PRESIDENT TOKAYEV’S REFORMS AND DIPLOMACY (From Risks to New Opportunities and Resilience for Kazakhstan)

Tukumov Y.V.
2024 Russian Academy of Sciences

World Economy and International Relations
2024 #68 Issue 5 91 - 105 pp.

Since President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took office in 2019 and trajectories of political and economic development have been accelerated, Kazakhstan has endured a series of challenges on the domestic level as well as on the international level, specifically in the context of the intersecting interests of the Russian Federation, China, and the United States in the Central Asian region. This article examines many key factors affecting the societal development of the country, including the risks that may affect the effectiveness of political changes. In addition, key factors as the demand of youth and society for increased involvement in political liberalizations, the crucial elements include of concepts associated with deepening social inequality, which eventually ended up in dramatic January (2022) unrest. Furthermore, it projects Kazakhstan’s short-and medium-term foreign policy and economic developments and illustrates the risks associated with political and economic liberalization for an emerged nation that has chosen to pursue resilient and sustainable growth. After contrasting Lipset’s theory of economic development leading to democracy with Asemoglu and Robinson’s perspective of economic development that results dictatorship or democracy, the author pointed out that Tokayev’s politics is a program where economic changes go hand in hand with the transformation of political system. To frame this issue, this article distinguishes between core and peripheral challenges, the essential risks are those that involve changing domestic politics to support democratic institutions, improve public administration effectiveness, and ultimately increase citizen participation in national governance. Governmental inefficiency, corruption, deterioration of geopolitical and geo-economics environment seem as the central barriers for reforms. Here, it also makes the case that the public’s desire for political and economic change ultimately coincides with Tokayev’s personal aspect as a president-reformer. In new complicated geopolitical landscape and the need in economic modernization the variety of transport corridors, regional connectivity and diversity in energy development have been emerged. The central conclusion draws that Kazakhstan’s foreign policy and international economic endeavors are directly impacted by the country’s extensive internal political and economic reforms.

emerging economy , foreign economic activity , geopolitical neutrality , green energy , Kazakhstan’s exports , Kazakhstan’s foreign policy , political change , resilience , Tokayev , transit

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Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Beibitshilik Str., 4, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

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