The Impact of American and British Soft Power in Iran

Author(s):  
Darius Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-240
Author(s):  
Sung Deuk Hahm ◽  
Sooho Song

Ever since the concept of soft power was introduced, there has been debate about what it is and how it works. We join the debate by studying how the success of Korean cultural products in Taiwan has improved the relationship between South Korea and Taiwan. The two countries normalized their relationship in 1948 and maintained cooperation until the severance of formal ties in 1992 because of South Korea’s rapprochement with China. Beginning in early 2000, however, South Korea’s cultural products have enjoyed great success in Taiwan. Since that time, the relationship between the two countries has significantly improved, including trade and tourism expansion, increased Taiwanese direct investment in South Korea, and policy changes by Taiwan’s government. These changes provide empirical evidence of soft power.


2020 ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Tetyana Meteliova ◽  
Vira Chghen

The article is devoted to identifying the role of the Confucian component in shaping China’s foreign policy during the period of “reforms and openness”. The author analyzes the Chinese “soft power” model and its differences from the classical one, the theoretical foundations of which were formulated by J. Nye, and discovers the China’s “soft power” features in foreign policy and establishes its meaningful connection with Confucian values and concepts. The article provides an overview of “soft power” interpretations in the main works of Chinese scholars, examines the reflection of Confucian “soft power” ideas in the state and party documents and decisions of the period of “reforms and openness”, shows the application of Confucian principles in the foreign policy of China. It is shown that the creation of effective Chinese “soft power” tools is becoming a part of a purposeful and long-term policy of the state. Such tools include the swift reform of leading media, TV and radio companies using modern technologies and focusing on foreign audience abroad, promoting China’s traditional and modern culture in foreign cultural markets, increasing China’s presence on the world market, spreading and promoting the Chinese language, “Education Export” and widening educational contacts, economic ties development and scientific and technical cooperation, public diplomacy development, support of the compatriots living abroad. Geopolitically, China’s soft power strategy is focused on developing relations with its close neighbors and creating a security belt around China. It has been proved that modern China seeks to proclaim itself as a new “soft power” center, the creation of which is a part of the State purposeful long-term policy. It is accompanied by the active appeal of Chinese ideologists to the country's traditional cultural heritage and basing of this new foreign policy on the conservative values of Confucianism, which is a kind of civilizational code determining all aspects of social life for China.


2017 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 982-1001
Author(s):  
Gary Rawnsley

AbstractAccepting that Taiwan has accumulated “soft power” since the introduction of democratic reforms in the late 1980s, this paper assesses Taiwan's external communications during Ma Ying-jeou's presidency and how its soft power resources have been exercised. Demonstrating the strategic turn from political warfare to public and cultural diplomacy, the paper begins with the premise that the priority must be to increase familiarity with Taiwan among foreign publics. It then argues that any assessment of external communications in the Ma administration must consider the impact of two key decisions: first, the dissolution of the Government Information Office and the transfer of its responsibilities for international communications to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a new Ministry of Culture, and second, the priority given to cultural themes in Taiwan's external communications.


Author(s):  
SEBASTIAN BERSICK

This chapter returns to issues raised by other authors in this section: the contrast between European, Chinese, and US perceptions of hard and soft power in the contexts of regional and global governance. Taking the ASEM process as a case, it shows how Europeans and Asians have approached the interaction from different institutional perspectives. Despite this, it sees ASEM as a process that reflects, and promotes, the advance of regional institutionalism in East Asia, adding an important dimension to the Europe–China relationship. This is then contrasted with the US strategy of dual divergence: a divergent internal strategy that rejects institutionalism for managing regional security; and an external divergent strategy that rejects the building of shared and reciprocal institutions between the USA and Asia. The chapter concludes that Europe's ‘balancing by convergence’ strategy has advantages over the USA's ‘balancing by divergence’ strategy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gulshan Pashayeva

Abstract The term soft power, developed by Joseph Nye, is a widely popular concept used to describe efforts to attract rather than coerce as means of persuasion. Language, which is widely viewed as a traditional (not to say extremely important) component of nationhood and a symbol of identity and group consciousness, can be used as an expression of soft power resources within this context. It is apparent that in today’s globalized world, the role of international languages as global means of communication has increased considerably. At the same time, English has become the de facto lingua franca in international trade, academia, technology and many other fields. Against this background, this article examines the impact of language as a soft power resource in the case of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which is a multi-ethnic state located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Due to its geographic location, the constant migrations of people who have passed through its territory throughout the centuries, and it has long been a zone of active interaction of languages, cultures and civilizations.


