From soft power to reputational security: rethinking public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy for a dangerous age

Nicholas J. Cull ()
Additional contact information
Nicholas J. Cull: University of Southern California

Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 2022, vol. 18, issue 1, No 6, 18-21

Abstract: Abstract This paper identifies four rhetorical strategies used during the COVID 19 pandemic by communicators associated with nation states to either enhance their own security through protecting or improving their reputation or to diminish that of a competitor or rival. These strategies are: praising the self; criticizing the other; engaging others through gifts and a strategy of multilateral cooperation. The examples cited come chiefly from March and April 2020 revealing how early the key communication strategies solidified. The piece notes preliminary evidence of reputational impact with slippage in the standing of the USA and a major drop in the standing of China visible in the Nation Brands Index and other polls. It concludes with an endorsement of cooperation/collaboration as the optimal strategy to use not only against COVID but in the face of other transnational challenges too.

Keywords: COVID diplomacy; Reputational security; Strategies of public diplomacy; US–China relations; International image (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41254-021-00236-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:18:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41254-021-00236-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41254

DOI: 10.1057/s41254-021-00236-0

Access Statistics for this article

Place Branding and Public Diplomacy is currently edited by Robert Govers and James Pamment

More articles in Place Branding and Public Diplomacy from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().