reelection campaign is his call for a “Eurasia Union” among the former Soviet republics. Although denying any effort to simply restore the Soviet Union, Putin emphasizes the value of consolidating the former republics into something like the…
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 02/14/2012 - In support of greater integration within the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has supported several initiatives: the Eurasian Economic Community, the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union, and most recently a Eurasian Union, which would expand the Customs Union geographically and functionally,…
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 02/13/2012 - The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), consisting of all the former Soviet republics except for the Baltic countries, initially represented Kazakhstan’s most important regional institution after the USSR’s disintegration. On December 16, 1991, Kazakhstan became the last of…
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 01/25/2012 - The world needs a multinational nuclear fuel bank and Kazakhstan is eager to host it. Kazakhstan has certain attributes that make it a welcome candidate to house one of perhaps several nuclear fuel banks. But Kazakhstan needs to…
By Richard Weitz 04/05/2011 - Americans’ preoccupation with the revolutionary upheavals in the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan could lead us to overlook Kazakhstan’s April 3 presidential elections, which as expected reaffirmed the country’s current leadership and policies, and Kazakhstan’s important role in global security and other international issues.Kazakhstan…
