Area of research:
My doctoral research examines the sources of middle-power agency in an era of great-power competition. The project focuses primarily on Kazakhstan as a middle power while drawing comparative insights from states with similar structural characteristics.
It situates these cases within the competitive dynamics involving the EU, the United States, China, and Russia. My research combines an analysis of external dependency structures with particular attention to the domestic sources of foreign policy, asking why comparable international constraints produce different levels and forms of state agency.
It aims to develop a framework for assessing how partner concentration, cross-domain dependency coupling, exit optionality, and reciprocal criticality shape bargaining leverage and how domestic political and institutional conditions mediate these effects.
Methodologically, my project relies on case study, with semi-structured elite interviews and a public survey serving as its principal sources of original evidence.