Nursultan Nazarbayev Research Articles

Nazarbayev University: Integration of Western and Central Asian Educational Systems

In 2010 the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, attended the opening ceremony of a new university in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. The ambitious enterprise, named Nazarbayev University, enjoyed unprecedented privileges, such as complete independence and autonomy from the Ministry of Education and Science in determining its academic policies and curriculum, as well as exorbitant state funding in order to bring in the brightest minds of universal scholarship, and to partner with some of the most globally-reputed universities such as University College London, University of Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon University, University Wisconsin-Madison and others. All with the aim of ultimately creating an educational basis and infrastructure for a high-quality international university through adopting Western educational standards, and incorporating them with the best practices of Central Asian and ex-Soviet Union educational systems to offer world-class education to 20,000 students every year. Will the project idea be able to sustain itself for the years ahead and what are the problems in the teaching process and management that the university is experiencing during the first years of its establishment? The aim of this paper is to browse through and analyze some of the topical issues.

Russia’s Surveillance State

Russia’s Surveillance State

The Concept of ‘Eurasia’: Kazakhstan's Eurasian Policy and its Implications

The term Eurasia is a contentious and illusive one and there is no consensus or agreement among authors on its meanings, implications and ramifications. President Nursultan Nazarbayev of the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced and developed his own vision, policies, perceptions and values of Eurasianism which he has been propagating and practicing on a continuous and consistent basis. In fact, the concept of Eurasianism and Eurasian policies have turned into state ideologies which are reflected in domestic, regional and foreign policies as well as in the foundation of the recent regional integration process. The purpose of the article is: to study and review the genesis of the old, popular as well as contemporary schools and thoughts of Eurasianism, their underlying goals, objectives and purposes in order to locate and understand Kazakhstan's views and concepts of Eurasianism in a broad historical and comparative perspectives; to review and critically analyze how President Nazarbayev's visions and policies of Eurasianism are reflected in the country's domestic, regional and foreign policies and what are their implications.

Sport and soft authoritarian nation-building

Authoritarian regimes have long taken an interest in promoting elite and mass sport, deploying it as both a nation-building strategy and a tool to elicit respect and legitimacy on the global stage. However, authoritarian regimes do not equally engage sport for these ends. Rather, as I argue, it is characteristic of ‘soft’ authoritarian regimes, i.e. those that rely less on overtly violent tactics of maintaining power (‘coercion’) and more on seemingly ‘positive’ tactics (‘persuasion’). Through the example of sport in Kazakhstan, and specifically the Astana Professional Cycling Team, I argue that nation-building through state promotion of sport illustrates the ways that soft authoritarian regimes such as that of Nursultan Nazarbayev perpetuate their rule. Adding nation-building as the sixth tool in the Schatz's (2009) ‘soft authoritarian toolkit,’ I demonstrate through discourse analysis and focus group research, how the nationalist performances surrounding elite sport are fundamental to allowing ordinary people to see their everyday practices and support for the ‘nation’ as something ‘objective,’ rather than intimately tied to the system of unequal power relations perpetuated by the ruling regime.

Nomadic Nationhood: Cinema, Nationhood, and Remembrance in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

This article examines the new Kazakh nation-state's attempt to provide a history to its people and how this attempt functions as a sort of "nomadic nationhood": an ongoing, vibrant process of building both a sense of national identity and a sense of historical remembrance that center on nomads. The state has taken the lead in this nation-building exercise, and Kazakh films, often relying on state support, have also played a starring role. Surveying a number of recent Kazakh films, the author argues that Kazakh filmmakers, responding to President Nursultan Nazarbayev's calls to create national narratives, have turned to nomads and the nomadic past as the source for Kazakh nationhood and remembrance. The reception among Kazakh citizens has produced a mixed bag: many audience members have celebrated what they see as a "new Kazakh patriotism" articulated onscreen. Others have criticized certain aspects of the onscreen nomadic nationhood, particularly the Kazakh state's role in promoting it and Kazakh filmmakers' adaptation of Hollywood techniques. Still others have stayed away from Kazakh films entirely, choosing instead to check out the latest Hollywood blockbusters. As a result, Nazarbayev declared in late 2009 that Kazakh filmmakers should start to pay more attention to the present and not just the past, but the cinematic nomadic nationhood has not stopped. The May 2012 film Myn Bala [A Thousand Boys] mines the same historical territory as 2005's The Nomad , the film that in many ways initiated the new Kazakh cinema's turn to the nomadic past. В статье рассматривается политика истории в современном Казах­стане, который продвигает концепцию "кочевой национальности". Стивен Норрис понимает эту политику как живой процесс строи­тельства национальной идентичности и формирования исторической памяти, в центре которой кочевое прошлое. Казахский кинематограф, располагающий государственной поддержкой, играет в этом проекте национального государства важнейшую роль. В статье анализируется несколько недавних казахских фильмов, авторы которых отозвались на призыв президента Нурсултана Назарбаева создать национальный казахский нарратив. Они обращаются к кочевникам и кочевому прошлому как к источнику казахской национальности и памяти. Норрис анализирует образный язык и идеологическое послание этих фильмов и их восприятие аудиторией. Автор реконструирует диапазон оценок от восторженно-патриотических до умеренно критических и откровенно индифферентных и делает вывод о функционировании концепции "кочевой национальности" в современном казахстанском обществе.

