Kazakhstan, one of the 15 countries to emerge from the disintegration of the Soviet Union, was an early leader in the post-communist transformation. Kazakhstan embarked on an ambitious plan of structural transformation, determined to adopt democratic practices and make the transition to a market economy. Today, a decade after the collapse of the USSR, the euphoria of post-communist possibilities contrasts with the complex realities of transitional politics. Kazakhstan's experience reflects the full spectrum of post-Cold war redevelopment—the politics of post-communist change and wide-scale privatization, the struggles of globalization, the lure of the “Asian development path”, the difficulties of the “Dutch Disease” of excessive reliance on an overdeveloped oil sector.

Gregory Gleason teaches international relations and administration at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of Federalism and Nationalism: The Struggle for Republican Rights in the USSR (1991), Central Asian States: Discovering Independence (1996), and Markets and Politics in Central Asia (2003). Gleason has held research appointments at the University of Miami, Duke University, the Kennan Institute, and the Hoover Institution. He has conducted research under the auspices of the Academies of Science of the USSR, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. Gleason is currently the President-Elect of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), the world's leading interdisciplinary professional association focusing on the culture, history, and current affairs of the countries of Central Asia.