Center: новости — страница 16

Afghanistan has long been a modern backbone for international politics. There is no other country around which (more precisely, around which problems) such a developed system of global, regional, two-, three — and quadripartite dialogues are built. Dozens of intelligent people around the world are working on ways to resolve the «Afghan issue», and dissertations are being defended. Monographs on Afghan topics can be filled in several rooms of the library. Before the era of self-isolation, the fast and frequently used international conferences about Afghanistan were one of the drivers of the hotel, restaurant, catering, air travel industries, and everything related to the event business.

Afghanistan has long been a modern backbone for international politics. There is no other country around which (more precisely, around which problems) such a developed system of global, regional, two-, three — and quadripartite dialogues are built. Dozens of intelligent people around the world are working on ways to resolve the «Afghan issue», and dissertations are being defended. Monographs on Afghan topics can be filled in several rooms of the library. Before the era of self-isolation, the fast and frequently used international conferences about Afghanistan were one of the drivers of the hotel, restaurant, catering, air travel industries, and everything related to the event business. For some international organizations specializing in security, the «Afghan problem» served as the main justification for their activities. At the same time, which is very important, Afghanistan with its problems brought out international unity. At the UN, resolutions on Afghanistan are adopted with unanimity that is rare these days. The countries, whose views on the world are diametrically opposed, coincide in their approaches to solving the Afghan issue.

Aujourd’hui, l’ancienne idéologie, vivement discutée par l’opinion publique il y a une quinzaine d’années, fait quasiment partie du passé. Il s’agit d’autoritarisme éclairé, qui a été mentionné pour la première fois, autant que je me souvienne, par l’homme et analyste politique français Alex Moskovich, le conseiller extérieur de Nursultan Nazarbaïev. A cette époque, la critique condamnait l’autoritarisme, mais la deuxième partie de l’équation, indispensable à sa compréhension, fut écartée du débat.   

The anniversary of Nursultan Nazarbayev is a good reason to remember why he successfully ruled the country for three decades. Kazakhstan is one of the few post-Soviet states that has escaped interethnic conflicts, military confrontations, social cataclysms, while Nazarbayev himself is one of the few politicians who, during the entire period of his presidency, did not have a worthy alternative.

Today, when there is time to assess the amount of work done, it is very easy to talk about how and what could have been done better. Young people, who have grown up in recent decades, often go to extremes when talking about the actions of Nursultan Nazarbayev.

What has the last year shown? To what extent the first president is involved in the active social and political life of Kazakhstan now?

There has been a certain evolution of relationships. Still, in Kazakhstan such a model — the presence of two presidents — was not applied, and some issues, even taking into account the experience and diplomacy of the two presidents, were worked out on the fly.

If at first the First President stepped aside, then, starting from the summer of last year, he became more active and indicated his presence, while demonstratively not pushing his powers.

In addition to the classical diplomacy, there are always additional forms within which foreign policy is implemented. Among them, the non-military-type operations stand out, and already among those, peacekeeping operations play a key role. Of course, Kazakhstan has very little experience with it so far, but I think it will be interesting to provide an informational overview of everything that is connected with them.

Nowadays, the old ideology, which was vigorously discussed by the public opinion of the country one and a half decades ago, has already been partially forgotten. It is about the enlightened authoritarianism, which was first mentioned by, if my memory serves right, French politician and political analyst Alex Moskovich, the external adviser of Nursultan Nazarbaev. At the time critics condemned authoritarianism, but the second part of the equation, without which it did not hold a meaning, was left outside of the discussion.