Urban ‘Utopias’: The Disney Stigma and Discourses of ‘False Modernity’

This paper examines the political implications of the practice of framing mega urban development projects with the language of ‘utopia’ or ‘Disney’. Through a case study of Kazakhstan's new capital, Astana, I argue that the stigmatizing language of ‘utopia’ is a highly political bordering practice, defining the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘real.’ Coupled with ethnographic data from fieldwork in Kazakhstan between 2009 and 2011, I perform a textual analysis of English and German language press coverage of Astana, and demonstrate how narratives of ‘false modernity’ and ‘utopia’ have become the dominant way of reading and writing about the city. Although often critical of the project as a sign of the President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ‘megalomania,’ this coverage obscures more complex geographies of power and state—society relations in the independent state. Symptomatic of liberal (ie, top-down, one-dimensional) understandings of power, the hegemonic discourse simultaneously reinscribes the state's ‘coherence’ and erases the lived realities and agencies of ordinary citizens, while obscuring the more complicated political—economic relations that condition and give rise to ‘spectacular’ urban development projects.

‘Papa’– Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Discourse of Charismatic Leadership and Nation‐Building in Post‐Soviet Kazakhstan

AbstractTaking a critical perspective on the Weberian concept of charisma this article examines elite and citizen discourse regarding the perceived charismatic leadership and nation‐building achievements of the post‐Soviet president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Using a number of ideal type features of charismatic leadership based on the typology developed by Roger Eatwell, the article argues that Nazarbayev's leadership does not fit neatly the concept of charisma. Rather, in this instance, Nazarbayev's perceived charismatic leadership as the father of the Kazakhstani nation, and the single politician capable of meeting the challenges of post‐Soviet nation‐building, is a constructed discursive force projected from above at the elite level, which resonates with public attitudes towards him at the societal level. Charisma represents a discursive mechanism that emphasises President Nazarbayev's centrality to the unity, prosperity, and stability of the nation. This charismatic discourse has aided Nazarbayev in consolidating his authoritarian regime and illustrates the existence of a distinct form of post‐Soviet charisma.

Public Leadership Style in Kazakhstan

The issue of public leadership quality in the post-communist nations has so far not received an in-depth examination whereas a leader’s effectiveness in formulating and addressing the most salient societal issues has always been a key indicator in his/her assessment by any nation in question. In this respect, leadership style of a public leader can be viewed as a key characteristic for the appraisal of his/her leadership quality. It is from this perspective that this paper offers the analysis of the leadership style of the first Kazakhstan President based on the earlier theory by an American political psychologist, James Barber. This scholar has provided an examination of a few US Presidents including Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon, drawing upon his own theory of political character types. Along the same vein, the present paper features an attempt to apply the indicated theory of “Presidential character” to the case of Nursultan Nazarbayev as a top national leader in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan: modernizing government in the context of political inertia

Kazakhstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since then it has witnessed a remarkable economic transformation under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Pursuing a policy of `economy first and then politics', Kazakhstan is under growing pressure to engage in political reforms which include a modernization agenda to improve public service provision. Recent constitutional reforms have received a lukewarm reaction from the international community that Kazakhstan is keen to become part of. At the same time a progressive agenda of public services reform is well under way rooted in new public management and a desire to become much more customer focussed in their orientation. This article examines the parallel themes of political reforms and public services modernization in Kazakhstan. Points for practitioners This article offers two key points for practitioners. First, it describes the detail of public sector reforms taking place in a developing country which secured its independence approximately 16 years ago, and the significant progress since then. Second, it poses questions about the political context in which administrative reform can take place. Has the existence of a highly centralized and autocratic form of presidential leadership resulted in a top-down imperative which has helped the pace of public services modernization in Kazakhstan?

The parliamentary election in Kazakhstan, August 2007

The first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has extensive executive powers, dominates a weak legislature and an acquiescent judiciary, and is central to all decision-making in the country. The previous parliamentary election in 2004 was judged to have fallen short of international norms as defined by the OSCE.

Geographies of Power in Nazarbayev's Astana

An American geographer examines the recent move of Kazakhstan's capital from Almaty to Astana, focusing in particular on the links between the move and the development of official nationalism in the era of Nursultan Nazarbayev's post-communist governance. The capital move is discussed within a wider theoretical framework to highlight the unique role that the national capital plays in the nationalist imagination. The paper also highlights interesting features of the new capital's physical layout as well as changes in its ethnic composition due to migration patterns following the relocation. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, H82, J61, O18. 2 figures, 2 tables, 49 references.

Astana's Privatised Independence: Private and National Interests in the Foreign Policy of Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Nazarbayev has been President of Kazakhstan since that country became independent in 1991. Observers expect him to remain in his current position until 2013, and there are clear indications that he has started to prepare for his daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to take over power after 2013. Analyses of Kazakhstan's foreign policy therefore both has had and will continue to have a close focus on the person of Nursultan Nazarbayev. In addition, this is all the more true because foreign policy in Kazakhstan to an extreme degree is a one-man affair. The present article discusses the interplay between personal and national interests as motivating factors in the foreign policy of Nazarbayev. More specifically, it investigates how these different types of motivation have influenced Nazarbayev's attempts to seek partnership with or distance from the USA and Russia.