The Islamic Republic of Iran is a state in peril – one whose decades-long revisionist foreign policy has had a boomerang effect – bringing the wars it fueled in the Middle East back to the homeland. In some ways it was only a matter of time that the oppressive radical Islamist regime, which offered nothing in the way of state building to its citizens, would find itself at this dead end.

It did not have to be like that. In sharp contrast, and to Iran’s north is Kazakhstan. The Central Asian country is a model of state building and constructive foreign policy decision-making - in large part due to the leadership of its founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Post-independence the founding president succeeded in his ambition to revitalize the Kazakh nation after centuries of Russian and Soviet occupation that resulted in communist oppression, agricultural devastation, environmental destruction and mismanagement. 

Kazakhstan hosted the Second China-Central Asia summit on June 16-17 attended by Chinese president Xi Jinping and his counterparts from the other four Central Asian states. A few days later, on June 21, the foreign ministry in Astana issued a statement warning that U.S. military strikes on Iran could have “serious consequences” for security in the Caspian region. Then on June 23 spokesperson Aibek Smadiyarov strongly rejected Russian media reports suggesting that Ukrainian forces were launching drones from Kazakhstan’s territory. Most recently, Kazakhstan’s........

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