In early January 2020, following a U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Corps’ expeditionary Quds Force, the confrontation between Washington and Tehran seriously escalated bringing the world to the brink of war.
Dauren Aben holds a Master’s in International Relations from Kainar University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, and a Master’s in International Policy Studies and certificates in nonproliferation studies, conflict resolution, and commercial diplomacy from the California-based Monterey Institute of International Studies. Dauren previously worked as a senior project manager and researcher at the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. In 2011-2014, he worked as a senior research fellow at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In 2008-20