The psychology of separation: Border walls, soft power, and international neighborliness.

This study assesses the impact of international border walls on evaluations of countries and on beliefs about bilateral relationships between states. Using a short video, we experimentally manipulate whether a border wall image appears in a broader description of the history and culture of a little-known country. In a third condition, we also indicate which bordering country built the wall. Demographically representative samples from the United States, Ireland, and Turkey responded similarly to these experimental treatments. Compared to a control group, border walls lowered evaluations of the bordering countries. They also signified hostile international relationships to third-party observers. Furthermore, the government of the country responsible for building the wall was evaluated especially negatively. Reactions were consistent regardless of people's predispositions toward walls in their domestic political context. Our findings have important implications for a country's attractiveness, or "soft power," an important component of nonmilitary influence in international relations.

Accidental paradiplomats? The curious case of Ontario school board budgets and Canadian soft power projection.

From the earliest studies of soft power in International Relations, the importance of educational exchanges has been well-established. Studies of international education in the context of Canadian soft power often draw on cases from the higher education sector. This article argues that greater attention should be paid to the K-12 level, especially as budgetary pressures in Ontario's education system are leading school boards to rapidly expand their international student recruitment efforts. Although this is not an example of intentional soft power projection, it nevertheless represents an important reminder that subnational actors may accidentally become paradiplomats whose actions have consequences on the international level. Further, this case reveals the importance of paying attention to actors typically overlooked by IR scholarship. Drawing on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and in conversation with prior research on international education as a mechanism of soft power projection, this article traces the thread between budgetary pressures in Ontario school boards and the broader context of soft power projection.

US foreign policy elites and the great rejuvenation of the ideological China threat: The role of rhetoric and the ideologization of geopolitical threats.

Since 2018, US foreign policy elites have portrayed China as the gravest threat to their country. Why was China predominantly cast as an ideological threat, even though other discursive formulations, such as a geopolitical threat, were plausible and available? Existing major IR theories on threat perpcetions struggle to address these questions. In this article, we draw from rhetoric and public legitimation scholarship to argue that the mobilization of adjacent policy debates was key to mainstream the representation of China as an ideological threat. By mobilizing debates on Russia and the soft power and sharp power concepts, a minority view in US foreign policy with a longstanding ambition to get tough on China established a seemingly natural link between liberal internationalism and an ideologically threatening China. Liberal foreign policy elites who originally opposed a realpolitik view of China could now subsume a geopolitical threat into an ideological one reminiscent of US-Soviet Cold War rivalry. This constituted a necessary catalyst to align most foreign policy elites to understand China as the gravest threat to the United States, at a time when China's capabilities and behaviour, coupled with a deep sense of insecurity regarding America's place in the world, provided the necessary backdrop.

The Unflinching Mr. Smith and the Nuclear Age*.

This article focuses on the U.S. diplomat and nuclear arms control negotiator Gerald (Gerry) Coat Smith in order to cast new light on the importance of diplomats in the context of the set of international activities currently labelled as "science diplomacy." Smith, a lawyer by training, was a key negotiator in many international agreements on post-WW2 atomic energy projects, from those on uranium prospecting and mining, to reactors technologies to later ones on non-proliferation and disarmament. His career in science (nuclear) diplomacy also epitomized the shortcomings of efforts to align other countries' posture on nuclear affairs to U.S. wishes. In particular, the unswerving diplomat increasingly understood that strong-arm tactics to dissuade other countries from acquiring nuclear weapons would not limit proliferation. Not only did this inform later U.S. diplomacy approaches, but it lent itself to the ascendancy of the new notion of "soft power" as critical to the re-definition of international affairs.

Soft power and global health: the sustainable development goals (SDGs) era health agendas of the G7, G20 and BRICS.

