In the nearly three and a half decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, American engagement in Central Asia has been, at best, something of secondary importance beyond anything involving national security and counter-terrorism measures. While Washington enjoys full diplomatic relations with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, it is generally perceived that the region, the countries, and the economies have been of less interest to US foreign policy when compared with the Middle East and East Asia. This has significantly changed in the last five to ten years due to a series of events that have placed Central Asia at the center of a growing and integrating Eurasian landmass.
Within the changing dynamics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan is widely regarded by many policymakers in the United States and the European Union as a leading country in pursuit of becoming a “middle power” through “multivector foreign policy.” In this, “multivector foreign policy” is a type of inverted neutrality where instead of disengaging from the world and remaining insular and self-reliant, the agenda is active international engagement with traditional allies like Russia and cooperation with new partners like China, India, and South Korea. In short, multivector foreign policy is a type of neutrality in which a state cooperates with everyone and turns away no one. Though the United States has admittedly been a latecomer of sorts to the region, American attention in the past decade has produced a number of new business, educational, infrastructural, and tourist-friendly ventures and will continue to intensify in the years ahead due to a number of geopolitical shifts.
The first is that Kazakhstan is emerging as a geographically strategic country in Central Asia and a keystone country in the middle of an increasingly interconnected and interdependent Eurasian landmass. As one of the founding members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Kazakhstan is a major trading partner with all of its neighboring member states and provides a critical east-west link through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which functions closely within the SCO’s transnational network. As part of various initiatives of Central Asian states in promoting their emergence onto the global stage as a sort of “New Silk Road,” Kazakhstan has spent the last five years heavily promoting the country as a favorable place for international investment and its futuristic capital, Astana, as a new, modern, urban hub on par with Doha, Dubai, and Shanghai.
Secondly, this promotion reflects a policy of what is known as “nation branding” that offers a positive image of the country and its people. Nation branding has long been understood as a way for a country to promote tourism, attract business, and highlight various cultural, artistic, and natural features to a larger world audience. For some countries, it has been a way to refashion public opinion away from preexisting stereotypes and stigmas. For Kazakhstan and most of the rest of Central Asia, much of the region has remained largely obscure and unknown beyond the countries of the former Soviet Union. This has been somewhat of an advantage, as the “five stans,” as they are colloquially known, have been a tabula rasa that many around the world are curious to discover.
Third, Kazakhstan’s nation branding has also emphasized its position as a “middle power,” which is a country with significant influence in the global political and economic arena, but less so than a major global power like the United States, China, or Russia. This particular type of global identity reflects Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s pursuit of pragmatic engagement with any country interested in developing relations regardless of geographic location, ideological orientation, or alliance membership. In this, President Tokayev has strived to emphasize that Kazakhstan’s “middle power” status isn’t just a “middleman” acting as a neutral arbiter between contentious states but, in truth, a country with enough sovereign decision-making to pursue its own foreign policy independent of the interests of global powers.
Thus, a proactive deepening of American presence in Central Asia will find strategic partnerships with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which is also pursuing similar foreign policy goals, uniquely lucrative in a growing multipolar and multilateral world. The region may remain closely partnered with Russia and economically integrated within China’s Belt and Road Initiative, so future prospects must be placed within a framework of realism.
For instance, in late September of this year on the sidelines of President Tokayev’s visit to the United Nations, the Pittsburgh-based rail technology company Wabtec Corporation announced a landmark agreement with National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway of Kazakhstan, of a $4.2 billion multi-year agreement to deliver locomotives and provide long-term service support, which is designed to enhance Kazakhstan’s extensive railway expansion and fleet modernization, central to its plans to further develop the so-called Middle Corridor trade route. This not only marks a successful business deal, but it also places US interests in a country widely seen as a critical transport route between China and the Caspian Sea, offering a more efficient land transport alternative to Russia.
Kazakhstan continues to hold constructive relationships with Russia and China. With Russia, in terms of trade and the legacy of Soviet-era infrastructure and transportation corridors. Much of Kazakhstan’s railway network is located in the northern regions that border Russia and forms the bulk of the country’s freight transport. Additionally, the purchase of American locomotives will still have to travel on Russian/Soviet-made tracks that are jointly maintained, repaired, and expanded by Russian and Kazakh companies.
As for China, its Belt and Road Initiative enables its own state-run manufacturers to have a major stake in the expansion of railway networks over the wider Central Asian region, which Russia is an active supporter of, and just prior to the Wabtec deal, announced a new agreement to construct a new North-South Corridor Project that enhances already substantial trade and further connects Russia to the borders of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
In short, developing US-Kazakh relations is fruitful and timely but is taking place within a wider collection of states that have a deeper presence in the region. This isn’t to suggest that the United States has arrived too late. Rather, the dynamics of Central Asia as a critically important lynchpin between east-west and north-south corridors of Eurasia have empowered countries like Kazakhstan to become partners to many.
It is this type of multilateral cooperation that gives Kazakhstan the ability to act as a middle power, which is additionally reflected in its capital, Astana, serving as a growing center for global dialogue. On October 15 and 16, the second annual Astana Think Tank Forum will be held in Kazakhstan, bringing together political analysts, policy experts, business leaders, and think tank members from around the globe to discuss a collection of global issues and concerns in one of the main urban hubs of Central Asia. This year’s topic considers the evolution “From Polarization to Partnership,” a key objective that has been at the forefront of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy objective of acting as a “middle power” engaged in “multivector foreign policy.” A number of American and European policymakers and business consultants will be participating in panels meant to facilitate the type of dialogue between the West and the rest of an expanding multipolar world.
Thus, as Kazakhstan grows into its position as a middle power and Astana continues to serve as an urban hub of business, technology, education, and entrepreneurial sectors for an emerging Central Asia, US-Kazakh relations have plenty of opportunities to cultivate and cooperate.
