We are delighted to announce that NU GSPP Assistant Professor Zhanibek Arynov has been awarded the 2024 NU Emerging Scholar Research Excellence Award! This prestigious honor recognizes post-doctoral scholars and assistant professors for their outstanding research achievements, innovative contributions to society, and dedication to mentoring emerging researchers, especially students.

Professor Arynov’s research delves into Central Asian geopolitics and Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, making significant strides in decentralizing knowledge in these areas. Congratulations, Dr. Zhanibek Arynov, on this well-deserved recognition!

Dr. Arynov’s work is notable for two main reasons:

• Diversifying the Focus on Central Asian Agency: Traditional literature on Central Asian geopolitics often emphasizes the ‘New Great Game,’ highlighting the interests and policies of external actors while neglecting the agency of the five Central Asian states. Dr. Zhanibek Arynov’s research addresses this gap by emphasizing the agency and perspectives of Central Asians in their interactions with external actors.
• Incorporating Non-State Actors: Existing geopolitics and foreign policy literature tends to be state-centric, especially in regions like Central Asia where policy-making is highly vertical. Dr. Zhanibek Arynov’s work seeks to ‘decentralize’ this approach by including the viewpoints of non-state actors. This is exemplified by his pioneering research on EU-Central Asia relations from the Central Asians’ perspective and his ongoing projects on the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which incorporate public viewpoints largely missing from current literature.

Dr. Arynov’s has secured multiple external research grants, including serving as Principal Investigator on an MSHE-funded project for 2022-2024 and as a research team member on two additional MSHE-funded grants. These grants also support the training of graduate student research assistants from various NU schools. He has recently secured another MSHE grant application as a team member.

Dr. Zhanibek Arynov actively participates in editorial roles for both international and local journals. He serves as a book-review co-editor for Central Asian Survey, a leading journal in Central Asian studies, and is on the editorial board of the KIPD Bulletin, a Kazakh-language journal by the Kazakhstan Institute of Public Development. He has also contributed informally to the development of the Journal of Central Asian Studies, re-launched by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, reflecting his efforts in localizing knowledge production in Kazakhstan.

Dr. Arynov frequently engages with the media and public forums to disseminate his research. He has appeared on the popular Kazakh podcast DopSoz, which garnered nearly 25,000 views, and spoke at TedX Astana in August 2023. Additionally, he is a regular contributor to various Kazakh media outlets, including Qazaqstan TV, Atameken Channel, Vlast.kz, and Azattyq.