By good fortune Kazakhstan finds itself between Europe and Asia, not only geographically, but notably demographically and culturally. Therefore it is a Eurasian country, a part of the Eurasian civilization. Here we should note that a border between the two largest global religions, Islam and Christianity, being religions of two superethnoses: Turan and Slavic, lies here. At first glance it may seem that a natural way for the development of modern Kazakhstan is for it to join the Turk-Islamic world with which we have centuries-old common national roots, languages, traditions, customs, etc. But, unlike our neighbours, here in Kazakhstan the forms of purely Moslem culture would hardly be dominant. In ancient times various religions have been being professed and co-existed peacefully in the Kazakh steppes, including ancient Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrism, Manichaeism, and Tengry traditions, which were almost as important to common people as has been Islam. Today the country has all the conditions needed to develop a dialogue as a means of the national and civil consolidation: stable and dynamic economic growth has been ensured, institutes of democracy and civil society are being developed, the stability, safety and independence of a young state have been provided for. This is the cultural-historical background of the interconfessional dialogue and the ethical accord in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Eurasian idea, being original and specific compared to the ideas of the East and the West, does not contradict them and is not separated from them. On the contrary, it allows synthesizing both ideas into a live and quite natural unity of the diverse. It presupposes the transformation of the world and the perfection of persons not separately from each other but as mutually complementary. In other words, the material-practical activity of a person should be fertilized by an ethical-moral essence; in turn, the ethical-moral development of a person requires not isolation from the world but a real common activity of transformation of being.

Thus, Eurasianism in its essence is a special type of attitude to the world, penetrated by a moral essence and capable, thanks to its practical-humanistic potential, of being also integrated. That is, it can overcome the extremes of the West and East and synthesize their best features – the pathos of material-practical activity, on the one hand, and psychic-ethical culture, on the other. Eurasianism is a space of interconfessional, interstate, intercultural dialogue to solve crucial strategic and global issues.

To a great extent, this is true of the religious component of the mentality of the peoples of Kazakhstan. The issue of the mentality and national character of the Kazakh nation plays an important role here. It is peculiar that only 3.3% of the interviewed delegates and guests of the Second Eurasian media-forum in Almaty found religious differences to be a basis for contradictions between East and West. Stable traditions of peaceful co-existence of various religions, tested by centuries, have developed in our country. Buddhism, Sufism, Tengry religion, popular beliefs, polytheistic and monotheistic religions have peacefully co-existed in the vast expanses of Eurasia. It is of a special importance that the interrelations of the two largest religions – Christianity and Islam - can be characterized with the same tolerance.

The reason for the peaceful co-existence and neighbourly dialogue between Islam and Christianity should be seen, firstly, in the fact that the origins and historical root of these religions are the same, both of them being links of the same chain of ethical development. Secondly, despite certain differences they also have many commonalities: acknowledgement and affirmation of God as one for the whole of humankind; the contents and character of the ethical history as depicted in the Bible and Koran; continuity in the activity of major prophets, etc.

Certainly, the confessional picture of relationships between Islam and Christianity and other religions cannot be seen only in an idealistic light, especially today, when complicated and contradictory processes of globalization are taking place in the world. Globalization and the growing interconnectedness of the social world expand the borders and opportunities of contiguity of the various confessions, which has both pluses and serious minuses. In the conditions of a modern complicated multi-polar world certain political powers defend their corporate interests. Often they use religious terminology thus, promoting serving interconfessional, interethnic and international discord.

What role in safety provisions, including regional ones, on the level of Kazakhstan can the interconfessional dialogue play? In answering this question, we should first of all emphasize the following. The very notion of "safety" means not only prevention of threats from the outside, protection of the national interests of the state from external danger, but also not being a danger. In other words, safety means that nothing is a threat to us, as well as that we are not a threat to anyone. That is, we should be talking about the fact that in relationships with other states and nations we should be open and build these relationships on the principles of mutual understanding and trust – so that other countries and nations trust us.

Also, we should reveal the exact contents of the notion of "dialogue". The essence of a genuine, productive dialogue, including an interconfessional one, certainly, is not just the meeting of representatives of various doctrines, not just discussions of these or other issues. A dialogue means that its parts, firstly, can uncover and clarify each other’s positions; secondly, understand the other’s position and show tolerance towards it; and, thirdly, undertake joint practical actions in a unified direction based on common or mutually accepted peace-making motives and objectives.

If, first of all, safety depends on relationships based on trust and openness, and if we also take into consideration that these are essential definitions of belief and religiosity in its authentic meaning, it should become quite clear that an interconfessional dialogue, i.e. a dialogue of those living with belief and for the sake of belief, is a quite vital factor of security.

This dialogue may be developing in the following priority directions:

a) peacemaking at the state and civil levels;

b) interaction with the bodies of state power on issues touching upon the interests of Kazakhstani citizens;

c) care for the preservation of ethical-moral foundations in the Kazakhstani society in terms of globalization; and

d) development of the competitive cultural potential of our country through critical understanding of the rich spiritual inheritance of the nation, and preservation of its cultural and national identity.

Today we have all the prerequisites for a valuable and productive dialogue of the confessions and, accordingly, for the maintenance of stability and the continuous development of the independent state of the Republic of Kazakhstan. They include the latest initiatives of Kazakhstani authorities related to the promotion of relationships in line with EAC (Eurasian Community) and important prospective relationships of our state on the issue of the legal status of the Caspian sea.

In general, we should always remember that a normal and productive dialogue of the confessions is possible only in case our state consecutively and continuously ensures the rights and liberties of the believers, at the same time trying to direct the potential of confessional security in channels of strengthening the young democratic state system of Kazakhstan. It is important constantly to control the situation in the confessional and interconfessional sphere in order for religion to avoid becoming an object of political games and speculations.

Thus, in order to develop the space of an interconfessional dialogue as a factor for providing and intensifying of the stable regional security, it is necessary to take the following practical steps:

1. to develop an extensive database for all religious unions and organizations, functioning in the modern world, and to analyze their availability in Kazakhstan;

2. to study the social science of religious elites in our Caspian-Central-Asian region;

3. systematically to monitor the religious situation in Kazakhstan, in the near-Caspian region in order to make relevant amendments in the politics of our state in regards to religion and religious unifications;

4. regular meetings, conferences, "round tables" with the attendance of state representatives, religious scientists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations should be a very important and natural form of dialogue of the confessions. The international scientific-practical conference held in Almaty in June 2002 and entitled as "Globalization and dialogue of confessions in Central Asian countries" is a good example of such direct and constructive dialogue;

6. we also need such comparatively new forms of interconfessional dialogue as "meetings of interreligious accord" where a representative of each confession would report on positive properties of another religion and its founder. Such meetings already take place in the world and we, Kazakhstan citizens, could adopt and develop this positive experience in order to intensify interconfessional accord in our country.

Without exaggeration, spiritual accord may be considered the original foundation for all the other forms of accord since it is the internal and ideological core of interpersonal links. For Kazakhstan, spiritual accord is necessary, first of all, between Islam and Christianity which are dominant in the country. This is stipulated both by the stable socio-economic and political development of the country and the very essence of Islam and Christianity as professing common values – love, mercy, trust, respect, decent behaviour. These are humanistic foundations for the development of a space for interconfessional dialogue and principles of genuine religion as the art of developing the human (spiritual) essence in a person.

They are the principles of each genuine religion as the art of developing the human (spiritual) essence of a person. If a so-called "believer" thinks of other people as "outsiders", "heretics", "false" and especially if he takes a gun to attack them, this should be estimated as a consequence of a fake belief in which the commandments of belief are violated under the banner of this very belief. In this case we deal not with the religion, but with its modified form, its perversion – fanaticism and extremism. Here religion is fully confused with politics and the ethical - with secular interests. In other words, religion as subjected to politics, which in turn absorbing radical ideas becomes aggressive and, thus, very dangerous.

Some people, however, believe that such politization and radicalism is actually inherent to all religions, including Islam. But is this true in reality? History and modern times demonstrate that there are differences in Islam and believers may be different as well. The Kazakh nation will never perceive Islam in its fundamentalist meaning: the Islam of al-Farabi, Yassavi, Abay, Shakarim is closer and more understandable to them.

Certainly, not everything is right in the religious sphere of Kazakhstan. The existence of "pseudoreligions" inside and outside the Republic forces us to be cautious. Yes, fortunately, in Kazakhstan religious units do not bear the functions of some special or general political power. We do not have such monstrous conglomerates as "militant-religious" organizations. But such powers and organizations are not far from us. Consequently, objectively they bear a potential threat to the national security of Kazakhstan. We should not be complacent about this fact; it is important to study the forms and ways of interconfessional interaction and dialogue in terms of socio-political transformation. Thus, we need systematic monitoring and projections of interethnic relationships and the religious situation in the regions.

