A Humanity-Centered Vision of Soft Power for Public Diplomacy's Global Mandate

Zaharna, R.S. The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2021 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.1 No.2

Remarkably, despite the growing frequency and severity of global problems such as climate change, earthquakes and health pandemics, public diplomacy has remained largely focused on the goals of state actors and threats from other actors. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the consequences of focusing on individual actors of public diplomacy, including their competitive quest for soft power, over the more pressing needs of humanity and public diplomacy's global mandate. The aim of this piece is to expand the vision of soft power from a competitive state-centric perspective to a broader and more collaborative, humanity-centered perspective. Although public diplomacy's link to power may appear recent and linked to Nye's (2004) concept of soft power, research suggests that it may stem from the traditional diplomacy's "diplomacy of imperialism" (Langer, 1935) that immediately preceded public diplomacy's rise. While this diplomatic heritage may currently dominate public diplomacy perspectives, humankind's global heritages and evolutionary capacity for cooperation suggest another vision is possible. The paper draws upon Alexander Vuving's (2009) explanation of how soft power works in a comparative analysis with Nye's original works to sketch out a new humanity-centered perspective of soft power. The paper concludes with implications of a humanity-centered perspective of soft power for public diplomacy's global mandate.

Understanding the Dynamics between U.S. City Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy

Amiri, Sohaela The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

What is the relationship between city diplomacy and public diplomacy in the United States? Whilst this question is often raised among scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy, a concrete and systematic response to it seems difficult to locate. This paper addresses the question by relying on earlier research based on empirical analysis of data from semi-structured interviews with city officials with international purview in the United States as well as with current and former officials at the U.S. Department of State who have worked on topics related to city diplomacy. The research and analysis that informs this paper and the diagrams it offers are hinged on design principles and adopt an architecture studio style approach to data analysis. Further, multidimensional scaling and correspondence analysis are used to visualize the convergence and divergence between the functions of public diplomacy, as introduced by Nicholas Cull, and the functions of city diplomacy that this paper introduces. This is done to first, provide a framework for understanding the dynamics between city diplomacy and public diplomacy; and second, uncover the policy intervention space that could guide policies for making U.S. city diplomacy and public diplomacy more strategically aligned.

A Constructivist Approach to Understanding Russian's Public Diplomacy through Humanitarian Aid during COVID-19

Ignat, Vershinin The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2021 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.1 No.2

Applying discourse analysis of Russia's narrative on humanitarian aid and its perception by the Western collective identity at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study identifies several challenges that constructivism poses to the current understanding of public diplomacy (PD). In contrast to the mainstream positivist tendency to evaluate the effectiveness of PD through models, this article expands the PD narrative by inquiring about the role of power, intersubjective knowledge, and collective identities in public diplomacy. In particular, it examines the PD questions often ignored by researchers regarding how collective identities can exercise discursive power to interpret incoming narratives, which challenge domestic intersubjective knowledge. It also argues that, because the Russian political elite failed to ensure a coherent story and provide informational support for its humanitarian aid, the Western intersubjective knowledge on Russia negatively contributed to the perception of PD narratives. Thus, the article underscores the importance for PD practitioners to understand how the socially constructed nature of knowledge can improve or harm PD strategies.

An English School of International Relations Approach to Public Diplomacy: A Public Diplomacy Framework for Global Governance Issues

Ayhan, Kadir Jun The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

Throughout the six decades evolution of the public diplomacy concept, international relations approaches have remained at the margins of the field. An important international relations theory that has been virtually non-existent in the public diplomacy literature is the English School of international relations. This theory has been the centerpiece of literature in diplomatic studies, but curiously, has not been applied to public diplomacy. In this editorial, I outline a public diplomacy framework for global governance issues that builds on the English School and Pamment's framework on the intersection of international development and public diplomacy.

Public Diplomacy, Propaganda, or What? China's Communication Practices in the South China Sea Dispute on Twitter

Nip, Joyce Y.M.,Sun, Chao The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

Multiple modes of communication on social media can contribute to public diplomacy in informing, conversing, and networking with members of foreign publics. However, manipulative behaviours on social media, prevalent especially in high tension contexts, create disruptions to authentic communication in what could be grey/black propaganda or information warfare. This study reviews existing literature about models of public diplomacy to guide an empirical study of China's communication in the #SouthChinaSea conversation on Twitter. It uses computational methods to identify, record, and analyze one-way, two-way, and network communication of China's actors. It employs manual qualitative research to determine the nature of China's actors. On that basis, it assesses China's Twitter communication in the issue against various models of public diplomacy.

