scholarly journals Qatar Soft Power: From Rising to the Crisis

Author(s):  
Taha Naier ◽  
Dr. Ravza Altuntaş Çakır

Qatar has recently become a regional power and an influential actor in international politics. Qatar has adopted a foreign policy of soft power, which played a prominent role in the rise of the international scene. On 5 June 2017, a diplomatic boycott crisis has erupted against Qatar. The Arab Quartet imposed a complete blockade on Qatar and stated 13 demands. The study explores Qatar’s soft power tools such as lobbying, international mediation, scholarships, foreign aids, Al Jazeera network, which has created a national brand for Qatar. With the non-coercive foreign policy, Qatar’s stance in regional politics has transformed from neutrality to influence. This study will investigate the underlying political, ideological, and strategical factors of the 2017 crisis that has manifested the power struggles in the Gulf, the role of Qatar's foreign policy of soft power in the context of the crisis. Finally, the study will analyze whether the current situation demonstrates transient appeasement or a permanent resolution.

Author(s):  
Stephen Hobden

This chapter examines the role of developing countries in international politics. International relations, as a discipline, has traditionally overlooked the significance of the developing world in global politics. The chapter begins by discussing the reasons for this and why such an oversight is lamentable. It then considers the position of the developing world throughout the large structural changes that have occurred in the international system since 1945: North–South relations during and after the Cold War and the emerging multipolar world, in which China is anticipated to return to the centre of international politics. The chapter also explores topics such as the United Nations’s involvement in development issues and its role in decolonization, U.S. foreign policy under the two Obama administrations, and nuclear proliferation.


Author(s):  
Joseph S. Nye

This chapter examines US foreign policy as ‘smart power’, a combnation of hard and soft power, in the twenty-first century. The beginning of the twenty-first century saw George W. Bush place a strong emphasis on hard power, as exemplifed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This was evident after 9/11. While the war in Iraq showcased America’s hard military power that removed a tyrant, it failed to resolve US vulnerability to terrorism; on the contrary, it may have increased it. The chapter first considers the Obama administration’s reference to its foreign policy as ‘smart power’ before discussing Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy, the role of power in a global information age, soft power in US foreign policy, and how public diplomacy has been incorporated into US foreign policy.


Author(s):  
Stephen Benedict Dyson ◽  
Thomas Briggs

Political Science accounts of international politics downplay the role of political leaders, and a survey of major journals reveals that fewer than 3% of all articles focus on leaders. This is in stark contrast to public discourse about politics, where leadership influence over events is regarded as a given. This article suggests that, at a minimum, leaders occupy a space in fully specified chains of causality as the aggregators of material and ideational forces, and the transmitters of those forces into authoritative political action. Further, on occasion a more important role is played by the leader: as a crucial causal variable aggregating material and ideational energies in an idiosyncratic fashion and thereby shaping decisions and outcomes. The majority of the article is devoted to surveying the comparatively small literature on political leaders within International Relations scholarship. The article concludes by inviting our colleagues to be receptive to the idiosyncrasies, as well as the regularities, of statespersonship.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk

With the instrumentalisation of Islam via the state apparatuses in foreign policy, Sunni Islam has become both an instrument and a purpose of the repressive Justice and Development Party and Turkey has started to be one of the front runners of countries who are increasingly competing for using Islam as a foreign policy tool. This relatively new role of Turkey has created various diverging ideas among the host countries where Turkey is active. While some countries are rather content with Turkey’s religiously fueled policies and humanitarian aid, and define Turkey as one of the most influential actors which can use religion as a soft power tool, others refuse to define Turkey’s policies within the boundaries of religious soft power due to its extra-territorial authoritarian practices and instrumentalisation of religion for these. Under these circumstances, this study defines Turkey’s religious soft power as an ambivalent one and scrutinises the reasons behind this ambiguity via exploring some country cases from Southeast Europe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 216-238
Author(s):  
S. M. Mirmohammad Sadeghi ◽  
R. Hajimineh