Certainly, just as religion should not interfere with the business of the state, the state should not proclaim a rude policy towards religious organizations; it should not violate the principle of liberty of conscience and choice of religion, for this may bring negative consequences and provoke conflict situations. The state should not be an impartial observer of what is going on in religious life. It should attentively and systematically track the dynamics of changes in the religious sphere, controlling and regulating the situation in order to maintain stability and provide for confessional security and development of the ethical-moral essence of human beings. In the framework of the united state and all over the world a dialogue is required as a factor of socio-political stability and peace.

Past centuries, especially the last one, have demonstrated that need to develop mutual understanding among people, their outlooks and cultures. Previous settings of the subject-object and intrasubjective character, originating from the western and eastern traditions, are presently being replaced by the development of a growing tendency for interpersonal cultural dialogue.

In this regard, the philosophy of understanding that we developed in the Institute of philosophy and political science of independent Kazakhstan is truly the philosophy of the future aimed at solving fundamental issues and tasks appealing to us from the past for the sake of existence in the new millennium.

One of the prototypes of the philosophy of mutual understanding is presented yet in Kazakh philosophy of the steppe civilization and nowadays of free Kazakhstani philosophy, synthesizing the rich philosophical and social thoughts of the Turks and Slavs, thus, ensuring the stability and security of the country. In any case, in its cultural-historical character Kazakh and Kazakhstani philosophy is neither western, nor eastern in its pure meaning. It is a Eurasian philosophy and, consequently, it can unite the merits of both West and East, of Europe and Asia. It is full of pathos of mutual respect for the cultures mixed in it and of the spirit of commonality.

All the spheres: politics, science, religion, etc. take an active part in, and are simultaneously absorbed by, the process of integration of cultures of the East and the West, by the development of a constructive dialogue between various civilizations, cultures, nations, confessions and outlooks. The breadth of the issue and the circle of the issues considered is also defined by the following fact: we cannot talk about mutual understanding if some principally important party, taking part in this dialogue is missing.

Speaking of the constructive dialogue of cultures, we should also emphasize the need to achieve mutual understanding, accord and unity. We mean a real dialogue, i.e. one in which its parties hear or, at least, try to hear each other, and where understanding is understood as both theoretical, rational perception of the material of this or that culture and a heartfelt confession. For accord is not a formalized and enforced agreement prescribing a "stand" for each other, but a sincere vision and perception of the commonality of tasks and objectives. In this regard we need to analyze better the notion of tolerance in the context of globalization. Finally, unity is understood not as unification or dilution of one culture in the other or as their mutual absorption, nor even as an artificial preservation of the available cultural diversity. Unity, not in formal terms, but in content-dialectical terms, is a co-creative connection enriching all the parties concerned. It is an internal harmonious connectedness of cultural diversity for development can be accomplished on the basis of creative mutual enrichment; otherwise, diversity will not develop but decay. Therefore, multiculturalism is a contemporary model for the functioning and developing of the polyethnic Kazakhstani society.

It is logical to conclude that difficulties in the constructive dialogue between civilizations are based firstly upon non-perception of expansion of alien cultural models. Westernization and modernization are different, but closely allied terms. They differ in intended extension inasmuch as one culture is directed to the individual person.

Turning to Kazakhstan as part of Eurasian civilization, Kazakh culture is inseparable from the phenomenon of the nomadic and settled culture as a nucleus of its uniqueness and peculiarity. The steppe culture was conservative in terms of production and the conditions of life, but at the same time it opened the world to a person and a person to the world. Researchers note that the Kazakh steppe civilization was characterized by a syncretic outlook which proceeds by the addition of something new to what was already available. This determined the character of the development of the Kazakh steppe civilization, and was one of the bases for the historical way of development of the Kazakh nation.

The collectivism of the Kazakh steppe civilization, and attention to the interests of the kindred in the Kazakh traditional society was dictated, first of all, by the conditions of life or habitation, where one person alone could not survive. Therefore one’s kindred became the basis for a Kazakh identity. That there was no reticence can be explained by the culture and consciousness of a Kazakh as a flowing and universal attitude to the world, free of rigid forms, of limitations by habitual models. The world elements in his consciousness were organically connected and such vision did not allow reticence or lack of awareness of what was happening.

This results in the provision of a special place for Kazakh steppe civilization in comparison to other civilizational systems. Kazakhs have always been a mobile and dynamic power. Civilizations previously poorly connected in the vast world communicated through the steppes and cities. This was the phenomenon of Eurasianism, understood as the perception of the cultures of West and East, as a syntheses of the two poles of the world’s self-understanding.

Historically Kazakhstan has become the place of mutual enrichment of civilizations, of mutual penetration of cultural models, created by the community of various peoples. It is a polyethnic state and its development will in any case be linked to this undeniable fact. Efforts to develop based on an ethnic-oriented model of the state are fraught with the danger of a split of society and the death of the very state. We can see this in the example of interethnic conflicts on the territory of the ex-Soviet Union. Their reason is a misunderstood nationalism, leading to denial of the need for dialogue with the other cultures and a closing of opportunities to become involved in the processes of globalization, the system of the world civilizations.

Kazakhstan with its polycultural population proclaims an independent state system based on the idea of co-citizenship and equal conditions for the development of all cultures and ethnoses living on its huge territory. No doubt, this is a guarantee of stability of the transit society, security and civil accord. That Civilizations expand their limits is a natural process throughout the centuries, but today we face the need to overcome the limits through acquaintances, intensification of mutual dependence, connection between the efforts of western and eastern civilizations, rapprochement of cultures leading not to unification but to the growth of ideas and the enrichment of the coloration of the world, while preserving the cultural diversity of peoples.

Perception of the world by a contemporary person presupposes the growing interest in other civilizations and cultures. If one knows a person through internal and external dialogue, the two lose the sense of being "outsiders". A synthesis of the national and human values is a crucial requirements for the development of a space for the intercivilizational dialogue, where the necessary conditions for a constructive settlement of all the complicated and difficult conflictual issues are created in order to achieve peace and covered across the world.

As a stable equal interconfessional dialogue, a weighted, balanced and harmonious type of the interconfessional interaction, we may say that the philosophy of mutual understanding, developed in independent Kazakhstan is truly a philosophy of the future, aimed at solving the burning issues and tasks from the past for the sake of a worthy existence in the new millennium. As a Eurasian philosophy, it unites the merits of West and East, of Europe and Asia. The national philosophical idea in its outlook, ideological potential and content is replete with mutual respect for the cultures mixed in it, of the spirit of commonality, and of brotherly openness to foreign cultural affects and achievements. This not only makes us proud of the national philosophical culture of mutual understanding, but also leads everyone who writes and speaks of it and creates this culture responsibly to preserve and actualize its humanistic and tolerant potential in every way possible.

Such considerations of the dialogue of confessions in the expanses of globalization enables us to say that, firstly, the peculiarity of Kazakhstani (Eurasian in spirit) philosophy enables it to enter the wide expanse of the global civilization, the dialogue of cultures and civilizations. Secondly, entrance into these new cultural-historical dimensions will help the ethnoses of Kazakhstan overcome their limits through acquaintance with other cultures. In this process they achieve a better understanding of themselves and become more competitive; this could enable them to lead in the world development. Thirdly, the interrelation of the universal and the single would transform the model of social globalization. This creatively open dialogue of cultures could found global information and communication networks. The great potential of the scientific mind of the whole of humankind could be contributing to the well-being of all countries and nations, and not only to the well-being of the richest. This should enable the peoples to exercise their own self-determination, preserve their national peculiarity and dignity, and the uniqueness of their national image in the world.

The issue of the essence and status of the national or rather Kazakhstani national idea is its highest meaning. In taking up the responsibility for this complex issue of multiple aspects, we cannot remain academically impassionate for we are not talking only about the development of a set of outlooks, orientations and values aimed at the consolidation of the nation of Kazakhstan, the stable socio-economic and ethico-cultural development of the society, and the intensification of the safety and independence of our young Republic. Nor does it concern only the clarification of the conceptual and categorical status of the idea as a form of contemplation and its theoretical or logical content. Rather, we are talking about something more important than that, namely, about the practical forms of its realization. In the process of the development of an independent Kazakhstan, the Kazakh national idea has been transformed into the Kazakhstani national idea, having absorbed the richness of the former. We understand the Kazakhstani idea as a form of resolving discrepancies, a normative definition, enhancing the internal unity and stability of our transient society and containing the internal light of interpersonal conviction of all those who constitute the nation of Kazakhstan. In this regard, the Kazakhstani idea may be called a Kazakhstani dream - a term not very popular in western science, but actively used by the press. A dream is something that remains beyond the framework of rational conceptual analysis and addresses the "logic of the heart" and personal moral experience.

Research on this complex topic must be interdisciplinary in character: philosophy, political, cultural, social, Diaspora science, legal science, economics, theory of values, history, linguistics, gender disciplines, and synergetics. The entire theoretical baggage of these sciences should be utilized to comprehend such a complex phenomenon as the Kazakhstani national idea. Besides, we should apply our personal positions, preferences, emotions, and passionate desire to boost the stability and prosperity of our Republic.

We have only started our research. But, following the requirement of hermeneutics, we have already outlined our project, identifying the whole of what is to be studied. This contains the precious seeds of all aspects of the complex theme. Foreseeing the meaning enables us effectively to move towards clarification, concrete definition, and an extensive comprehension of the whole in order to arrive at the general, conceptual and, at the same time, personal understanding of the Kazakhstani idea as a way to settled contradictions.

To discuss some issues of which our theme as "woven", we may outline some of the "problematic knots" our scientists are discussing:

- How should we understand the national idea and what is the Kazakhstani idea;

- What is the contemporary understanding of the traditional notions of ethnos, nationality, nation, people and Diaspora;

- Can we depend upon for direct analogues between the Kazakhstani national idea and, for example, the Russian idea or the American dream?

- Is there a special model of the Kazakhstani idea, based upon the exclusive uniqueness of the historical experience and cultural sense of all the inhabitants of Kazakhstan?

- What is the meaning of the Kazakhstani idea in the context of globalization, and the development of the structure of a new world order?

- Finally, what methodological principles help to understand the post-modern idea as a means to unity?

The Russian idea may be compared to the Kazakhstani one as the idea of one ethnos. But, unlike the Russian, the Kazakh idea does not claim to be Messianic aimed to handle the destinies of humankind, but is aimed at finding the native land, "Atameken" – "the land of ancestors". This noble elevated idea was developed in times of the ancient Turks and has spread through the centuries as a unitive thread. The Kazakh people, singing a touching song of "Elim-ai" (O, my dear country!), according to Mukhtar Auezov, "like a tragic rambler roaming through the steppes and centuries" like sad Asan-Kaigy, has been looking for the Promised land of "Zheruiyk" where the Kazakh national idea on the development of an independent national state and the dream of a peaceful and happy life would come true.

Today the Kazakh idea has been transformed and come true in the form of the sovereign national state of Kazakhstan. Over ten years ago the world map saw a new sovereign independent state that loudly proclaimed itself on the global stage and became an equal partner of the democratic community of states. But this has made Kazakhstan face a new issue: how to use the powerful potential of the Kazakh idea to develop a Kazakhstani idea, able to unite and integrate all the ethnoses of the Republic. The Russian idea had no such mission.

Actually, American theorists trying to ennoble the "American dream", make its pragmatism sound humanistic. One of the recognized theorists of pragmatism, William James, insists on differentiation between the authentic and false success. The former, unlike the latter, presupposes that internal strengths and abilities of a person are being developed in an honest way, following the norms of moral principles of kindness and justice. But the real embodiment of the pragmatism doctrine, realization of the "social elevator" concept enhances unscrupulousness in the choice of means to achieve the "American dream". It is not the affirmation of moral values that the ascent on the social ladder requires, but rather violation of these principles or moral values. The Kazakhstani dream, on the contrary, places a priority upon ethical-moral values, a spiritual humanism is dominant.

The experience of Japan is especially attractive from among the eastern countries. Being led by the national idea of the "Japanese spirit, western technology", Japan opted to develop a flexible economic system and to synthesize the values of the traditional culture and liberal values of the West, thus, preserving its ethnic identity in terms of globalization. The South-Eastern Asian countries have also implemented the crucial principle of globalism: "Think globally, act locally" which enabled them to preserve their cultural and confessional diversity.

These analogies with the Russian idea, the American dream, and the eastern experience enable us to reveal the special quality and essential features of the Kazakhstani national idea. These suggest introducing to the agenda the development of the Kazakhstani model as a way to settle contradictions.

The national idea should flow from the entire logic of national history and culture and be based upon the human values and Constitution of the country. It outlines the future, which it promises to shape. Summarizing the historical experience and revealing the tendencies of the historical development, the idea takes us beyond this experience and projects what we aspire to, that for which we long. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan A. Nazarbaev, has developed the following five principles upon which the national idea of Kazakhstan is based: 1) actual and legal equality of all ethnoses of the Republic; 2) as a state-forming ethnos, the Kazakh nation therefore is in charge of other ethnoses and the other ethnoses should look at the self-realization of the Kazakh nation with understanding; 3) religious identity and tolerance for all peoples; 4) promotion of Kazakh patriotism; and 5) development of small and medium business, and of a middle class.

All other ethnoses should comprehend that the heroic and persistent Kazakh people constituting 56% of the population of the country, do not wish to dominate today. Their soul is as generous, unselfish and patient as it has always been. They suffer from the market more than anyone else for they were not prepared for it either historically, or morally-psychologically. The difficult position of Kazakhs constituting 44% of all village inhabitants proves this fact.

The Kazakhstani idea is the idea of democratic openness and social justice. It is a symbol of development of the new ethical-moral space and rebirth of the national consciousness of each nation based on the creation of a strong, civilized, independent state system as a guarantee of consent, peace and well-being.

The Kazakhstani national idea is meant to boost the internal unity and stability of the society, solidarity and mutual understanding, and thus intensify of the independent state system. It should enhance the settlement of contradictions between the interests of various ethnoses, confessions and social strata for the development the socio-economic, political and, mainly, ethical-moral integrity constituting the Kazakh nation. To this thesis, there could be some objections. Firstly, the constitutional term of the "nation" is rather disputable with regard to all the Kazakhstan inhabitants. The issue of adopting the term of the "Kazakhstani nation", which was suggested and explained by Professor Kadyrjanov in his monograph of "National Consolidation in Kazakhstan: issues and perspectives" is even more disputable. Should not the term "nation" continue to cover its traditional content, bringing it in line with the set of categories: ethnos and nationality. Secondly, even if we adopt the term "Kazakhstani nation", we unwittingly associate it with the notion of the "Soviet nation" that the contemporary social and political sciences have long rejected.

Reviewing these issues, I conclude that we should use the old terms and adopt the new ones in a very careful, balanced and critical manner. "Nation" first of all means unity in ethnic diversity, solidarity, and mutual understanding. Such unities may be stipulated by ethnic kindred and mental unity – the Kazakh and Russian nations— but it may be realized also on such different bases – co-citizenship, social-economic and, consequently, ethical-moral and cultural community. This way we may speak of the multi-peoples of the Kazakhstani nation (using Gumilev’s term), comprising multiple ethnoses. The unity is achieved through interethnic and intercultural interaction and mutual understanding. The miracle of understanding, from the point of view of hermeneutics, is not about souls communicating in some mysterious way, but in their being a part of the meaning common to them all. As to what kind of meaning this is, the Kazakhstani idea that answers this question.

However, the term "Kazakhstani nation" appears rather disputable. In contemporary democratic states it is not the ethnic origin that becomes a priority, but co-citizenship, being in the same social and economic space. But to study and describe this new situation we do not have to use notions with such simple meaning as "nation", but simply the more precise category of co-citizenship.

In response to the undesirable associations of the notions of "the Kazakhstani nation" and "the Soviet nation", we would note that these notions are principally and essentially different for they are based on different methodological principles. "The Soviet nation" is a notion presupposing a quite definite relationship between the common and the private where the former oppresses, assimilates, and conquers the latter and through such oppression unity is achieved. In the Soviet period, though, we spoke of the value of the national, it was just a slogan, an ideological cliché. Could there be serious talk about the national culture without even acknowledging the existence of Kazakh philosophy and, consequently, of the Russian religious philosophy, if the outstanding practitioners of the national culture were repressed, tormented, shot and deported?

But the decisive role in this dialogue belongs to the dominant ethnos. Having realized their dream, the Kazakh idea of "Atameken", in a form of the national sovereignty, Kazakhs have found that they have a truly historical mission to accomplish, that is, to unite all the ethnoses living in Kazakhstan into a stable democratic cultural unity thinking of it as their Motherland, sincerely and deeply loving the native land of the Kazakhs and not wanting to leave it today or tomorrow. The Kazakh nation is especially proud of the fact that other ethnoses want to stay on its friendly and generous land which they love with all their hearts and connect with it the future of their children. The vast steppes and snow-capped mountains of Kazakhstan have been full of love, acceptance and protection cherished by many ethnoses – thanks to the extraordinary internal depth and beauty of the Kazakh soul and its ability to help, support and encourage other people.

A dialogue between various ethnoses as a foundation for the development of the Kazakhstani nation presupposes, therefore, the will to cooperation, mutual understanding and the consent, first of all, of the Kazakh nation. In the course of the further development of Kazakhstan as an independent state, the integrating role of the Kazakh nation in the system of interethnic relationships of the country will grow. Therefore, a study of the national sovereignty as a factor of consolidation of the Kazakhstani society and correlation of the idea of the national sovereignty and Kazakhstani national idea will be a guide line in our research.

The research of an ethical-moral experience of the Kazakh nation, understanding the consolidating potential of the traditional culture of the Kazakhs also seems quite crucial. This culture is based upon unity and interpersonal communication: belonging to a kindred people is primary and, no doubt, vital value. In kinship a person exists not only in this or another manifestation, but also in all his essence, wholeness of life and human manifestations. Two properties of being – orientation to the environment and commitment to the memory of the ancestors – speak of the humanity and flexibility of this social institute. That is the reason why kinship enters the social-political structures at a different level. We are speaking not about restoration of the archaic consciousness, but about utilization of the invaluable experience of interpersonal communication, developing the ability of mutual understanding, mutual support and cooperation, so necessary to realize the Kazakhstani idea as a factor of the development of a socially oriented civil society. That is why we see the analysis of a Kazakh social-political idea in the context of the search and development of the Kazakhstani idea to be so important, as well as research into the national character and mentality of the Kazakhs in order to reveal a potential for interethnic integration.

Development of theoretical issues related to the topic of the "Kazakhstani idea" also presupposes research into the correlation of ethnic and civil identification, determination of the place and role of the national identity in the system of the Kazakhstani idea as a form of settlement of contradictions and, thus, a factor of development. Though the vector of civil self-identification in a stable society always wins over the vector of ethnic self-identification, co-citizenship may be manifested only in an ethnic. Therefore, the development of a civil community presupposes a conscious interaction of ethnoses, for they are the primary and original social families. Through intensification of self-knowledge, a person or a nation goes from understanding his own nature to understanding the equality of all the people and nations. Affirmation of one’s cultural peculiarity, one’s aspiration to be one’s own self is the goal of these understandings.

We have discussed some important disputable issues related to the development of a fundamental theme of "the Kazakhstani idea as a factor of development of a socially oriented civil society". One may ask what definition would state the essence of the unifying idea, and at the same time have personal and existential meaning. One of the possible answers would be the Eurasian concept, whose consolidating potential deserves separate discussion as: "The national idea and issues of stable development of Kazakhstan in terms of globalization". The idea of a Eurasian community that cropped up as a result of the transformation of the Kazakh and Kazakhstani idea has a deep meaning for the ideological consolidation of the Kazakhstani nation. What is the background and modern interpretations of the Eurasian idea, how can it be renewed on the basis of the latest scientific theories and concepts, taking into principle consideration the peculiarities of the Kazakhstani reality?

Finally, a crucial aspect of this research is a study of the system of the national interests of Kazakhstan, its geopolitical priorities and the terms for ensuring national security with regard to the Kazakhstani idea. Though the issue of security is almost unexplored in our country, for the Kazakhstani idea, consolidating the entire society, intensifying the vector of civil self-identification, and solving all the crucial issues of the development of a democratic state, at the same time enhances the position of Kazakhstan on the international stage. This strengthens its authority in the democratic community of states, and in the development of the culture of the world.

Only a strong, politically stable and spiritually united society is able to survive in terms of accelerating globalization. This not only reveals new opportunities for the development of essential human strengths. It also contains dangers, threats and risks related, first of all, to the absorption or erasure of the individual differences of peculiar cultures and national images of the world. Only through unification on the basis of the Kazakhstani idea, inspiring each Kazakhstani citizen, shall we be able to resist this storm and, use all the advantages of globalization to avoid its dangers and threats. Consolidation on the basis of the Kazakhstani idea is thus not only an internal task, but also the primary task of the state’s foreign policies to preserve and strengthen Kazakhstan as a unique state on the world map, capable of affirming the highest human values of civil culture, mutual understanding and ethical consent.

Thus, I see "the national idea" as a Kazakhstani national idea, adopted by the social sciences as a vital explanatory principle to study complicated issues of the stable development of Kazakhstan in terms of globalization. As terminological accuracy is required in any scientific research, we may talk of the Kazakhstani idea as a form of settlement of interethnic contradictions, as a means of interethnic integration based on the skillful combination of interests of the Kazakh nation and other national Diasporas in the framework of a united state where a united Kazakhstani nation is being developed.

The issue of Central Asia and its civilizational development, of the culture of the region and the ways for its development, has become especially urgent in recent times. Independent states have been established, and ways of self-identification and self-realization as a peculiar and unique culture are being sought.

Central Asia traditionally has been closely linked to the world of Islam, at the same time remaining a peculiar and original culture. Islam was accepted and became an organic part of the self-consciousness of the peoples of the region, which process was not unilateral, but mutual. Islam and Arabic culture have enriched the Turks and the latter have simultaneously developed a doctrine which resulted in an excellent new culture born as a synthesis of the Arabic and Islamic world and the Turk environment and way of understanding the world.

Islam has become the soul of the Turk culture which determined the character of the Turk world-perception. Kazakhs having a noble kindred of the "Kozha", originating from the khan kindred, Genghis Khan’s ancestors, "tore" – illustrate this thesis quite well. The "Kozha" are ancestors of the Arab missionaries who brought Islam to the Steppe and remained in this environment due to the kin-tribal character of the nomadic society. They became Kazakhs, but their very title relates them to the history, and the elevated respect towards them manifests a special attitude to the people who brought the Belief.

The Turk-speaking world involves in its orbit many peoples with various customs and cultures that can differ even in the ways they organize their economic life. For example, Uzbeks have traditionally been settled and inhabited the regions with an irrigational agriculture. Kazakhs and Kyrgyzs are nomads who developed their own proper culture.

Hence these cultures are attracted to civilizational models in different ways. Countries with a settled culture, as for example Uzbekistan, are more attracted by the Islamic civilization to which they are drawn much more than Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with this traditions and values of a nomadic culture. These countries are less inclined to regard themselves as totally oriented to Islamic culture due to their cultures being different from the purely Islamic countries with an Arab population. This is supported by the fact that in the Islamic world, according to the American scientist S. Huntington, there is no "core" state that could be a uniting factor, no peculiar Rome of Islamic culture.

The second aspect, in line with which the peoples of Central Asia identify themselves, is a thesis on the special civilization of the Turk world. The closeness of the Turk peoples has many reasons:

- language – all the Turks speak related languages; cultural – elements of their cultures are similar in many parameters and first of all, in analogous epics and myths;

- historical – they are united by common history, all these peoples have the same roots and they all have been united by the Soviet empire;

- economic – their economies have become interrelated within the totalitarian system, they are supported by a common infrastructure, etc.

These countries are characterized by the following integrative factors that unite them into a certain independent community:

- belief that is common to them all – Islam. Though it is not widespread in all the countries as regards strong common commitment to its norms and its classical canons of belief are diluted with elements of people’s beliefs, Islam is among the major "kindred" factors of the countries of the region. Islam has brought a common element, expressed in the culture of all countries of the region, having become one of the foundations for their traditions and culture: religious holidays, sacred worship places, Islamic ethics;

- Arabic culture brought by Islam and expressed in writing. At least, until the Soviet period literacy was based on the Arabic writing and related to the Koran and theology (Arabic words in modern Turk languages also originate thence). Islam and Arabic culture are connected with the names of such outstanding creators of culture and the key persons of the world history as al-Farabi and Hodja Akhmed Yassavi;

- root kinship of all the Turk-speaking peoples of the Central-Asian region, a special cultural environment developed by the language which varies from ethnos to ethnos but not in such wise that they cannot understand each other, and a comparatively late detachment from the general substance of the modern ethnoses, constituting the Central-Asian Turk world; and

- in the recent past the Russian connection living in the same country, perception of elements of the Russian culture, language and close relationships with Russia and relatively weak links with the other countries beyond the region (at least, those links have not yet been established).

Besides these factors of closeness in the region, there are factors of separation as well. These are in the sphere of politics and economics, expressed in the form of rivalry, first of all, for political leadership in the region and as a political manifestation of economic issues. A sufficient homogeneity of the economics of the Central-Asian countries, based on their wealth of natural resources and their export, made them natural competitors in the market.

The other aspect that separates these countries is difference in the level of their development: urbanization, availability of a powerful industrial layer and preservation of elements of the traditional system in the society.

In this regard, the weakest development of public systems and the lowest level of urbanization are characteristic of the ethnoses with a settled culture which have preserved rather fully elements of their tradition. The following reasons can explain this:

- a great stability of the settled culture towards external influences compared to the nomadic one which, for all its conservativism, is sensitive and perceptive to the new and is affected by a strong erosion in any change of life conditions;

- the complexity and expense of developing territories with a complicated primarily mountainous landscape, as is characteristic, for example, of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; and

- conscious preservation of the traditional public structures in a more or less virgin form in the southern regions under the Soviet rule, for their economies were oriented to the types of production for which these structures would be effective (e.g., Uzbekistan, where cotton was the major agricultural product).

Uneven development and uncertainty of the ways of further development of the region becomes one of the basic obstacles for new integrative tendencies. A holistic image of the region has not yet developed nor have the strategies and concepts of its development as a new integrated identity. The present stage in the life of the post-Soviet Central Asia with a population of fifty-million still has the forms of the previous society. As the post-Soviet priorities of the political and economic course have not been developed, there are no geopolitical priorities and, consequently, the region is still producing the resources preserved from the Soviet period.

A common development of the region as a civilizational community and its opening to the modern uni-polar world is impossible without solution of these complicated issues. Central Asia is a key region linking two worlds, drinking from two sources – the East and the West. It should fulfill to the full extent its special mission within the dynamics of the global civilization process.

The world of Islam is rightly proud of the highest achievements in the sphere of spiritual culture that constitutes its glory in the history of the humankind and supports the rise of the Islamic culture, literature and philosophy. The wide expansion and forward development of Islamic spirituality, fixed and expressed in the holy book of Moslems, the Koran, and demonstrated for many centuries, involves in its orbit many states and regions of the world. Kazakhstan is no exception in this regard, either, as a zone of the traditional expansion of Islam, backed by the long history of the expansion and penetration of its spiritual influence. Even though Kazakhstan, due to the geopolitical conditions, is, in some regard, a "peripheral" region compared to the epicenters of Islam, we still have to underline that in its essential, universal traits Islam has settled in Kazakhstan. However, it has undergone a certain transformation, related, first of all, to the peculiarities of the mode of organization and life of the nomadic Kazakh society. Thus, a peculiar syncretism of Islam with the local traditions of Tengry-worhip has become a specific feature of the Islamic outlook in Kazakhstan. Having intruded the Kazakh steppe, Islam, if not the leading principle of the state life and politics has become a part of the outlook of the society, a component of culture and an important part of its practice of religious-cult.

The universal outlook of Islam especially in the sphere of morality, and starting from the period of Islam’s penetration into the Kazakh steppe, and has been reflected both in the day-to-day practical life experience of the people and in works of the great thinkers of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Recently the issues of Central Asia, its civilizational development, and the dialogue between confessions and the ways of its development have come vividly alive. Independent states have been established here, and ways of self-identification and self-realization as a peculiar and unique culture are being sought.

Globalization is one of the leading trends in the development of the world community and affects both the economic and political processes and relationships in the cultural and civilizational sphere. This sets a task for the states, oriented at value, life-meaning and religious foundations different from those of the west as they enter the modern global processes and relationships and try to preserve the specific traditional orientation of their value directions. Unfortunately, as the West rather unwillingly accepts opinions different from its own, Islam becomes an ideology of protest against domination by western civilization because Islam and the culture built on it do not have an equitable voice in the dialogue between the confessions of the modern world.

Interrelationships between the state, religion and global processes have different directions. The stability of this or that religious-civilizational foundation in oriental countries, together with the degree of power of the traditions of the state system, determine the specific development of their modern political systems.

Unlike most world religions, Islam does not divide secular and spiritual origins. Also ethnogeny in Central Asia, developed in a rather specific manner with criteria different from those in traditional oriental countries, was basic for the national self-identity. It is not the affiliation with the same ethnos or religion that played and continues to play the leading role, but the system of subethnic relations, clans and other relationships and connections, whereas globalization means the unification of all these relationships.

The issue of religious fundamentalism, religious extremism, etc. is most significant and burning nowadays in the framework of the globalization processes since these latter give extremism and terrorism an international character.

Finally, another aspect that makes the issue of the dialogue between the confessions so burning is a set of socio-political, economic and cultural issues. These influence the religious situation and reverse the influence of the religious processes and units in the situation in Central-Asian countries.

In these conditions we need to find ways for effective cultural-civilizational contacts and to develop interconfessional dialogue. Here it is extremely important that the development of internal, spiritual links between the people and cultures as well as a new philosophy of mutual understanding counteract the negative aspects of globalization and its expansion of external contacts.

It is obvious that the role of religion in our society is growing significantly now that the earlier totalitarian ideology is collapsing. Through religion a significant part of the population tends to restore traditional values and the moral bases of the society, which, on the whole, is only welcome. But here we cannot identify, as is usually done, the ethnic and religious characteristics of the society, i.e. not every Russian is automatically an Orthodox Christian, and every Kazakh a Moslem.

According to present statistics on the number of believers of a certain confession, very often the representatives of some ethnos belong to this or that religious community based only on national origin. Actually, a percentage of really religious people, i.e. those whose social behaviour is determined by the relevant religious postulates, includes only a part of the national Diaspora, while due to the specifics of our transient society this part may constitute a minority of the ethnic group.

Thus, a purportedly existing global opposition between the Christian and Moslem peoples is often considered to be the original reason of a number of conflicts on and beyond the territory of Russia. Based on such a primitive black-and-white social picture not only a general estimate of the situation, but also various forecasts and scenarios of its development are provided and some exact steps to localize and settle all the contradictions are offered.

In reality, on the territory of the ex-Soviet Union Islam was not a determining factor for ethnic conflicts between the national Diasporas and the native populations. Its existence, along with Christianity and due to the historically formed Eurasian character of the state, acts as a necessary component of the social and spiritual life. Therefore, manifestations of some negativism towards Islam in our country not only contradict the interests of the social stabilization, but also brings the contrary result.

Under the conditions of the general growth of social tensions, various political powers begin to protect their corporate interests. Speculating on the slogans of defending traditional Islamic culture and spirituality, they return to the national sources and roots, restore the national spirit of nation, etc.

The situation in a complicated modern world is becoming more complex due to the growth and intensification of the conflicts cropping up on the basis of religious contradictions and religious fanaticism. Therefore, today it is as important as ever to pay most attention to such spheres of public life as religion and religious unities, especially to the forms of their practical interaction with the state and society.

In this regard, what does the modern poly-confessional Kazakhstani society look like in terms of globalization? Thanks to the historically formed kinship traditions, specific to the tolerant Eurasian (Slavic-Turan) mentality and the balanced internal and external politics of the President of Kazakhstan, the situation in the Republic is rather stable. Kazakhstan does not have, and will hardly have, the serious internally-determined prerequisites for great, continuous and especially bloody religious collisions. In 2001 the Republic had over 40 confessions, 3,000 religious unites with 2124 places of worship, whereas in 1990 there were only 670.

Naturally, religion, like this or that belief, is not in itself a social evil. On the contrary, in its authentic understanding religion is able to play and often does play a positive role in the development of society. Thus, in its time, within the epoch of its historical expansion on the territory of Kazakhstan, Islamic belief produced a positive affect on the process of consolidation of the Kazakh ethnos and the development of the Kazakh nation. This positive origination of religiousness is related not only to the purely external affiliation of people to this or that great ideological group, but also to the internal setting of every authentic religion upon the highest values of the human community. Therefore, nowadays it is important to study the issues of the compatibility of religious and democratic values in the process of the transformation of society.

If a religious outlook or some certain religion begins to become opposed to other forms of human being or other confessional unities, this represents, as with any absolutized ideology, a certain threat to the security of a state, both from within and without. This would generate a situation fraught with acute opposition, open conflict, and armed unrest which today takes place in many regions of the world, including those close to the frontiers of Kazakhstan.

Therefore, presently not only the preservation and strengthening of interethnic accord, but also the preservation and intensification, first of all, of religious tolerance, interconfessional dialogue and accord is the major task of the Kazakhstani internal politics. If we fail to pay attention to this sphere, then the centuries-long unity of peoples inhabiting Kazakhstan could collapse which certainly would result in extremely dangerous consequences, perhaps, even irreparable disaster. In other words, without exaggeration the spiritual accord can be considered as the foundation for all forms of accord since it is an internal outlook nuclear for interpersonal relationships.

Just as a religion is not meant to interfere with the business of the state and especially to replace the state, the state also should not interfere with the business of religious organizations and violate the principle of freedom of conscience and religious belief. Unreasoned interference of the state – even out of good motives – can also bring negative consequences and provoke conflict situations in the polyethnic and polyconfessional society. Over all, a state should not be just an observer of what is going on in the religious life of its citizens. A state should attentively and systematically monitor the situation in the religious sphere, not impeding its believers but controlling and regulating the situations and interrelationships in this field in order to maintain stability and ensure spiritual security and the development of the ethical-moral origins of social being.

Here we should emphasize that the border between the two largest world religions – Islam and Christianity – lies across Eurasia. Therefore, at first glance, the natural manner for the development of Kazakhstan would be an organic juncture with the Turk-Islamic world to which we are related by the centuries-long commonality of national roots, language, traditions, customs. But, unlike other Central-Asian republics, it is hardly likely that purely Moslem forms will dominate the national culture of Kazakhstan. In its steppes from ancient times various religions were professed and peacefully co-existed. Ancient Christianity and Buddhism, and the traditions of Tengry-worship for the common people were almost as important as was Islam. Though in the south of Kazakhstan there is a much noted burial-vault of sacred Hodja Akhmed Yassavi, honored by everyone in the Moslem world, on the whole we may speak of a continuing islamization of Kazakhstan.

Certainly, in a remote perspective we may suppose that in the spiritual life of Kazakhstan Islam will play a role not less important than that played by Orthodoxy in Russia today. However, as a possible foundation for the national unification of the community, religion is a stabilizing factor only where it has been acknowledge by most of the population of the country.

Naturally, religion in the sense of this or that belief is not in itself some social evil. On the contrary, in its authentic understanding religion is able to play and often does play a positive role in the development of a society. Thus, in its time, within the epoch of its historical expansion on the territory of Kazakhstan, the Islamic belief produced a positive affect on the consolidation of the Kazakh ethnos and the development of the Kazakh nation. This positive origination of religiousness is related not only to the factor of purely external affiliation of people to this or that great ideological group, but also to the internal setting of every authentic religion according to the highest values of the human community. Therefore, nowadays it is important to study the issues of the compatibility of religious and democratic values in the process of the transformation of society.

But should a religious outlook or some certain religion begin to be opposed to other forms of being human or other confessional unities, as with any absolutized ideology, this would represent a threat to the security of the state both from inside and outside. Then we shall have the situation of acute opposition, open conflict, and armed unrest which today takes place in many regions of the world, including those close to the frontiers of Kazakhstan.

Practically all new independent Central-Asian states belong to the rank of "Moslem countries". Today it is obvious that the Moslem community is Kazakhstan tends to grow which is due mostly to the continuing emigration of the European population and, at the same time, to the growth of the number of Turk-speaking peoples.

States, having stable democratic traditions are, as a rule, secular. But they also prefer some religion both on the state level and on the level of public consciousness. For example, in the USA, for all the legal equality of religions, in reality Christianity has a priority that is explained by the large number of Christian believers. The same situation is characteristic of the Western European countries. It is in this sense that we may speak of the historical and geopolitical "area" of expansion of this or that religion.

- firstly, in Central Asia Islam always had a rather peripheral position compared to the classical near-eastern variant of Mohammedanism. This factor, mainly, predetermines the absence of such features of Islam in the Central-Asian region that are characteristic of foreign Moslem countries as proclamation of Islam as the state religion; introduction of Islamic norms (shariat) into the legal, socio-cultural and political-legal system; legislatively fixing the privileges of Moslems in ethnically and culturally heterogeneous communities (Malaysia is a clear example); and others;

- secondly, the peculiarities of Islam are determined by the specifics of the status of Central Asia located in the zone combining both settled and nomadic civilizations;

- thirdly, the areas of the so-called "early" and "late" Islamization are outlined. "Early" Islamic expansion took place in the settled-agricultural zone of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as well as south-western Kyrgyzstan. "Late" Islamization took place with the nomads on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

These differences in the expansion of Islam defined the specifics of its role in the life of various nations of Central Asia, in the degree of stability of Islam and in its manifestation in various spheres of the life of the community.

The peoples of the settled-agricultural tradition (Uzbeks, Tajiks), as mentioned above, actively include Islamic traditions and images in various aspects of their ordinary activity. On the contrary, the nomadic culture of Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, and partially Turkmens is characterized by instability and a vagueness of Islamic norms and settings. This manifests a rather superficial process of Islamization that, to a large extent, was ensured by unification of Islam and local pre-Islamic traditions.

The above specifics of the expansion of Islam, being developed for centuries in Central Asia, had direct influence on the modern position of Islam in the Central-Asian states, even despite a 70-year period of Socialist (atheistic) development. The politics proclaimed in the USSR, has the least influence on the development of Islam in Tajikistan, to a bit larger in Uzbekistan, and most in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1. The proportion of the number of urban and rural population is one of the most important factors. As is known, a higher conservatism in the rural population enhances the preservation of religious traditions. In Uzbekistan the suburban population is 61%, in Turkmenistan – 54.6%, Tajikistan – 71%, in Kyrgyzstan – 64%, in Kazakhstan – 44%. Thus, in all the Central-Asian states, except for Kazakhstan, the rural population makes over a half of the entire population, whereas Tajikistan looks less urbanized than the others.

2. The ethnic factor is no less important. As a result of emigration processes that took place after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central-Asian states are gradually becoming monoethnic countries, again, except for Kazakhstan (65% are Islamic, 30% - Christians, 5% - adherents of other confessions). In Uzbekistan Uzbeks make up over a half of the population (74.5%), in Turkmenistan Turkmens prevail – 72%, in Tajikistan Tajiks dominate – 62.2.%. The Kyrgyzs constitute most of the population in Kyrgyzstan (58.6%). Kazakhs are 56% of the entire population of Kazakhstan.

3. Regional differentiation in degree and depth of religiousness can be observed practically in all the Central-Asian countries as one moves towards the south: in Uzbekistan - the Ferghan Valley, in Kyrgyzstan – the Osh region, in Kazakhstan – the South-Kazakhstani region. These regions regularly manifest rather low socio-economical indicators of development, overpopulation and labour-redundancy, most of which is young, a high rate of unemployment and an agrarian orientation of the national economics.

According to some analysts, modern Moslem socio-political movements on the Caucasus and in Central Asia can be divided into traditionalist, apolitical and politicized (often quite radical). As a rule, suburban inhabitants become the leaders of the latter type, and peasants and marginalized urban layers become the main basis for their support. The classical scheme dividing modern Moslem socio-political movements into traditionalist, fundamentalist and reform is not applicable in the Caucasus and Central Asia for the process of re-Islamization may bring about the poverty of most people due to the high cost of social reforms.

On the whole, the threat of radicalization of Islam is a rather burning issue for Central Asia. Politicians, analysts and scientists now pay it more attention. I would like to outline what we can do to prevent a negative scenario of events in our region on the state level.

The civil war that took place in this state at the beginning of the 1990s split society, leading to collisions between armed groups. As a result, economic crisis. exhaustion of resources and a real threat of collapse of the country compelled the parties at enmity to search for a compromise. As is known, in 1994 under UN auspices the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik opposition held negotiations to reach a national armistice.

The IPRT representatives think they have made significant success in the process of a dialogue and peaceful regulation. The war has been stopped; the refugees have returned. All the participants in the fight understood the need to act with political and not violent means. The party itself has an opportunity to act on a legal basis; it acquires the experience of a party and of parliament activity, having two deputy mandates in the parliamentary elections. Today the IPRT shares responsibility for the destiny of the country, having lost the privileges of an opposition party.

One of the most important issues in disputes is the very idea of the existence of an Islamic party. At least, two positions presently have been developed on the location and role of political Islam in life of Tajikistan. Some say that Islam should enter the political system of a country, providing the unity of the society in order for it to develop into an Islamic state by way of evolution. The idea of the Islamic party does not correspond to the spirit of Islam and Tajikistan does not need it at the modern stage. Others, on the contrary, consider it necessary to carry out a political fight through the political party and parliamentary activity. IPRT is of this point of view.

But, despite such different positions, a peaceful entrance of Islam into the political process in Tajikistan is acknowledged as one of the crucial achievements of the country. Taking into consideration that the relationships between politics and Islam are a complicated and delicate issue, the way of Tajikistan demonstrates a unique experience of the opportunity to coordinate the politically heterogeneous interests of society.

Regarding banning religious extremisms as a step to fight and prevent the radicalization of Islam, I would like to discuss a very important socio-economic aspect of the issue. We agree with the statement of the attendees of the workshop held under OSCE auspices in Almaty where it was noted that "economic and social progress could serve as the most efficient obstacle to the extremists trying to destabilize some regions."

The experience of foreign Moslem countries shows that a broad expansion in the religiousness of the population along with an unfavorable socio-economic situation and a lowering of education creates the foundation for social dissatisfaction in an extreme religious form. At the same time we agree with the viewpoint stating that one of the most remarkable features of the population of our Central-Asian countries is its rather high educational level, inherited from the USSR.

The possible activation of religious extremism in Central Asia would seem to be based not only upon the issues of an external political plan, but rather upon internal socio-economic issues. For this reason state politics should be aimed, first of all, at intensification of the social sphere and efficient solution of the issues of the economic sector. World experience shows that it is the socially unprotected, poor and lower layers of the population that most often tend to religious fundamentalism. Social poverty makes extremist ideas attractive, including those with religious content.

Today in Central Asia people employed at certain jobs, but earning a tiny salary (as a rule, these are employees of the budget sphere, half-time employees and others) can be considered as poor, besides the traditionally poor layers of population (retired, big families or families with one parent, handicapped, etc.). Here there is need to pay special attention to the southern Central-Asian regions where the level of poverty is traditionally very high and therefore a large part of the population think of themselves as poor.

Besides, in all Central-Asian states, the rural population is more vulnerable than the urban one. Altogether this determines that the population of poor rural regions is a rather attractive zone for activating extremist religious organizations.

Therefore, to fight religious extremism in Central Asia one of the main mechanism now and for the near future is the improvement of the well-being of the major part of population and a well thought-out strong social policy supporting the most vulnerable layers of the population.

Special attention in all the Central-Asian states should also be paid to the young. In the USSR young people, due to ideological efforts, were the least religious part of the population. Today it is the young people who often are involved into pseudo-religious organizations. The reasons for such a situation are also of a socio-economic character. In combination with a practical absence of goal-oriented ideology for young people, this issue is becoming one of the most delicate and complicated with which the state has to deal.

Major issues characteristic of the young people are unemployment, homelessness, and a low level of education. The number of unemployed young people in the rural area is growing at the highest rate. Accordingly, we witness a constant decline in the health of young people, and a growth of criminality among them.

In order to prevent further degradation and marginalization of Central-Asian youth, we need an effective state youth policy and state support of various youth initiatives. In this regard, we need to turn to the experience of policies regarding youth in foreign countries. Special attention should be paid to education and information. Unfortunately, the continuing aggravation of the educational system in our region brings a steady decrease in the number of literate people. This threatens to extend the spiritual vacuum which often can be replenished by the religious education available from foreign missionaries.

At the end of November 2002 a concept paper on state policies in the sphere of religion and interconfessional relationships was developed by a working group of the Institute of Philosophy and Political Science. This was adopted as one of the first in our region at the session of the Council on Relationships with the Religious Unions under the Government of Kazakhstan; now it is being implemented in all regions of the country.

It is my hope that in the modern world Islam will play a remarkable role in the consolidation rather than the separation and opposition of peoples. It has many high spiritual values which are able to act as a foundation for the unification and consolidation of nations and states. In this regard it is necessary more actively to reanimate the ethico-cultural layer of Islam, closely connected to the national traditions.

The meaning and objectives of the last 10-year stage of the country’s development, leaving aside the details and considering only the basic parameters, were first, to establishing and develop the institutes of an independent state system, second, to carry out market reforms and, third, to ensure a stable foreign policy.

In the last ten years much has been done in this direction; the development of the new state system of Kazakhstan has been the crucial achievement of the past years. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan A. Nazarbaev, has played the key role in this process.

Skeptics may object that presently our state system is far from perfect and there are many issues to resolve. But no one can deny that a young independent state has been established and has risen to its feet in such a short period of time.

The last ten years, especially the first half of the 90s, were the period of national unity and social consolidation around the idea of the development of an independent state; this complicated process continues. In these ten years, despite some protests, on the whole, the country has preserved internal unity in diversity. Most of society and its elites agreed with or, at least, did not reject the selected strategic course of the country, and this positively affected the state reforms.

Also, it is important to note that, along with the stability and internal unity, for the last ten years Kazakhstan has been developing without essential influence from external powers. Russia and the Islamic countries have not affected our independent development in any special way. We have improved relationships with our eastern neighbor, China. Relationships with the western countries have been developing more or less constantly. In the last years the issues related to extremism and terrorism have become acute, but, unlike our Central-Asian neighbours, they have not affected Kazakhstan so dramatically.

In the foreign sphere we managed to establish the infrastructure of external relationships on all borders and to be acknowledged as an independent state.

On the whole, we may say that domestic and foreign factors to a greater extent have enhanced the transformations in Kazakhstan. The achievements made thusfar can largely provide the guidelines and conditions for the further development of our country.

The perspectives of a stable development of Kazakhstan for the next 10-20 years are not as certain and simple. Much depends on how well we can realize and understand the times and the main objectives our country must achieve at the current stage. It is also important to be able to see the challenges the country is facing and to develop an adequate strategy to handle them. On this mainly depends the level of stable development of our country. What then are the challenges we face nowadays?

The first challenge is a deepening social fragmentation. As a result, we may get a differentiated society with certain internal contradictions. Imperfection in its mechanisms of agreements on the main political concerns in a changing society could be a key determining factor of such kind of challenges.

This situation has been aggravated by a split that took place last autumn in the very elite that should represent the national unity in a period of reforms. Part of the new elite that has developed in the last ten years began to see the prospects of national development in a different way, significantly hindering the consolidation needed to realize the set of strategic objectives of the development of Kazakhstan in its new historical conditions.

The national economic capital which is becoming more stable is experiencing the same situation. Unfortunately, so far it cannot get beyond the period of the so-called primary accumulation to become a real factor for social consolidation. Unfortunately, cruel confrontations of the interests of various corporate groups take place quite often and their intensification is gradually weakening the foundation of our young state system. The fact of a possible split of the national intellectual elite on a language basis is also a significant issue faced by Kazakhstani society.

Presently we are witnessing the fact that our intellectual elite has started to split into two rather independent camps – a "purely Kazakh elite" represented by the Kazakh-speaking intelligentsia, and a "russianized" elite represented by the Russian-speaking intellectual Kazakhs who at times deservedly and undeservedly are considered to be so-called Kazakh marginalists. The boundary line between these two camps does not tend to narrow.

The second challenge the country is about to face in the near future is the fact that, despite all the positive results of the reforms in the state management system, we still cannot rise to the needed level of efficiency. This relates to the vacuum formed as a result of the underdevelopment of the local self-management system in Kazakhstan. Besides, in view of the inter-elite tensions Kazakhstani society gradually begins to be disappointed with democratic values. A peremptory "penetration" of the western democratic standards without taking into consideration our totalitarian past, on the one hand, and their populist perception by some circles in Kazakhstan, on the other, levels the democratic traditions in the mass consciousness.

A third challenge is the loss of national values, language and national culture by a part of the population.

A ten-year liberalization which brought many positive improvements into the life of our society has resulted in and developed a number of peculiar events related to external influences which, first of all, concerns young people.

A reduction in human potentials is also possible. Such "shadow" attributes of "the free-market" society as prostitution, drug-addiction, theft, corruption, vandalism, etc., unfortunately are becoming wide-spread. Together they aggravate both a growth of anarchy and an ethical-moral impoverishment of the Kazakh nation.

Besides, we witness the growth of a split consciousness in the contemporary Kazakh in day-to-day life. This is not limited to the sphere of a person’s private life, but extends to other spheres of one’s vital activity. In this regard, a very acute and new issue of social loneliness is cropping up: while proclaiming some life principles in satisfying his daily interests a contemporary Kazakh quite often is led by quite different values. Here we see the image of "a paradoxical person" developed since the time of independence. This is in need of study.

The fourth challenge is reduction of the scientific potential of Kazakhstan .

Presently our scientific potential is based on two pillars – the ex-Soviet and the present western education. Here we see a clear lack of conceptual vision in the national system of education and science.

In the ten years of reform a rather significant number of scientists has moved to other spheres where their ideas are well-paid. As a result, the average age of the current scientific contingent begins to increase. The number of scientific innovations has been reduced and scientific production on the world scale is almost at zero.

Unfortunately, today most young Kazakhs who have selected creative scientific-intellectual activity are without the ability to realize their abilities in this field due to financial difficulties. As a result, quite often it is not the bearers of breakthrough ideas who take the place on the intellectual proscenium, but representatives of a near-science "grey" mass able to generate only eclectic projects.

Efforts to self-finance the national science institutions resulted in the sale of the available property and an exodus of young and talented people. Some cases of patronage on the part of the national capital have not yet improved the scientific potential. Apparently, thus far the real possibilities of the national capital do not enable it to finance scientific research in order to generate profit in a more remote future.

The fifth challenge in the upcoming year is the complication of the foreign situation around Kazakhstan.

These serious home issues hindering the modernization of our country are aggravated by complications in the external situation. Events demonstrate that Central Asia is becoming a region where the interests of the large powers and the centers of global influential clash. The abrupt presence of the interests of the USA, Russia and China in our region significantly reduces Kazakhstan’s field of foreign maneuver. Complications of the foreign climate of Kazakhstan are affected also by the Islamic world.

It is necessary also to take into consideration that our country, having large reserves of hydrocarbons, is gradually becoming involved in the zone of interests of certain states who are not willing to lose their positions in the global oil market.

By 2015-2020 Kazakhstan, according to foreign specialists, will be able to take one of the leading positions in the field of hydrocarbon production. If this becomes true, Caspian oil may significantly hurt the interests of other countries and cause them to take steps to affect the oil development in the near-Caspian region of Kazakhstan.

A number of strategic issues in the western orientation of our foreign policy also remain open.

Another strategic challenge for many countries, including Kazakhstan, is the developing globalization.

Growing economic competition is a significant restraining factor on the stable development of Kazakhstan. In the conditions of underdevelopment of science in intensive and high tech branches of economics, our state is facing a real danger of remaining in the group of suppliers of raw material to the world market. In this case, joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is supposed to promote economic growth in a medium-term perspective will force Kazakhstan to act in line with more stringent international economic standards. While a big step in the process of integration into the world trade and financial system, joining the WTO will become a serious test of the competitiveness of the national economy.

In view of the current scale of globalization of the world economy, we may say that Kazakhstan can hardly escape remaining a one-sided economy. Mainly the raw material market and national economic development may suffer the negative influences of the globalization process.

Other serious expenses of this process threaten Kazakhstan in yet other spheres. Not being able to develop a kind of a "cultural shock-absorber", we put ourselves in danger of repeating the path of some countries developing according to a so-called "chasing model". Achieving significant results, first of all, in socio-economic and later in political development, these countries lost the ethical-moral core by which they have been developing for centuries. We must become an exception to this rule.

To our great regret, nowadays Kazakhstan does not have sufficient instruments to make valuable use the fruits of the evolving globalization process. Moreover, the instruments we have do not allow us to minimize the damage that globalization may cause to our national interests, in which condition we can only join the dynamics of the globalization processes taking place in the world.

The modern world is cruel in its comprehensive competition. The mediocre do not succeed in the process of global development. Today Kazakhstan is facing the challenges of the global development and its future will depend on its success in finding answers to them.

A national strategy of Kazakhstan for the upcoming decade, in our opinion, could take into account the following crucial moments:

Firstly, the global economic and political situation requires that Kazakhstan train national personnel strongly enough in professional competencies to be competitive not only at the national, but at the international level.

Special attention should be paid to the system of training national personnel who have the ethical-moral values of the nation and modern high-tech knowledge and skills. Only in this case can all sectors of the national economy be able effectively to work and compete under the new economic conditions and become familiar with international economic-technological standards.

Training strong national market-managers, economists and international lawyers is a rather complicated task for which it takes a long time to resolve and to adopt special state programmes. Therefore the state should be gradually training and taking care of such personnel, bringing to life its national youth policy.

Secondly, the future of Kazakhstan may be seen only in integration. In the next decades we may be talking about integration only in the post-Soviet space, but a multilateral integration in the CIS framework does not mean an automatic renaissance of some model from the ex-USSR. This would be both senseless and impossible in principle, since traditions of the sovereign and independent CIS countries already have rather long roots. Therefore, integration on the post-Soviet space is unification of Commonwealth countries on quite new terms and at a higher civilizational level in line with the realities of the complex modern world.

If the CIS countries want to be competitive in the new conditions, to survive and not to stay on the margins of global development, they should unite. Isolated development in terms of globalization not only has no perspective, butwould be ruinous. The CIS countries will be able to develop effectively in terms of globalization only if they unite their efforts; there is no other way. Economic, cultural and other differences are too strong for them effectively to integrate into other zones: geograpy is destiny.

Today the CIS countries have a rather large joint capital enabling them to be competitive in the world economics. Their territories together are 22,230,000 square kilometers, which is almost seven-fold larger than the territory of all 15 European Union states. 283 million people or 4.8% of the Earth population live here. The CIS countries have over ¼ of the explored world reserves of natural resources and 10% of its industrial potential. The CIS countries and Russia first of all, have significant scientific potential. These rather large resources will enable us to compete rather effectively with other global economic zones.

In the first stage the structure that promises to be the most effective in the post-Soviet space is the Eurasian Economic Community, developed under the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev. Some of the most promising elements for cooperation in this framework may be the following:

- development of united economic space with a free transit of goods, services and capital;

- development of high-tech branches of the economy;

- joint development of the scientific, scientific-technical potential: scientific-research and experimental-construction developments;

- training highly qualified specialists;

- development of transportation and communication networks;

- mutual investments, etc.

Thirdly, we need to promote our own Kazakhstani "project" of a system of education and scientific advancement. Reforms in this sphere should not mean transformations only in the system of the National Academy of Sciences which in its essence cannot represent the whole of Kazakhstani science. Presently, various schools with new scientific directions, requiring a certain attention on the part of the state, begin to be developed. Some works of young scientists need help on the part of the state. In modern conditions no intellectual creative activity can produce a really breakthrough product if it has not been supported in a certain way. This is one of the reasons for the slippage in modern Kazakhstani science. In this regard, one of the crucial tasks is to start new social-humanitarian research and its application.

Fourthly, a strategic objective is to increase the efficiency of the political system of Kazakhstani society. Here we should proceed from the fact that democracy, being, as it seems, the optimal public order for today, is not an end in itself. In its ideal, the phenomenon of democracy is an unattainable goal which means a permanent search for the most appropriate manner of human co-existence. Thus after rather extensive economic transformations, it is necessary to start a gradual stage-by-stage intensification of political reforms.

This strategy is quite justified. The world and the national experience prove that in conditions of post-totalitarian development the rates of economic liberalization should surpass a bit political reforms. Otherwise, social chaos, fraught with a large-scale political destabilization of the society would be expected. Stabilization of the main democratic institutions is possible only if based on the development of a stable economic foundation.

Only after having developed favourable socio-economic conditions for our own existence, shall we be able to find the key to the development of an efficient political system. Here the western ideals of democracy should not influence the people. The period when the rhetoric of its direct application to the Kazakhstani land was fashionable is coming to an end. Therefore, when speaking about further development of the political system of our country, we should be talking mainly not about its resemblance to the "golden wreath of democracy", but about the development of the political system of Kazakhstan in such a way that it enables the citizens of this Republic to live in social comfort.

Fifthly we need to search out an ethical-moral core that would consolidate all the citizens of the country. No doubt, it is very complicated to find a consolidating core for a society in transition. The intentions that the intellectual elite of the country proclaims today are not yet needed. Apparently, this can be explained by the fact that the suggested ideas, meant to become a basis for the ethical-moral core of the entire poly-ethnic Kazakhstani society, unfortunately, are not yet of special interest. Most importantly, they are not able to "stimulate" the nation to further modernization. Therefore, the objective is to find the ethical-moral core that would consolidate the entire multicultural Kazakhstani society, including both allies and opponents of the current course of the country.

What can be the basis of such a core? We agree with the opinion that this can be only the national idea of the state independence of Kazakhstan. But the very idea of intensification of our independence and state system gradually begins to lose its priority. Having built the major institutions of the state system, for some reason we start to forget the need for their further intensification and development in terms of globalization. A long-term and goal-oriented effort both on the part of the state and of the social structures is needed in this direction.

In conclusion, we would hope that our country will be strong enough decently to meet the challenges of the complicated modern world. Past experience allows for hope that Kazakhstan will be able harmoniously to enter the modern world and take a merited place therein. This will meet the real national interests of our young state.

The present work is rather tentative, with more questions than accurate answers, but it invites discussion of the topics it raises. Society has been discussing the future of the country and the form of its political system. In this context we have expressed our position on many issues which the country is presently facing from the point of view of the independent state system and national interests of Kazakhstan. Today one of the key objectives of the society is not to lose the core of the state system; the feeling of a certain responsibility for the present and future of Kazakhstan must not be last in the course of permanent political discussions. This is a principle concern.

1. Citing: Zhusipov B.S. "Non-traditional confession as a threat to the security of Kazakhstan"// Globalization and dialogue of confessions in the Central-Asian countries: Materials of the International scientific-practical conference. Almaty, 2002, p. 256.

2. Globalization and dialogue of confessions in the Central-Asian countries: Materials of the International scientific-practical conference. Almaty, 2002.

3. Nysanbaev A. "Adam jene ashyk kogam." (A person and an open society.) Almaty: Kazakh encyclopedia, 1998, pp. 130-136.

4. See: Bessonov B.N. "Russia is looking for a path to the future." In the book "Social theory and nowadays". Issue 18, Moscow, 1995, pp. 7-16.

5. Berdyaev N. The destiny of Russia. Moscow, 1990, p. 19.

6. Ibid., The destiny of Russia, p. 93.

7. Soloviev V. "The Russian idea"//Soloviev V.S. Collection in 2 volumes. Volume 2. Moscow, 1989, p. 241.

8. Trubetskoy N. History, Culture, Language. Moscow, 1995, p. 334.

9. Nysanbaev A. "Jahandanu jee Kazakhstannyn ornykty damuy." (Globalization and stable development of Kazakhstan.) Almaty, 2002, p. 42-74.

10. Khamisov V. "Problems of self-determination of the Islamic organizations in Kyrghyzstan"// www.kisi.kz.

11. "Inter-confessional relations in Kazakhstan: religious and sociopolitical problems"// Kazakhstan and the modern world. 2001, n.1.

12. Sultangaliyeva A.K. Islam in Kazakhstan: a history, ethnicity, society. Almaty, 1998, p. 188.

13. Ibid.

14. Zhusupov, S.E. "Islam in Kazakhstan: the past, present, future"//Islam on the post-Soviet space. A view from inside.Moscow, 2001.

15. Ibid.

16. Sultangalieva A.K. Islam in Kazakhstan: a history, ethnicity, society. Almaty, 1998, p. 188.

17. Cited: S. Zhusupov. "Islam in Kazakhstan: the past, present, future in relations of state and religion"// Islam on the post-Soviet space: a view from inside. Moscow, 2001, p. 320.

18. M.Olimov, S Olimova. "A political Islam in modern Tadjikistan"// Ibid., p. 320.

19. Interview to the member of IPVT G.Kurbanov on September, 18, 2000. Cited, on: M.Olimov, S.Olimova. A political Islam in modern Tadjikistan // Ibid., p. 320.

20. "About the basic directions of internal and foreign policy for 2003. The message of President to the people of Kazakhstan." // Kazakhstanskaya pravda. 2002, April, 30.

21."Spiritual-cultural development of people - a basis of strengthening of the state independence of Kazakhstan. Statement of the President of Republic Kazakhstan, Chairman of Assembly of peoples of Kazakhstan" N.A.Nazarbaev at VII session of Assembly of peoples of Kazakhstan.

22. Visit of Pope John Paul II in Republic of Kazakhstan (on September, 22-25, 2001). Almaty: the Center of foreign policy and the analysis, 2001, p. 45.