BACKGROUND: In 2017, the G20 health ministers convened for the first time to discuss global health and issued a communiqué outlining their health priorities, as the BRICS and G7 have done for years. As these political clubs hold considerable political and economic influence, their respective global health agendas may influence both global health priorities and the priorities of other countries and actors. METHODS: Given the rising salience of global health in global summitry, we analyzed the health ministerial communiqués issued by the BRICS, G7 and G20 after the SDGs were adopted in 2015. We compared the stated health priorities of the BRICS, G7 and G20 against one another and against the targets of SDG 3 on health, using a traffic light system to assess the quality of their commitments. RESULTS: With regard to the SDG 3 targets, the BRICS, G7 and G20 priorities overlapped in their focus on emergency preparedness and universal health coverage, but diverged in areas of environmental pollution, mental health, and maternal and child health. Health issues with considerable associated burdens of disease, including substance use, road traffic injuries and sexual health, were missing from the agendas of all three political clubs. In terms of SDG 3 principles and ways of working, the BRICS, G7 and G20 varied in their emphasis on human rights, equity and engagement with non-state actors, but all expressed their explicit commitment to Agenda 2030. CONCLUSIONS: The leadership of BRICS, G7 and G20 on global health is welcome. However, their relatively narrow focus on the potential impact of ill-health primarily in relation to the economy and trade may not be sufficiently comprehensive to achieve the Agenda 2030 vision of promoting health equity and leaving no-one behind. Recommendations for the BRICS, G7 and G20 based on this analysis include: 1) expanding focus to the neglected SDG 3 health targets; 2) placing greater emphasis on upstream determinants of health; 3) greater commitment to equity and leaving no-one behind; 4) adopting explicit commitments to rights-based approaches; and 5) making commitments that are of higher quality and which include time-bound quantitative targets and clear accountability mechanisms.

Qatar's FIFA World Cup odyssey: A quest for legacy transforming a small nation into a global destination.

This study delves into the profound impact of mega-events on a destination's perception, focusing notably on Qatar's hosting experience during the FIFA World Cup 2022. Employing a qualitative longitudinal research approach, data is drawn from a variety of sources including Scopus articles, international studies, tourism records, newspapers, and interviews with diverse stakeholders such as visitors, tourism experts, executives, and government officials. Through an inductive content analysis of this extensive dataset, the authors identify key influencing factors. They meticulously examine a decade-long evolution using assessments from independent travel and tourism rating organizations alongside various metrics. The findings reveal a significant uptick in Qatar's allure and inbound tourism. Factors contributing to this surge are systematically categorized, with transportation and events infrastructure, hospitality and accommodation facilities, and media exposure emerging as consistent themes across host nations. Additionally, contextual factors like security/safety, culture/heritage, and diversity are highlighted for their pivotal role in shaping a destination's image. This research underscores how mega-events act as catalysts for reshaping Qatar's destination identity and attracting inbound tourism, as evidenced by a range of indicators contingent upon maintaining both universal and contextual factors. It emphasizes the importance of a strategic vision that nurtures these factors over time, aligning with the destination's life cycle to forge a lasting legacy. Furthermore, the study illuminates how mega-events can bolster soft power for small countries lacking significant natural or historical attractions, providing valuable insights for policymakers and marketers to devise effective strategies.

Education as a soft power resource: A systematic review.

The role of higher education in the foreign policy of states has been increasing significantly in order to generate soft power. Nevertheless, the literature on the educational aspect of soft power has yet to be systematically reviewed. Therefore, this systematic review is conducted to delineate and analyze the major studies in the field of international higher education which indicates education as a soft power resource for a country. To identify the multiple and contrary arguments on the topic, this study reviewed 48 peer-reviewed articles published from 2001 to 2022. The data collected from the reviewed papers are organized into five sub-sections outlined in the results sections. The contradictions in the literature are examined within the sub-sections in order to understand the various perspectives on education as a resource of soft power. Through analyzing the data mentioned in the results section, this study provides a framework of the essential conditions to harness education as a soft power resource. Furthermore, this review also suggests prospects for future research in this area.

Rearticulating the promotion of Japanese language and culture from the perspective of "soft power": planning and effects.

