Winston Churchill once said: «Generals are always preparing for the last war.» His compatriot political scientist Martin White added: «And international organizations are always created to prevent the past war.» It is likely that the international system will soon begin to prepare for coronavirus pandemic prevention. And the vaccine for COVID-19 will appear when it mutates to the level of seasonal SARS.
Over the years of independence, Kazakhstan has initiated and participated in the creation of a number of international organizations, but none of them, perhaps, has caused such contradictory assessments as the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The idea was originally proposed by Nursultan Nazarbayev in May 1994. Two years later, an Agreement was signed between Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Russia on deepening integration in the economic and humanitarian fields (Tajikistan then later joined the alliance of the four). An Integration Committee was created, headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Nigmatzhan Isingarin.
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.
The strategic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China has a truly global significance and far-reaching geopolitical implications. «Belt» is the «Economic Silk Road» that links China with the Eurasian continent, Africa and the Middle East by the road, railway lines and fiber-optic communication lines by land, while «Road» is «21st Century Maritime Silk Road» that links China with distant markets and raw materials of the area between Arctic and Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans by water.