Category: Kazakhstan

  • A road stop sign in front of a nuclear power plant in the distant background. Smokes billows from the nuclear reactors.

    Kazakhstan’s Turn to Nuclear

    When it comes to nuclear power, Australian and Kazakhstan share many similarities with both countries currently considering their nuclear futures. While Australian opposition leader, Peter Dutton continues to advocate for the development of a domestic nuclear power industry as part of his 2025 election campaign, Kazakhstan’s government is moving ahead with construction of its first […]
    Gulshat Rozyyeva/
    March 27, 2025
  • The Soyuz MS-18 rocket is launched with Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei with Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, Friday, April 9, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA Photo by Bill Ingalls/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

    Emerging space power in Central Asia: Kazakhstan at the crossroad

    After the disintegration of the USSR, Kazakhstan inherited a significant technological artefact of the Soviet space program, the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The management of the spaceport, from which the historically significant Sputnik 1 was launched, was transferred to Russia through a lease agreement from 1994 till 2050. However the Kazakhstani leadership had remained committed to the […]
    Nelly Bekus and Zhomart Medeuov/
    May 22, 2024
  • Band of wild Mongolian horses at the foot of Dungurukh Uul mountain, near the border with China and Kazakhstan, Bayan-Olgiy Aymag, Mongolia. By Kristel Richard, Alamy Stock Photo.

    Navigating Great Powers: Mongolia and Kazakhstan’s shared geopolitical uncertainties

    Though seldom analysed together, Mongolian and Kazakh foreign policies are connected today by nature of their shared experience of their two larger neighbours China and Russia. Mongolia and Kazakhstan have both attempted to balance a largely economic relationship with China and a military strategic relationship with Russia, in order to develop and maintain their security […]
    Liam Campbell/
    May 22, 2024
  • Almaty, Kazakhstan. 10th Jan, 2022. A view of the mayor's office building damaged in mass riots. Credit: Valery Sharifulin/TASS/Alamy Live News

    Kazakhstan unrest: implications for Australian interests

    The abrupt and turbulent start of the year in Kazakhstan has engineered the conditions for a dual narrative to emerge. Firstly, the widespread violence and protests, coupled with Kazakhstan government’s botched handling of containing the violence demonstrated the fragility of the security conditions in Kazakhstan. This was made even more shocking by the apparent mistrust […]
    Conor McLaughlin/
    May 22, 2024