In search of a dialogue: Digital di-plomacy of Sweden

Digital diplomacy opens up new opportunities for both developed and devel-oping states to promote their international image, clarify their position on current issues, and realize long-term foreign policy aspirations, but it also brings com-pletely new challenges. The chief one among them is establishing a continuous constructive dialogue with the target audience in the virtual space. Facilitation for this dialogue is one of the key priorities of the digital diplomacy of Sweden. The author examines the activities of the key actors of Sweden’s digital diplomacy (the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of Sweden, the Swedish Institute, the Swedish Tourist Association (Svenska Turistföreningen), ‘Visit Sweden’) and identifi es their key features. Particularly, the author emphasizes the government’s readiness to implement innovative and creative methods to promote its media projects. The latter include such projects as ‘The Second House of Sweden’, ‘Curators of Sweden’, and ‘Swedish Number’, which were aimed at improving the quality of communication with the foreign audience. In doing so, the responsible minis-tries and agencies placed a heavy emphasis on promoting a dialogue via social networks between the Swedish offi cials and representatives of the civil society on the one hand and foreign users on the other. The leading actors of Sweden’s digital diplomacy actively engaged the foreign audience in discussions on the most important issues on the foreign policy agenda of Sweden. This was most clearly demonstrated in media campaigns designed to eliminate discrimination against women and gender-based violence. The author concludes that Sweden has achieved a certain degree of success in establishing a dialogue with the foreign audience, yet this dialogue is not comprehensive enough and still depends on the initiative of individual politicians and diplomats.

Abu Dhabi will step up global image-burnishing efforts

Headline UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: International image will be key

Methodological recommendations on digital rating of enterprises

Introduction. The introduction of tax rating will help to centralize the control over the activities of economic entities by various government agencies. On the other hand, tax rating will avoid subjectivity in the assessment of enterprises by the tax authorities and establish a transparent and understandable work of the tax authorities themselves for taxpayers and society as a whole. The purpose of the paper consists in a thorough study and analysis of international and domestic experience in rating the economic activity of enterprises by tax indicators in Ukraine to develop harmonized and unified guidelines for ranking business entities in the European integration of Ukraine. Results. To determine the company's rating by tax indicators, it is necessary to assess the company's payment of taxes, fees and other tax payments and introduce digital rating of the company's fiscal indicators, which, thanks to two-way communication, will reveal negative phenomena in enterprises and fiscal authorities. When ranking enterprises by tax indicators, it will be possible to avoid the corruption component in the distribution of budget funds, the provision of tax benefits, to identify the most important industries, regions and enterprises that need state aid. Also with the help of this rating and tax indicators, you can calculate the amount by region, region, industry, which large enterprises (unfortunately, the state as well) hide. You can also determine the reduction of gross product due to the large salaries of “predatory” top management. We remind you that Ukraine has a flat scale of taxation of individuals and the main tax revenues under this article are paid by the poor and middle class. That is, in fact, the poor and middle class pay pensions, including to the rich. Comparing the paid taxes and own revenues of the region plus determining the amount of domestic debt with its sources of repayment will significantly strengthen financial and tax discipline both in the center and on the ground. Such measures will significantly improve Ukraine's international image and simplify its entry into the international community. Conclusions. The proposed guidelines for digital rating of tax indicators of enterprises will improve the regulatory framework for determining the rating of the enterprise to obtain a scale of reliability of the enterprise as a business entity, eliminate significant problems of corruption in the fiscal system, improve financial and tax discipline primarily in central authorities, and secondly in industries, oblasts, cities, etc. These recommendations make it possible to establish opportunities for honest enterprises to obtain various privileges from the state and to avoid unreasonable and often ineffective inspections by tax and other authorities.

Latin America and the Caribbean Meet the Post-Soviet World: Can Pro Forma Diplomacy Evolve?

The 33 countries that constitute Latin America and the Caribbean and the 11 countries of the former Soviet Union (not counting the Russian Federation and the three Baltic nations) conform 44 states which are, with a few exceptions, on the periphery of global geopolitical aff airs, with limited international infl uence or at the mercy of confl icts that have disrupted their internal balance and international image in the past decade. While the topic of how peripheral nations and regions interact with each other has been analyzed in academia, in-depth studies about relations between these specifi c regions are very limited and scarce. This paper seeks to fi ll in that gap by providing recent examples on issues like trade and high-profi le diplomatic visits between Latin American and Caribbean governments with their post-Soviet counterparts. Moreover, I will discuss the issue of the location (or lack thereof) of embassies, a topic not discussed in the consulted literature, as an example of how governments from peripheral states and limited budgets decide where to open an embassy. It is proposed here that the 44 states that make up Latin America, the Caribbean, and the post-Soviet world will remain cordial and friendly strangers for the foreseeable future. A lack of grand-strategy vision, with a few exceptions, is a major hindrance to stronger relations between these states. The most plausible scenario is bloc-to-bloc trade agreements; however, the COVID-19 pandemic and more pressing issues that these countries face mean that treaties with geographically distant states that are not trading partners or potential sources of fi nancial aid are not regarded as priorities.

