On September 22, the Atlantic Council held an off-the-record discussion with John Ordway, who just completed nine months as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Kazakhstan that followed his earlier tenure as American ambassador there in 2004-2008 and a long U.S. Foreign Service career that included assignments in Armenia, Russia and the Soviet Union.

A small group of high-level senior experts participated in the session. The event was an opportunity to assess a number of issues, including the country’s domestic political development, how such developments as the so-called Arab spring and the global financial crises have affected it, trends with Kazakhstan’s neighbors, and key issues in U.S.-Kazakh relations. This discussion was one of several planned to mark the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence and of the establishment of U.S.-Kazakhstan relations, culminating in a major conference on the subject that the Council will host on December 9 in Washington.