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Denuclearisation practices of Kazakhstan: performing sovereign identity, preserving national security

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

AIDA ABZHAPAROVA
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Abstract

In this article, I investigate the processes of the discursive construction of the identity of Kazakhstan as a sovereign and non-nuclear state, and show how the construction and performance of these identities are both productive and the product of Nuclear Weapons Technology (NWT) as a threat to the national security of Kazakhstan. I argue that both practices – the production of the state identity and the abolition of the ex-Soviet nuclear arsenal from the territory of Kazakhstan – are instrumental ways to secure the values of Kazakhstan, in this case the existence of Kazakhstan as a sovereign state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 1537 - 1553
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2010

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