YOUTH EMPOWERMENT AS FOREIGN POLICY: UZBEKISTAN'S SOFT POWER STRATEGY IN THE UN SYSTEM

It is noted that this research analyzes to what extent Uzbekistan uses its demographic challenges to its advantage through the adoption of youth-oriented reforms as tools of soft power and norm entrepreneurship. With a population where over 60% of its nationals are younger than 30, the country is faced with a typical demographic dividend, whereby rapid development is accompanied by possible unemployment, lack of human skills, and socio-economic turmoil. By the adoption of the “Uzbekistan 2030 Strategy”, the government of this country is implementing a high-commitment strategy towards human development, whereby the country is investing in higher education and implementing programs such as “Yoshlar Daftari” (Youth Notebook) for the youth. Based on a two-theory procedure that considers Joseph Nye’s ‘soft power’ and Finnemore & Sikkink’s ‘norm entrepreneurship’ tool, this research shall discuss its findings. What emerges is a step-by-step process whereby initial gains made through local youth initiatives lead to improved employment assistance, access to education, and social resilience, where such successes are then “re-packaged” to serve as foreign policy dividends to brand Uzbekistan a “model country” for youth policies, and a third step to strengthen its leadership role in reviving the UN International Convention on the Rights of Youth, where the country now makes a ‘norm cascade’ to introduce a new standard for youth rights through its leadership of the United Nations Youth 2030 agenda. That external endorsement through acknowledgement by United Nations offices, collaboration with UNICEF or UNDP, or the establishment of the “Group of Friends on Youth Rights” proves that this is good foreign policy. In summary, the study reveals that Uzbekistan is a forerunner of a hybrid type of soft power, where social transformation within the country, and not culture or economic power, is the foundation for its global influence and differentiation among Central Asian states.