In looking at twenty years of independence in the former Soviet region of Central Asia, Kazakhstan stands out in most respects as a stable oasis in a desert of uncertainty. It is little wonder, therefore, that the most stable and fruitful bilateral partnership for the United States in the region over the past twenty years has been with the Republic of Kazakhstan. US-Kazakhstan relations have never experienced a significant crisis, and there has been ongoing cooperation between the two countries in a variety of areas, including nuclear non-proliferation, economic development, and energy extraction. That being said, this relationship has also always been characterized by a certain ambiguity that primarily relates to Kazakhstan's development as a democratic state that honors human rights and rule of law. The issue of democracy has strained US-Kazakhstan relations on both sides. In order to better understand the trajectory of US-Kazakhstan relations over the last twenty years, this paper provides an historical narrative of how the partnership between the two countries has evolved over time. In particular, it charts this development over three critical periods in the country's development: 1.) 1991-1995, the era of Kazakhstan's entry on the world stage, 2.) 1996-2001, the years during which Kazakhstan began to emerge as the leading country in Central Asia, and 3.) 2002-2011, the period of Kazakhstan's establishment as a stable and prosperous state with a strong 'multi-vector' foreign policy. Throughout all three of these eras, the United States has continually found Kazakhstan to be its most critical partner in the region, but that partnership has also been restrained by Kazakhstan's own political development and the US response to it.