At the end of 2018, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev replaced the country’s minister of foreign affairs, just a few days before the expiration of Kazakhstan’s non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council (UNSC). The appointment of Beibut Atamkulov, the former Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry, as a new head of the country’s diplomatic service in-stead of career diplomat Kairat Abdrakhmanov was quite unexpected.