Framing strategies and non‐conflict in multi‐ethnic Kazakhstan

Abstract

With the Soviet collapse, many feared acute conflict between Russians and titular Kazakhs in Kazakhstan. Conflict was avoided. Like other states, Kazakhstan combined strategies of accommodation to negotiate ethnic divisions and coercion to intimidate would‐be ethnic entrepreneurs. ‘Carrots’ and ‘sticks’ help to explain whether ethnic divisions turn conflictual, but they are insufficient in determining outcomes. This article highlights élite framing strategies, arguing that authorities deployed a discursive frame that might be called ‘internationalism with an ethnic face’ to gloss contradictory practices vis‐à‐vis a multi‐ethnic population. The use of this frame, itself a product of the Soviet period, appealed to diverse constituencies in the domestic and international arenas and served to assuage tensions at a moment of profound uncertainty.