«Soft power» is a set of activities designed by a government or regional and international actors aimed to influence external public opinion, promote external image or attract support for a particular policy, which is implemented through all the available tools and new technologies. The non-governmental actors also play an effective and important role in this diplomacy. Considering the public diplomacy and soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a deliberate and conscious approach can be of great importance in the country's grand strategies that will strengthen national interests in the domestic sphere and influence them at regional and global levels. The article analyzes the role of Iran’s soft power in confronting Iranophobia. The study is aimed at presenting a theoretical definition of public diplomacy and soft power in foreign policy and international system, and then examines its role in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran with an emphasis on confronting Iranophobia.The authors answer the research question: “What is the role of soft power in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in confronting Iranophobia?” The research method is descriptive-analytical based on historical evidence, documents, and analytical issues of theorists, authors, and media being expressed in the theoretical framework of soft power. The paper is based on a synthesis of Stephen Walt’s “balance of threat” theory with Alexander Wendt’s social constructivism to explain the Iranian “threat” in American foreign policy.The findings of this research show that without the use of force and disturbing the balance in the international relations, using a variety of tools and instruments the Iranian public diplomacy and soft power might be effective to reduce the global and regional atmosphere of Iranophobia and undermine anti-Iranian solidarity.


Author(s):  
I. I. Kalitko

The article is devoted to the study of the potential of mass-cultural factors of “soft power” of modern Russian pop music in the post-Soviet countries. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia’s key goals were to restore and strengthen its political influence in the post-Soviet space, as well as to preserve the socio-cultural space of the “Russian world”. Soft power policies, especially their cultural aspects, are a useful tool for achieving these goals. Today, the sphere of show business and the musical stage are becoming the most accessible and practical tools for promoting the Russian policy of “soft power”. The article examines the prospects of Russian foreign policy influence and the role of the Russian musical variety “soft power”, using the analysis of the popularity of Russian performers in the post-Soviet countries, on the example of Belarus and Kazakhstan.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Puspita Plehanku

Abstract Public Diplomacy as a part of soft power has been the main principle of Indonesia’s diplomacy under President Yudhoyono. Due to the ineffectiveness of Track 1 Diplomacy, Government-to-Government (G2G) relations, in promoting the positive image of Indonesia, the role of public diplomacy becomes important. Thus, public diplomacy practice which involves all aspects of society; Government to Government (G2G), Government to People Contact (G2P), and People to People Contact (P2P), is relevant in order to promote Indonesia to American society and strengthening its bilateral relations as well. This research, therefore, is trying to discuss the role of public diplomacy in strengthening the RI-US bilateral relations and its benefits to Indonesia’s foreign policy. The findings show that public diplomacy contributes in strengthening RI-US bilateral relations by the use of public diplomacy instruments such as cultural and educational exchanges, official visits and social media. Keywords: Soft Power, Public Diplomacy, RI-US Bilateral Relations.


Author(s):  
Natalia Markushina

The chapter is devoted to the problem of the formation of “soft power” in the Eurasian space. All attempts to find a common language between states in the world lead to the fact that an appeal to “soft power” appears more and more often on the states' agenda as a tool of achieving the goals of the states, including the states of Eurasian region. The concept of “soft power”, introduced into the circulation of the modern theory of international relations by J. Nye, is being actively discussed in Russia. In recent years, President V. Putin and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S. Lavrov were repeatedly called upon to multiply the Russian resource of “soft power” for solving foreign policy tasks. Undoubtedly, this is also valid when we speak about Eurasian integration.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Masters

This analysis considers the emergence of South Africa's parliamentary diplomacy, or the role of Parliament on the international stage, since 1994. The early discourse both within Parliament and in academic analysis, reflects an emphasis on the role of oversight and the role of Parliament in the foreign policy decision-making process. Recognition of the role of parliamentary diplomacy has been slow to develop, although Parliament is increasingly acknowledging its role as an international actor. This has seen the development of structures and policy to support this. The value of parliamentary diplomacy as part of a country's international relations, however, remains an area in need of further deliberation. This analysis begins by unpacking the concept of parliamentary diplomacy before addressing the emerging role and value of parliamentary diplomacy for South Africa, particularly through the linkages between parliamentary diplomacy and soft power in promoting foreign policy.


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