Foreign-Born Public Relations Faculty Members' Relationship with their Universities as a Soft Power Resource in U.S. Public Diplomacy

Ertem-Eray, Tugce,Ki, Eyun-Jung The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

With globalization and new communication technologies, governments aim to cultivate relationships with their foreign publics. This goal represents the convergence of the public relations and public diplomacy domains. In this regard, this study aims to explore how foreign-born faculty members' attitudes and behaviors toward the U.S. are shaped by their relationships with their universities. Findings confirm a significant link between foreign-born faculty members' perceived relationships with their universities and their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the U.S. The authors conclude that a positive relationship between universities and foreign faculty members can serve as a soft power resource in U.S. public diplomacy. This study contributes to governments' public diplomacy efforts by analyzing the roles of the foreign-born faculty members as strategic communication channels in cultivating relationships between a host country and their homelands.

Public Diplomacy and Social Capital: Bridging Theory and Activities

Naddeo, Rachel,Matsunaga, Lucas The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

Public diplomacy activities can benefit from social capital theory, when its social dynamics is elucidated in the investment of complex social networks and in the establishment and management of relationships with foreign publics. Social capital theory explains that actors can produce purposive actions to mobilize resources in social structures, which thus explains the dynamics of social interactions. In response to the lack of conceptual frameworks for understanding public diplomacy activities within social capital theory, we conducted a narrative literature review that intends to identify the means through which international actors, such as governments, engage with foreign publics through the dynamics of social networks and the resources embedded in them. In addition, we explored the multidimensional characteristics of social capital to enhance the comprehension of the manner in which actors access, share, and maintain resources in target communities, institutions, or organizations through public diplomacy activities. In summary, we highlight the importance of new theoretical explorations on the application of social capital theory to public diplomacy and the need for a research agenda in the field.

Crossing the "Great Fire Wall": A Study with Grounded Theory Examining How China Uses Twitter as a New Battlefield for Public Diplomacy

Guo, Jing The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2021 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.1 No.2

In this paper, I applied grounded theory in exploring how Twitter became the battlefield for China's public diplomacy campaign. China's new move to global social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, has been a controversial strategy in public diplomacy. This study analyzes Chinese Foreign Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Twitter posts and comments. It models China's recent diplomatic move to Twitter as a "war of words" model, with features including "leadership," "polarization," and "aggression," while exerting possible effects as "resistance," "hatred," and "sarcasm" to the global community. Our findings show that by failing to gage public opinion and promote the country's positive image, China's current digital diplomacy strategy reflected by Zhao Lijian's tweets has instead constructed a polarized political public sphere, contradictory to the country's promoted "shared human destiny." The "war of words" model extends our understanding of China's new digital diplomacy move as a hybrid of state propaganda and self-performance. Such a strategy could spread hate speech and accelerate political polarization in cyberspace, despite improvements to China's homogenous network building on Twitter.

Presidential Public Diplomacy 2.0: Seven Lessons to Prevent Fire in Cyberspace

dos Santos, Niedja de Andrade e Silva Forte The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2021 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.1 No.1

The Amazon fires in summer 2019 triggered an incendiary Twitter debate between French president Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro that engaged political leaders, celebrities, and audiences worldwide. Currently, diplomats-in-chief connect to the global public through completely open debates, often without proper advice from foreign-affairs ministers, which may result in misunderstandings and conflicts among world leaders. Hence, this study argues that these interactions must be supported by Nicholas Cull's seven lessons in public diplomacy. The main topic on hand is presidential public diplomacy performed through digital means in cyberspace. Thus, after distinguishing cyberspace, digital diplomacy, and cyberdiplomacy, the literature review focuses on presidential public diplomacy, presidential diplomacy on Twitter, and Cull's seven lessons. Subsequently, the case study method provides a snapshot of the debate between Macron and Bolsonaro over the Amazon fires. This study concludes by answering the research question and indicating grist for the mill with regard to future developments.

Neither External nor Multilateral: States' Digital Diplomacy During Covid-19

Wu, Di,Sevin, Efe The Korean Association for Public Diplomacy 2022 Journal of public diplomacy Vol.2 No.1

How does a public health crisis play into the digital rhetoric of states? As Covid-19 is presenting a situation in which countries need to manage the international environment in a relatively short period, their practices could signal how digitization is going to influence public diplomacy in the longer run. This paper explores state public diplomacy in the context of a public health crisis. It develops a theoretical framework of public diplomacy on social media through how and what states communicated during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Through keyword and hashtag analyses, we identify two patterns. First, states usually regard social media as an instrument for domestic communication rather than public diplomacy. The international impact of messaging has not been prioritized or well-recognized. Social media platforms such as Twitter have global outreach and messaging can be seen by audiences all over the world. Messages intended for the domestic audience could have an international impact. Thus, any communication on digital platforms should consider their public diplomacy outcomes. Second, while social media platforms are claimed to be for networking at different levels, states tend to connect with other states rather than with international organizations during the pandemic. States do not like to mention international organizations like the WHO and the UN on Twitter. Instead, they were either busy dealing with internal problems or cooperating with another state to combat the virus.