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.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, having become the President of Kazakhstan after a landslide election victory a year ago, and recently returned from Moscow, where at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin he participated in a parade to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, gave an interview to the popular newspaper Ana Tili (Native language).
The interview reflected a wide range of issues of global and internal political nature, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the modern system of international relations and country governance, reforming the political, economic and social spheres, as well as the role of the state language, cultural code and philosophical views of the Kazakh people and their relationship with current trends in world development.
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.
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.