At independence, Kazakhstan was the fourth largest nuclear power in the world. It had nuclear warheads, a working plutonium reactor, bombers and missiles. While it might have been difficult to take control of the missiles, which had elaborate fire control systems in place and were protected by Russian soldiers, it would have been possible to use the reactor, indigenous experts, and the bombers to build a nuclear arsenal in relatively short order. Kazakhstan chose not to do so.

Realist international relations theory would predict that a state between two great powers, each of which is armed with nuclear weapons, which had newly declared independence from one of those states, would likely build a nuclear arsenal in order to insure its survival. Kazakhstan's decision to forego nuclear weapons, therefore, is interesting, and would appear to have something to say about larger debates concerning the desirability of nuclear weapons and the explanatory power of realist theories.

In 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev made the far-sighted decision to shut down the world's second largest nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk. In 1994, in partnership with the US under the Nunn-Lugar program, Nazarbayev renounced the nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan. This action demonstrated the peacefulness and the responsibility of the emerging Kazakh state for peace and security. The voice of Kazakhstan with other nations was heard to proclaim a day devoted to striving for a nuclear weapons-free-world.

August 29 is the UN International Day against Nuclear Tests, the day when the Semipalatinsk test site was shut down in 1991. "I call on all nuclear –weapon states to follow Kazakhstan," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

On the Kazakh land devastating tests had devastating effects in three environments. The creation of an international movement "Nevada-Semipalatinsk" in Kazakhstan, referring to two of the most famous test bomb sites, has made an invaluable contribution to ending the testing of deadly weapons and the construction of a nuclear-free world.

Kazakhstan launched a new international initiative called The ATOM Project on August 29 of last year. The ATOM Project's name is an acronym for "Abolish Testing. Our Mission."

The ATOM Project seeks to unite global public opinion about the documented catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons testing, particularly the 450 nuclear tests conducted in Kazakhstan between 1949 and 1991 that adversely affected the health and lives of nearly two million people.

The goals of the Project were articulated well by Honorary ATOM Project Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov of Kazakhstan, a survivor of the effects of nuclear tests, who spoke at the assembly about the horrific impact of the tests on the lives of the people who had to endure them.

"Many of (the people in my life) have died from the radiation from the nuclear tests," he said. "In one family, first the father then the mother then all the children passed away – the whole family of 10. I myself have no arms to hug you, but I have a heart as big as the open space of Kazakhstan ready to embrace the world for peace and nuclear disarmament."
 
Ward Wilson, director of the Rethinking Nuclear Weapons project, the author of the book Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons described Kazakhstan's decision like this: "Kazakhstan's story is so important, because it disproves the notion that nuclear weapons are important. If nuclear weapons give you safety and security then Kazakhstan should have kept them, and it should have suffered from a lack of safety and security over the past two decades since giving them up. But that has clearly not been the case. The past 21 years since national independence have been the safest, most secure and most prosperous in the nation's history."
 
The author is head of the International Cooperation Department of the Center for Military Strategic Research under Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn