By College of International Security Studies
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Jan. 21, 2022) – The Marshall Center conducted an expert roundtable 19 Jan. on the geostrategic implications of the deployment of Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization troops to Kazakhstan this month. The discussion took place online as part of the Marshall Center’s Regional Security series among 40 U.S., German, and other regional officials and experts. 

The session focused on factors leading to the deployment as well as potential next steps and broader impacts on security dynamics in and around Eurasia. 

Opening panel speakers included Marshall Center professors Dr. Greg Gleason and Dr. Pal Dunay, as well as Volodymyr Kopchak of the Ukrainian Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies and Igor Semyvolos of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences.

Gleason emphasized that the discussion was primarily concerned with the foreign policy implications of the deployment of CSTO forces in Kazakhstan. 

Dunay added that irrespective of its name, the Collective Security Treaty Organization has in fact always been a collective defense alliance, with Russia being the decisive player. The fact that the CSTO provided military assistance due to a crisis situation within a member-state for the first time in its history, despite declining to do so in 2010 in Kyrgyzstan, indicates a new lease on life for the organization.