This paper will examine how the governement of post-soviet Kazakhstan uses channels of elite and banal nationalism (such as sports, diplomatic forums and brain drain) to promote the country worldwide through the media and the Internet. By doing so, Kazakhstan is portrayed as a dynamic and successful country, an image wich is in serious discrepency with the authoritarian nature of the regime. Taking advantage of massive oil revenue, the governement of this post-imperial petro-state organized a significant OCSE general conference while chairing the institution (attended by Prime Ministers, Presidents or other high-rank officials such as Hilary Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi, Dmitri Medvedev etc.). In addition, it created a professional cycling team which rapidly became a world leader in it the field. Last, but not least, a recent university, attracting prominent western scholars is now designed to make the country compete in the international arena of academic rankings. Adopting a framework inspired by International Political Sociology (Bigo & Walker) this papers will draw on evidence gathered through qualitative methods of enquiry (Schatz) : participant and in situ observation, semi-directive interviews, content analysis. The theoretical aim is to tackle the general issue of authoritarian regime legitimization in a globalized world.