Saudi women driving: images, stereotyping and digital media

This article examines the representations of Saudi women driving that circulated shortly after the lifting of the ban and considers the social, commercial and technological forces that helped to shape those representations . A corpus of images was collected from two international image banks – Getty and Shutterstock – as well as from a Google Image search. The images use Van Leeuwen’s (2008) visual representation framework in Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis, paying particular attention to the similarities and differences between the images available in the image banks and those that were made prominent in the Google search. In addition, semantic metadata accompanying these images were also analysed in order to understand the linguistic constraints that had been put on searches for these images and the ontologies of the issue that they promoted. Finally, a more detailed analysis was performed on images that had been appropriated into different contexts such as news stories and advertisements to investigate how these images were adapted to support different political, cultural and commercial agendas. Findings suggest that images of Saudi women that circulated online internationally shortly after the lifting of the ban were mostly generic and decontextualized, creating simplified and trivialized depictions of gender relations and social change in the Kingdom. The analysis shows how commercial concerns which influence both the creation of stock images and the way they are taken up by news organizations and advertisers can sometimes have the effect of erasing the complexity of political events and reinforcing the very stereotypes they seem to be challenging.

‘Not all socialists dress the same’: Menswear as cultural capital in China

Chinese sartorial style, like many cultures, has been defined, formalized and articulated to its population by hierarchical definition and visual association. Menswear styles have transitioned from strict Imperial codes, to westernized adoption, designed to shape a new modernism, as various leadership regimes imposed and defined dress codes to implement political and cultural structures. Sustainable practices were developed through the design and construction methods of Imperial garments and as a response to low resources, famine and inefficient management systems during the early years of the People’s Republic of China. This period was characterized by rationing for fabrics, recycling and the re-invention of existing garments. Through a contemporary lens, this can be viewed as an integrated sustainable approach to the mass clothing of a significantly sized population. However, intervening regimes including the post-Imperial Nationalist leadership and the post-Mao Communist leadership cultivated a new visual identity for the Chinese population as westernization became the prefix for modernization. This article aims to map the historical development of menswear as cultural capital in China, to contextualize sustainable practices in the production of garments and define how these practices were systematically and repeatedly rejected in favour of new consumerism. It also aims to historically define the role of menswear in China as a representation of the nation’s outward-facing international image and ambitions as a serious and contemporary player, within the global political and cultural community.

POLITICAL AND LEGAL REGULATION OF ILLEGAL MIGRATION AS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

Thus, migration is a characteristic feature of the new millennium, which has the ability to spread. At the same time, the number of problems associated with this trend is growing: legal, economic, social, ethnocultural, religious, psychological [9, p. 18]. Their solution is possible with the coordination of efforts of all branches of government, a comprehensive approach to combating illegal migration, and close international cooperation in solving this problem. Thus, illegal migration in Ukraine is an acute problem that affects the rule of law, the economic situation, and the international image not only of our country but also of many others. For Ukraine, the problem of illegal migration is completely new and its growing trend is of concern, as it is associated with illegal operations and various types of crime. The rapid development and expansion of the geographical boundaries of illegal migration are due to various economic and political factors. Illegal migration occupies a significant percentage in the structure of migration flows. It is a socially dangerous, harmful, illegal phenomenon that really threatens the economic interests and public security of our state. It is one of the reasons for the growth of crime, the spread of dangerous diseases, the development of the underground labor market, the emergence of tensions between many countries. Keywords: political regulation, legal regulation, illegal migration, national security, threats.

Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: JSON-LD as an RDF serialization format

One impediment to the uptake of linked data technology is developers’ unfamiliarity with typical Resource Description Framework (RDF) serializations like Turtle and RDF/XML. JSON for Linking Data (JSON-LD) is designed to bypass this problem by expressing linked data in the well-known Javascript Object Notation (JSON) format that is popular with developers. JSON-LD is now Google’s preferred format for exposing Schema.org structured data in web pages for search optimization, leading to its widespread use by web developers. Another successful use of JSON-LD is by the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), which limits its use to a narrow design pattern, which is readily consumed by a variety of applications. This presentation will show how a similar design pattern has been used in Audubon Core and with Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) controlled vocabularies to serialize data in a manner that is both easily consumed by conventional applications, but which also can be seamlessly loaded as RDF into triplestores or other linked data applications. The presentation will also suggest how JSON-LD might be used in other contexts within TDWG vocabularies, including with the Darwin Core Resource Relationship terms.

The UAE Tour, cycling stars, and Twitter: Tweeting as part of promoting the host country

Using the example of the 2019 inaugural UAE Tour, this study demonstrates how cycling stars indirectly promote countries hosting globally watched sporting events through their Twitter accounts. This study presents a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Twitter activity of selected cycling stars. However, this promotion is only a secondary result of their activity on social media; professional athletes use their Twitter accounts as a platform for self-presentation and to show their daily lives to fans. If the athletes are active on social media, it is almost impossible for them to avoid speaking about the host countries, indirectly evaluate them, and provide information about them to their followers. While sports celebrities’ social media profiles are a limited space for the promotion of host countries, they can also help improve the image of the countries and present them in a positive light. Of course, political leaders use countless public or sports diplomacy tools to promote their countries abroad, and online platforms are not necessarily a key element in the promotion of their international image.

The Impact of Sports Diplomacy on Improving Kosovo's International Image

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.