The concept of soft power has engendered lively discourse within the international community. The development of a nation's soft power frequently hinges on cultural communication and the promotion of language. This manuscript concentrates on Japan as a case study and undertakes an investigation of the methods it has employed to cultivate its soft power. To accomplish this objective, Japan's strategies for cultural communication and the promotion of the Japanese language are comprehensively examined. From the perspective of language planning, prestige planning of language and culture constitutes a crucial mode of cultural communication, whereas language education planning (or acquisition planning) is the primary method of language promotion. Japan has adeptly disseminated its culture overseas through cultural communication and language promotion. On one hand, it fashions a "cool culture" embodied by anime and manga to augment cultural appeal and amplify national image. On the other hand, it advances the Japanese language abroad by establishing supportive institutions, dispatching experts and volunteers, and creating online teaching materials. Building on Japan, this paper establishes a theoretical framework for the construction of soft power, employing the aforementioned two approaches as valuable guides for research on soft power.

Global change research needs international collaboration.

Tackling the grand challenges of global climate change for the sustainability of ecological and societal systems requires data and expertise from Russia, the world's largest country that has the longest Arctic shoreline and the largest forest biome, peatland and permafrost zones. Academic relations and scientific collaborations with Russian scholars and institutions must continue despite the ensuing geopolitical crisis since 2022.

Understanding COVID-19: A Hybrid Threat and Its Impact on Sport Mega-Events. A Focus on Japan and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 affected the sports industry with the cancellation of many professional sports competitions worldwide. Thus, the postponement and organization of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games behind closed doors became a significant disruption to the global sports landscape. In this paper, we present a novel, conceptual discussion, signifying and defining the pandemic via the concept of international security as a hybrid threat. We associated the term hybrid threat to clarify better the difficult times facing sport mega-events. First, the paper proffers that the COVID-19 pandemic is a form of hybrid threat while reflecting on the connected implications of using sport as a soft power tool for nations. Secondly, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on sport mega-events globally and explain the implications of COVID-19 on the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympic Games. This paper although drawing on some figures associated with COVID-19 and the Tokyo Olympic Games presents a theoretical contribution to knowledge in the area of sport mega events, soft power and hybrid threat. We outline how the threats, triggered by the pandemic, have impeded a successful Olympic Games and clarify how these threats have affected Japan's opportunity to use the Games as a soft power tool, which is the paper's key contribution to the field.

Improving Pandemic Response With Military Tools: Using Enhanced Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rocked the world, spurring the collapse of national commerce, international trade, education, air travel, and tourism. The global economy has been brought to its knees by the rapid spread of infection, resulting in widespread illness and many deaths. The rise in nationalism and isolationism, ethnic strife, disingenuous governmental reporting, lockdowns, travel restrictions, and vaccination misinformation have caused further problems. This has brought into stark relief the need for improved disease surveillance and health protection measures. National and international agencies that should have provided earlier warning in fact failed to do so. A robust global health network that includes enhanced cooperation with Military Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) assets in conjunction with the existing international, governmental, and nongovernment medical intelligence networks and allies and partners would provide exceptional forward-looking and early-warning and is a proactive step toward making our future safe. This will be achieved both by surveilling populations for new biothreats, fusing and disseminating data, and then reaching out to target assistance to reduce disease spread in unprotected populations.

[Rethinking the Cold War? New Studies on the Cold War]. / Den Kalten Krieg neu denken? Neue Studien zum Kalten Krieg.

Using global, transnational, and cultural-historical perspectives, recent studies deconstruct the binarity of the Cold War. The studies show that certain frames of interpretation, such as interdependence, convergence of systems, globalisation or decolonisation, had already been combined with the narrative of the Cold War by contemporaries. This enriches the picture of domestic positions and foreign policy interests of the West vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. However, recent research also shows that there is a lack of studies in economic or media history that focus on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

The Post-Pandemic World: between Constitutionalized and Authoritarian Orders - China's Narrative-Power Play in the Pandemic Era.

