Maximising Soft Power: the Role of Digital Diplomacy in Building Trust with Nation-Branding

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jess Gosling
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Building Trust ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Digital Diplomacy

Perceptions of attractiveness and trustworthiness impact the prosperity and influence of countries. A country's soft power is not guaranteed. Countries have their brands, an image shaped by the behaviour of governments, by what they do and say, whom they associate with, and how they conduct themselves on the global stage. Increasingly, digital diplomacy plays a crucial role in the creation and application of soft power. This paper argues that digital diplomacy is increasingly vital in the articulation of soft power. Digital diplomacy is a new way of conducting public diplomacy, offering new and unparalleled ways of building trust with previously disengaged audiences. Soft power is now the driving force behind reputation and influence on the global stage, where increasingly digital diplomacy plays an essential role.

Soft power at home and abroad: Sport diplomacy, politics and peace-building

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håvard Mokleiv Nygård ◽  
Scott Gates
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Building Trust ◽  
Image Building ◽  
The One ◽  
Playing Fields

Soft power is the power to persuade whereby one actor in a non-coercive manner convinces another to want the same things he/she wants. Sport can be used as tool of soft power both internationally and domestically. Peace-building and nation-building can be achieved through four mechanisms of sport diplomacy and politics: image-building; building a platform for dialogue; trust-building; and reconciliation, integration and anti-racism. These mechanisms are not deterministically controllable and can have unintended consequences. On the one hand, sporting events can be used as a means of building trust between adversaries. On the other, the hostilities between peoples can be mirrored on playing fields. This article examines the intended and unintended consequences of each mechanism. It also examines the role of confounding economic factors. Each article comprising this Special Issue explores a different mechanism of sport politics and public diplomacy.

Adventism, Apocalyptic, and the Cause of Liberty

1994 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-249
Author(s):  
Douglas Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conservative Protestantism ◽  
Late Nineteenth

“I have felt like working three times as hard as ever since I came to understand that my Lord was coming back again,” reported revivalist Dwight L. Moody, the most prominent of nineteenth-century premillennialists. Moody's testimony to the motivating power of premillennialism points to the crucial role of that eschatology in conservative Protestantism since the late nineteenth century—a role delineated by several studies within the past twenty-five years. As a comprehensive interpretation of history which gives meaning and pattern to past, present, and future, and a role for the believer in the outworking of the divine program, premillennialism has been a driving force in the fundamentalistand evangelical movements.

African Clergy, Bishop Lucas and the Christianizing of Local Initiation Rites: Revisiting 'The Masasi Case'

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-208
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Stoner-Eby
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Christian Initiation ◽  
Initiation Rites ◽  
The Creation

AbstractOne of the most famous instances of missionary 'adaptation' was the Christianizing of initiation rites in the Anglican Diocese of Masasi in what is now southeastern Tanzania. This was long assumed to be the work of Bishop Vincent Lucas, who from the 1920s became widely known in mission, colonial and anthropological circles for his advocacy of missions that sought 'not to destroy, but to fulfill' African culture. Terence Ranger in his groundbreaking 1972 article on Lucas and Masasi was the first to point out the crucial role of the African clergy. In reexamining the creation of Christian initiation in Masasi, this article reveals that Lucas's promotion of Christianized initiation was actually based on the vision and efforts of the African clergy, an indication that mission Christianity in the colonial period cannot be assumed to reflect European initiative and African compliance.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF CONFUCIAN VALUES ON CHINA’S FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE PERIOD OF “REFORMS AND OPENNESS”

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Tetyana Meteliova ◽  
Vira Chghen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The State ◽  
Confucian Values ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact

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.

Ichiro the Public Diplomat: Professional Sport as Cultural Intermediary in Configuring US-Japan Relations

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-104
Author(s):  
Derek Moscato
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Baseball ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Engagement ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Survey Responses

Summary This study examines the confluence of sport and soft power within public diplomacy. It analyses professional baseball player Ichiro Suzuki’s role in the United States as a sporting ambassador from Japan — potentially catalysing goodwill, cultural interest, perceptions of national personality traits and even views of policy issues such as international trade and country relations. In doing so, this research draws from non-state public diplomacy, which considers the transnational impacts of non-traditional communication vehicles such as cultural and sporting exchanges. It measures US public sentiment towards Japan through quantitative analysis of survey responses collected by Pew Research Center in conjunction with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. The success of Japan’s cultural and sporting exports highlights their potential and realised role in binding national ties. Furthermore, Tokyo’s hosting of the Summer Olympiad emphasises the role of sport not only as a vehicle for competition and entertainment but also its utility in global engagement.

God, Tsar, and People

2020 ◽  
pp. 358-388
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Rowland
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Historical Thinking ◽  
The West ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Social Units

This chapter provides a background on the crucial role of fictions in history and in current lives, a role arguably bigger than that played by any other force, human or even natural. It mentions Yuval Noah Harari's claim that cultural skill allowed humans to first organize themselves into political or social units larger than a few tens of individuals. It also reviews developments in Russian culture that made the creation and preservation of the Muscovite state possible. The chapter explains how Muscovite culture was more effective as social cement than the broader, more diffuse, and more divided cultures of the West. It explores some of the themes that Muscovite churchmen created and elaborated, like the importance of the Old Testament to the historical thinking of Muscovy.

8. The twenty-first century and smart power

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Nye
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Information ◽  
Smart Power ◽  
Twenty First Century

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.

scholarly journals India’s Public Diplomacy in the Twenty-First Century: Components, Objectives and Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Arijit Mazumdar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
First Century ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
International Broadcasting ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Rising Power

In recent years, several countries have made sustained efforts to project their ‘soft power’ abroad. Public diplomacy has been an important tool for this purpose. Public diplomacy involves activities usually undertaken by a national government to inform and influence foreign public opinion and attitudes in order to advance its foreign policy goals. Such activities include ‘nation-branding’, diaspora outreach, digital engagement, international broadcasting, and international exchange programmes, all of which are designed to promote a positive image and reputation of the country to a global audience. This paper discusses the role of public diplomacy in the service of India’s foreign policy goals during the twenty-first century. The practice of public diplomacy helps the country achieve two significant objectives. First, it helps allay any active or dormant fears within the international community about India as a rising power. Second, it helps India compete with other countries as it seeks to boost foreign tourist arrivals, attract foreign investment and secure new markets for its exports in an era of globalisation. This paper also briefly discusses some of the challenges associated with India’s use of public diplomacy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document