A PESTLE-Based Dashboard for Soft Power Measurement: The Türkiye Application (2010–2020)

Öznur Nalã‡inkaya

Fiscaoeconomia, 2026, issue 1

Abstract: Soft power, though frequently referenced in international relations scholarship in recent years, complicates the development of a consistent analytical framework due to its ill-defined boundaries and the persistent ambiguity surrounding measurement criteria. To address this methodological gap, this study proposes a three-dimensional measurement model integrated with PESTLE analysis. The model conceptualises soft power across resources (cultural production, education, humanitarian aid), communication (diplomatic networks, media, digital platforms), and legitimacy (international trust and acceptance), and operationalises indicators along the PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental) axes, grounded in concrete data. The study’s primary contribution is that, rather than collapsing soft power into a single composite score, it introduces a transparent “indicator dashboard†that can be monitored across intersecting PESTLE×resources–communication–legitimacy layers. This layered approach enables the separation of soft power’s components and makes a country’s strengths and areas for improvement more visible. An application focusing on Türkiye over the 2010–2020 period demonstrates the framework’s utility for both identifying policy priorities and analysing underlying components. In conclusion, the study seeks to reduce conceptual ambiguity, standardise measurability, and offer an assessment framework that is applicable to both academia and policymakers.

Keywords: Soft Power; Public Diplomacy; Measurement; Dashboard; PESTLE Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F50 I20 Q50 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/5348580

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:fis:journl:260139

DOI: 10.25295/fsecon.1807785

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Fiscaoeconomia from Tubitak Ulakbim JournalPark (Dergipark)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emre Atsan ().