Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Armenia, Caucasus and Central Asia
Chapter | Looking East? An Analysis of Kazakhstan’s Geopolitical Code after Participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Looking East? An Analysis of Kazakhstan’s Geopolitical Code after Participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Abstract
Kazakhstan’s geopolitical landscape plays a decisive role in framing its multi-vector foreign policy. Not only is the country landlocked by five states, but it is also enclosed between two regional powers, China and Russia. When joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Kazakhstan made firm commitments to China, potentially putting its multi‑vectorism at risk. The paper adopts geopolitical codes as a theoretical framework to account for changes in the country’s geopolitical considerations. It presents a qualitative discourse analysis on the presidential ‘State of the Nation Addresses’. The research contributes to the literature on Kazakhstan’s multi-vectorism by conducting a data-driven analysis that maintains geography at the core.
Submitted: April 6, 2021 | Accepted: June 30, 2021 | Published Dec. 21, 2021 | Language: en
Keywords Geopolitical Codes • Kazakhstan‑China Relations • Discourse Analysis • Foreign Policy • Multi-vectorism
Copyright © 2021 Giulia Sciorati. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-550-6/011
