Eurasianism and Role Theory: Conceptual Insights from Kazakhstan’s Foreign Policy (1991-2019)

Abstract

This article uses role theory to examine how Eurasianism shaped Kazakhstan’s national role conception during the formative decades of its independence (1991-2019). Drawing on presidential speeches, strategic documents and secondary analyses, it traces how President Nursultan Nazarbayev recast Eurasianism from a geographical label into a strategic role identity-the “Eurasian Bridge.” Building on Kalevi Holsti’s concept of National Role Conceptions (NRCs), the article argues that Eurasianism functioned as a foreign-policy role that linked domestic imperatives of interethnic harmony with an external orientation of balance and cooperation.

The analysis shows how this Eurasian Bridge role underpinned Kazakhstan’s multi-vector foreign policy, informed its pattern of institutional alignments across Eurasian and Euro-Atlantic fora, and shaped its security framing as one of cooperative, region-wide threat management rather than bloc confrontation.

Empirically, the case illustrates how a mid-sized post-Soviet state converted structural “in-betweenness” into diplomatic agency by constructing a mediating role between Russia, China and the West.

Theoretically, the article contributes to Foreign Policy Analysis by demonstrating how an elite-driven civilizational idea can be translated into a durable national role conception and by highlighting the value of integrating role theory with small-state diplomacy in Eurasia.