Description
At the Tianjin Summit in August 2025, China and Russia used the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to promote an alternative to the US-led international order. The promotion of this alternative order takes multiple forms and deploys a range of tools. This research focuses on vaccine diplomacy as one such instrument: how revisionist states, principally Russia and China, use vaccines to advance their vision of a reordered international hierarchy. The implications for the world are substantial, spanning security concerns linked to a shifting geopolitical order and public-health risks when vaccines are instrumentalised for political rather than medical purposes. This paper uses Central Asia as a case study to analyse Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccine diplomacies. Russia and China positioned their vaccines not only as public-health goods, but also as strategic assets to strengthen bilateral ties and expand their global influence. What was the place of Central Asia in this global competition? How did the mechanisms behind vaccine purchases for each Central Asian state influence vaccine competition in the region? Using a qualitative approach, the research maps vaccine management and procurement mechanisms in each Central Asian state and analyses semi-structured interviews with procurement officers, national immunisation programme leads, and WHO/UN staff. Findings show that Russia and China dominated vaccine supplies in the region, yet Central Asian governments exercised agency in procurement decisions that often diverged from existing trade or political alignments. The paper contributes to debates on great-power competition, the agency of small states, and the politicisation of global health governance.