The paper aims to address the development of China's narrative power during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on world order. It argues that in the post-pandemic world, the emergence of the authoritarian sub-order would be prompted by China's more proactive narrative power, given that the climate of opinion is ambiguous when faced with the uncertainty of the pandemic. (This does not imply the end of the existing liberal order; instead, it features the coexistence of both orders.) To understand how China's narrative power has encouraged the emergence of the authoritarian sub-order to coexist in parallel with the dominant constitutional order, the article first reviews the existing literature concerning the changing world order. In this section, it also briefly defines and differentiates between the constitutional and authoritarian orders, what defines world order, and what distinguishes authoritarian from constitutional liberal order. Second it looks at the theoretical grounding. The nature, role and power of narratives are explored. Ideas about strategic narratives and the economics of attention are discussed. This theoretical background paves the way to examine China's narrative power during a pandemic. Lastly, it switches to the Chinese perspective to address its support for the plurality of orders and its awareness of the strength of narrative in influencing dominant ideas. It looks at how China's narrative power has been exercised from three perspectives (formation, projection and reception). Here, it mainly tackles how China has used its narrative power to spin the pandemic to its advantage in the reorganization of world order: improving its international image and advocating the authoritarian order as an alternative. China has been building its narrative along with its changing strategic diplomacy - from restrained and low-profile to proactive and assertive. In the conclusion, some reflections on China's narrative power and the implications for world order are considered.

Progressive research collaborations and the limits of soft power.

Collaboration in diverse teams is a central topic area in medical education, health research, and healthcare. As medical education researchers we implemented an internal grant policy to develop a progressive research partnership based on widely accepted guidelines for responsible conduct of research. Our intention was to proactively manage and guide group expectations around issues such as access to data and authorship. Our policy was based on 'soft power' principles, using the persuasiveness of ideas, relationships and inducements to encourage people to 'want what you want.' This article shares how we developed and implemented the policy, experienced first-hand the limits of soft power, and it explicates some of the lessons learned.

Hard Currency, Solidarity, and Soft Power: The Motives, Implications, and Lessons of Cuban Health Internationalism.

This article explores Cuba's health assistance and support for other countries. It explores the rationale and motivations for Cuba's internationalism in health. It then details the various aspects of its health interventions, including emergency relief, strengthening of health systems, treatment programs, training of health professionals, engagement in multilateral cooperation, and biotechnology. The article analyzes the benefits of Cuba's health internationalism for Cuba and for others. It also explores potential adverse consequences and criticisms of Cuba's approach. The article concludes by noting that Cuba has been ahead of the game in integrating foreign policy and health policy and that its experience may hold lessons for other countries seeking to develop global health strategies.

BRICS soft power promotion: Dataset for media preference and use pattern among the Russian audience who follow the development of BRICS.

The focal point of the paper is an attempt to identify the most effective way to offer the information about BRICS-related subjects. BRICS organization has already become the topical issue of our research. This paper highlights the research of the best way to deliver BRICS messages. Communication plays a pivotal role in our present-day life. It is essential for a wide range of technologies. Therefore, our study has several objectives, i.e., to describe the difference between the Internet-oriented communication and the communication supported by television and press. These data may be useful for a more effective coverage of BRICS-related subjects. Another important objective is the analysis of implied information given on official BRICS-related websites. The data collection procedure is as follows. The central concern of the paper is the best media format which we tried to calculate using the data from official BRICS summit websites in Russia and China. These data are compared with the results of our own survey which we conducted with the help of a specially designed questionnaire. The experiment does not include any ethical issues but is purely descriptive in its nature and contains the information about data processing. The target audience of the research are professionals engaged in the field of BRICS news coverage, BRICS analytics and BRICS expertise.

Examining the Relationship Between Leaders' Power Use, Followers' Motivational Outlooks, and Followers' Work Intentions.

From the foundation of self-determination theory and existing literature on forms of power, we empirically explored relationships between followers' perceptions of their leader's use of various forms of power, followers' self-reported motivational outlooks, and followers' favorable work intentions. Using survey data collected from two studies of working professionals, we apply path analysis and hierarchical multiple regression to analyze variance among constructs of interest. We found that followers' perceptions of hard power use by their leaders (i.e., reward, coercive, and legitimate power) was often related to higher levels of sub-optimal motivation in followers (i.e., amotivation, external regulation, and introjected regulation). However, followers who perceived their leaders used soft power (i.e., expert, referent, and informational power) often experienced higher levels of optimal motivation (i.e., identified regulation and intrinsic motivation), but further investigation of soft power use is warranted. The quality of followers' motivational outlooks was also related to intentions to perform favorably for their organizations.

