CIAO DATE: 09/02

Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise

Martha Brill Olcott

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

August 2002

Summary

At the outset of independence 10 years ago, Kazakhstan's leaders promised that the country's rich natural resources, with oil and gas reserves among the largest in the world, would soon bring economic prosperity, and it appeared that democracy was beginning to take hold in this newly independent state. A decade later, economic reform is mired in widespread corruption. A regime that flirted with democracy is now laying the foundation for family-based, authoritarian rule. This book examines the development of this ethnically diverse and strategically vital nation. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise also looks at shortcomings of U.S. policy in the region and at the future challenges that Kazakhstan will pose to the United States and international institutions.

 

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jessica T. Mathews

Chapter 1. Introducing Kazakhstan (PDF, 23 pgs., 94 KB)

Chapter 2. Reluctantly Accepting Independence

Chapter 3. The Challenge of Creating Kazakhstanis

Chapter 4. Trying Pluralism and Abandoning it

Chapter 5. Economic Development or Stealing the State?

Chapter 6. A Divided Society

Chapter 7. Can Kazakhstan Regain Its Promise?

Index (PDF, 10 pgs., 50 KB)