Public Diplomacy in Central Asia: Social and Institutional Dimensions in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

This article examines public and people-to-people diplomacy as an emerging social infrastructure of regionalism in Central Asia, with a comparative focus on Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It distinguishes public diplomacy from soft power, cultural diplomacy, citizen diplomacy, Track II diplomacy, and digital diplomacy, and uses “societal diplomacy” as an analytical umbrella for sustained cross-border interaction among state-enabled and non-state actors. Methodologically, the study combines institutional analysis, structured comparison, and qualitative content analysis of legislation, presidential and governmental documents, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation materials, United Nations documents, and peer-reviewed scholarship. The empirical period extends from Uzbekistan’s regional opening after 2017 to 25 September 2026, with earlier developments included where necessary to explain institutional trajectories. The findings identify two complementary models. Uzbekistan has developed a relatively specialized, outward-facing model centred on the SCO Centre for Public Diplomacy. Kazakhstan has historically relied on a distributed ecosystem of interethnic, interfaith, cultural, and multilateral platforms; in 2026, this architecture was reconfigured through the establishment of Qazaqstan Halyq Kenesi and its inaugural session. The article argues that these trajectories can be connected through a light, networked Central Asian Public Diplomacy Network aligned with Central Asia–2040. Such an architecture could institutionalize reciprocal exchanges, youth and academic mobility, interfaith dialogue, digital cooperation, and Track II problem-solving while supporting relevant Sustainable Development Goals.