Significance Despite its promotion of an innovation ecosystem to attract start-ups, Abu Dhabi has overall made little progress in addressing the impact of the clean-energy transition on long-term demand for fossil fuels. As COVID-19 hits private consumption hard, Dubai is promoting expatriate-friendly labour market and legal reforms, with an eye to the troubled real estate sector. Impacts Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds will increase their exposure to the overseas oil derivatives industry. Dubai will shift attention to taming oversupply in the flagging property market, and developers will be under increased scrutiny. Ambitious oil production targets will increase tensions with Saudi Arabia; a medium-term OPEC exit is possible. Abu Dhabi will prioritise high-profile space and nuclear projects that generate soft power and boost innovation.


Author(s):  
V. Bashynskyi ◽  
H. Pievtsov ◽  
P. Openko ◽  
A. Kozyr

The beginning of the XXI century was characterized by the emergence of a new type of war – information one, when victory is achieved not by destroying the armed forces and the economy of the enemy, but through the impact on his moral and psychological condition. In modern conflicts, methods based on the integrated application of political, economic, informational and other non-military measures based on military force are increasingly used. The combination of these methods is implemented in the concept of hybrid warfare, the leading idea of which consists in achieving political goals with minimal military influence on the enemy through the use of modern information technology based on "soft power" and "hard power". The peculiarity of such a war is that it is conducted in disguise using mostly non-linear tactics and is not aimed at capturing the entire territory of the country, although it is possible to take control of partial territories, but to obtain patronage over the state, which is achieved through influence on the population, politics, business, law-enforcement agencies. A striking example of the implementation of the concept of hybrid war is the actions of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - Russia) against Ukraine. At the same time, Russia's "hybrid policy" is not limited to Ukraine. It also covers Europe and the United States, the EU and NATO. In order to analyze the development of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in the period up to 2035, an analysis was made on the development of the information aspect of relations between Ukraine and other influential regional and world actors on the development of the situation around Ukraine. In preparing the forecast, the tools of scenario analysis were used, namely: the analysis of the main influencing factors, which allowed determining the trends of regional development until 2035. This analysis makes it possible to develop a baseline scenario for the development of the situation, provided that the situation around Ukraine over time will not change significantly; the main factors that are difficult to predict and non-collinear are identified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Rinor REXHEPI ◽  
Vigan SAHITI

Public diplomacy which is part of soft power is a branch of diplomacy which has recently taken place and importance in the agendas of large and small states. This segment of diplomacy includes a series of methods and maneuvers which bring positive results to the country it uses and promotes for its own interests. Sports diplomacy is an important dimension of a country's public diplomacy, which has an important and influential role. Different countries aim to use sports diplomacy in the most effective way in favor and profit of their country, and one of these countries is the state of Kosovo. During our work we have tried to present the impact of Kosovo sports diplomacy and its role in improving the international image. Through descriptive, comparative, analytical methods as well as through interviews we have tried to shed light on how much sports diplomacy has influenced the improvement of Kosovo's international image. With the method of interviews, we have interviewed 3 experts in sports diplomacy, and we have analyzed these interviews by implementing the comparison with materials and scientific facts which are related to public diplomacy, with an emphasis on sports diplomacy. In conclusion, we can say that sports diplomacy in Kosovo should be given great importance in order to achieve greater results. Kosovo and its competent institutions need to develop specific strategies and investments for its sports diplomacy.


2019 ◽  
pp. 464-471
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Gribovod

The process of digitization as the new theoretical framework for studying economic, social and political practices is actively applied in the academic discourse, yet the conceptual nature of digitization is not sufficiently studied. The paper analyzes the digitization phenomenon both from the perspective of theoretical comprehension of the impact of digital and novel information and communication technologies (ICT) on various social institutions and processes, and from the perspective of identifying and classifying methodology approaches that exist in the humanities discourse and interpret the process of political media space digitization. An attempt is made to define the main stages of the political media space formation; key mass media tools are identified at each stage. The research identifies the technocratic, discursive and cratological approaches making it possible to identify the features of political media space’s digital transformation. Under conditions of digital society emergence, the political media space is considered to be, on the one hand, a “soft power” instrument and on the other hand, a combination of information resources, mass media institutions, channels and networks building a certain information infrastructure of a country, a region, a city.


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