Embassy cinema: what WikiLeaks reveals about US state support for Hollywood.

In an article for Foreign Affairs at the outbreak of the World War II, film producer Walter Wanger referred to Hollywood movies as '120,000 American ambassadors'. The preeminence of Hollywood in presenting US ideology to the world has been asserted ever since. Yet the relationship between Hollywood and America's actual ambassadors, employed by the global network of American embassies, has rarely been investigated, despite the key role that this often overlooked aspect of the state apparatus plays in the maintenance of Hollywood's commercial interests and American cultural hegemony. The release by WikiLeaks in November 2010 of over 250,000 diplomatic cables has provided an opportunity to address this gap, by offering researchers an unparalleled insight into the worldwide network of American embassies. This article employs these documents to explain how these embassies have influenced global film policies since early 2003, and the implications they have for conceptions of American power in the wake of the 'War on Terror'.

As reportagens das mídias estrangeiras sobre o Brasil dos megaeventos esportivos: soft power, periferia e dependência / Foreign media reports about Brazil's mega sporting events: soft power, periphery and dependence / Los reportajes de los medios extranjeros sobre el Brasil de los megaeventos deportivos: soft power, periferia y dependencia

Neste artigo, a partir da análise de reportagens de nove jornais estrangeiros publicadas durante a Copa do Mundo e os Jogos Olímpicos realizados no Brasil, discutimos se a categoria soft power pode ser aplicada ao Brasil dos megaeventos esportivos. Consideramos que a categoria não pode ser aplicada em nações periféricas e deve ser repensada para países de economia dependente. Por isso, propomos de maneira embrionária uma redefinição da teoria de soft power. Neste contexto, surge a categoria "soft power heterodoxo". A partir de tal categoria, consideramos que os jornais analisados retrataram dois países em um mesmo território, um em 2014 e outro em 2016. Levantamos cinco hipóteses para compreender este fenômeno: organização, dimensão, características, logística, desinteresse. Ademais, este estudo evidencia que não há elementos que possam corroborar avanço no soft power do Brasil a partir das Copa do Mundo (2014) e dos Jogos Olímpicos (2016)

In this article, based on the analysis of reports from nine foreign newspapers published during the World Cup and the Olympics held in Brazil, we discuss whether the category of Soft power can be applied to the Brazil of mega sporting events. We consider that it cannot be applied to peripheral nations and must be rethought for countries with dependent economies. Therefore, we propose an initial redefinition of the soft power theory. This context gives rise to 'heterodox soft power' category based on which we consider that the newspapers analysed portray two different countries in the same territory ­ one in 2014 and another one in 2016. We point out five hypotheses to understand this phenomenon: organization, size, characteristics, logistics, lack of interest. In addition, this study shows that there are no elements to corroborate advances in Brazilian soft power after the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016)

En este artículo, a partir del análisis de reportajes de nueve periódicos extranjeros publicados durante la Copa del Mundo y los Juegos Olímpicos realizados en Brasil, discutimos si la categoría soft power puede ser aplicada al Brasil de los megaeventos deportivos. Consideramos que la categoría no puede ser aplicada en naciones periféricas y debe ser repensada para países con economía dependiente. Por eso, proponemos de manera embrionaria una redefinición de la teoría de soft power. En este contexto, surge la categoría 'soft power heterodoxo'. A partir de esa categoría, consideramos que los periódicos analizados retrataron dos países en un mismo territorio, uno en 2014 y otro en 2016. Levantamos cinco hipótesis para comprender este fenómeno: organización, dimensión, características, logística, desinterés. Además, este estudio pone en evidencia que no hay elementos que puedan corroborar avance en el soft power de Brasil a partir de los megaeventos mencionados