By Julia Kosygina, Intern, The PBN Company, Washington, DC

In his 1904 article, The Geographical Pivot of History, British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder emphasized the “Eurasian heartland’s” critical role in global politics. More than 100 years later, the battle for Eurasia continues as Kazakhstan prepares to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest international security organization. On June 11, 2009 Washington, DC’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Institute for New Democracies (IND) held a conference entitled Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship Agenda. The event was the product of a special task force created to promote Kazakhstan’s 2010 OSCE chairmanship. According to a Eurasianet report, the Kazakh government gave $29,000 to CSIS and IND to write several reports and hold conferences in DC and Astana.  This ambitious PR initiative provided some interesting insight on Kazakhstan’s leadership potential.

Read more »