Did Kazakhstan lose influence and domestic stability by voluntarily giving up the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal? The answer, bluntly, is no. Astana inherited more than 1,400 Soviet strategic warheads and other nuclear materials following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It subsequently abandoned its military nuclear status and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state, and transferred all remaining warheads to Russia. Now, Astana continues to play a deci
