Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The evolution of Kazakhstan's security policies since independence, and particularly after September 11, 2001, indicates that the country has chosen to play an active role in regional and international security as a means to security its own national interests. It has opened to the West, and played an active role in the War on Terrorism. It has also worked to maintain Central Asia's regional security architecture. These policies have had some demonstrable affect on national, regional and international security, but as a young state in a troubled region Kazakhstan will require increased Western assistance if it is to become the force for stability that it seeks to be. Kazakhstan has a very important geopolitical location, and can play a role of a regional leader in Central Asia, but it is still a very young state and needs a strong support. "Perhaps nowhere was the granting of independence more bittersweet and the challenges of sustaining it more complex than in the case of Kazakhstan." (Mathews, Jessica T. Foreword in "Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise" by Olcott, Martha Brill, Washington D.C. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002) / Colonel, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan