Public diplomacy has become a central instrument of international political communication, yet the role of regime type in shaping its communicative strategies remains insufficiently explored. This article presents a cross-national quantitative study of how democratic, authoritarian, and hybrid regimes frame their public diplomacy messages. Drawing on 273 official statements published on the websites of Ministries of Foreign Affairs across 33 countries, the study applies a content analysis of 1,706 paragraphs coded for five framing dimensions (values, identity, perception, communication, and power) and three framing functions (diagnostic, prognostic, motivational). Reliability was ensured through a coding manual and intercoder agreement (Cohen’s Kappa > 0.80). Statistical analyses (χ² tests, ANOVA) were conducted using SPSS. The findings reveal significant differences across regime types. Democratic regimes emphasize universal values, dialogue, and soft power. Authoritarian regimes rely more heavily on frames of sovereignty, legitimacy, and external threats, often legitimizing hard power. Hybrid regimes combine both strategies, presenting democratic rhetoric while simultaneously reinforcing stability and security frames. The study contributes theoretically by linking framing theory with political culture and regime typologies, and empirically by providing large-scale evidence of systematic variation in public diplomacy strategies. Practically, it demonstrates how domestic regime logics structure the international narratives states project, offering new insights into the global competition for legitimacy and influence.
This editorial demonstrates how symbolic gestures in African football function as instruments of cultural diplomacy and place branding, situating the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)–Algeria clash at Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco within broader debates on collective memory and identity. Central to the match’s cultural resonance was Congolese supporter Michel Kuka Mboladinga, whose statuesque tribute to Patrice Lumumba embodied collective memory, resilience, and national pride. The gesture transformed fan culture into a living act of remembrance and positioned football as a medium of cultural diplomacy. Its contested reception—mocked by Algerian striker Mohamed Amoura—ignited debates about respect, rivalry, and symbolic sensitivity, underscoring how gestures can unify through shared historical pride. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and Collective Memory Theory, the editorial argues that football in Africa functions as both a cultural text and a diplomatic stage, where symbolic acts inscribe meanings beyond the scoreline. Morocco’s hosting of AFCON further highlights the tournament’s role in continental place branding, projecting national identity while serving as a pan-African arena of recognition. By situating football within the dual lenses of diplomacy and branding, this editorial demonstrates the enduring relevance of symbolism in sport for understanding African societies and their struggles for dignity and visibility.
Place brand management has traditionally focused on constructing a desirable place brand identity often overlooking the diversity of meanings that stakeholders attach to a place. These meanings may become visible in multiple situations, where stakeholders actively express, defend, and negotiate what a place means to them. This study addresses the question: how are place identity perceptions expressed and structured? The article presents an exploratory qualitative study of the public debate surrounding the proposed Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki. Rather than focusing on the project itself, the context triggered the public articulation of multiple, often latent, place identity perceptions of Helsinki across media platforms. Through thematic analysis of naturally occurring discourse, the study identifies eight dimensions of place identity that structure these expressions. The study’s main contribution is the development of an analytical framework of place identity dimensions that can support the understanding of situations in which place identity becomes salient in public discourse. By focusing on spontaneous stakeholder participation, the study also contributes to participatory place branding research by showing how place identity is continuously shaped outside formal processes. The findings offer a structured approach to interpreting diverse place identity expressions and anticipating stakeholder tensions in place brand management.
Innovation is increasingly mobilised as an asset in nation branding, yet many countries rely on convergent “innovation speak” that is weakly anchored in observable innovation activity. This study proposes a comparative, evidence-based approach to innovation-based nation brand positioning by deriving national specialisation patterns from the thematic content of patents and publications. Using Lens.org data for 2016–2025, we analyse 63,539 PCT patent applications (downstream technology) and 120,919 scientific publications (upstream research) from 13 Asia-Pacific economies. Titles and abstracts are modelled using BERTopic with domain-specific embeddings and topic reduction, resulting in 15 interpretable topics per corpus. Country–topic matrices are transformed into revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indicators to identify national specialisation patterns. Hierarchical clustering is then applied to group countries within the regional innovation space. The results reveal five recurring specialisation clusters characterised by distinct combinations of health-related, industrial connectivity, computational–biomedical, emerging technology, and bio-resource domains. Theoretically, the study advances innovation-based nation brand positioning and contributes to innovation diplomacy by operationalising innovation as comparative specialisation patterns rather than as a generic narrative. Practically, it offers a replicable diagnostic framework to support credible positioning and strategically aligned collaboration.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games serve as a vital platform for nations to project soft power and engage in sports diplomacy, showcasing their culture, values, and achievements while aligning with global priorities such as diversity and inclusion. Opening ceremonies blend innovation, heritage, and symbolism to craft narratives that shape international perceptions and national identity. Through a comparative analysis of both the Olympic and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies, this study examines how France deployed diversity messaging across these distinct yet interconnected events. While both ceremonies served as platforms for sports diplomacy, they revealed different symbolic strategies and patterns of public reception, offering insights into how mega-events navigate tensions between inclusive representation and ideological polarization in contemporary society. The ceremony’s focus on diversity and so-called "woke ideology"—a term originally referring to awareness of social injustices but now often politicized as a catch-all for progressive values—aimed to reflect French values while addressing cultural sensitivities and ideological divisions. However, this dual narrative sparked both admiration and criticism, highlighting the challenges of promoting progressive messaging in a fragmented world. To analyze these dynamics, the present study employs a multimodal and semiotic methodological approach, integrating semiotic analysis of the ceremony as a visual-cultural text with critical discourse analysis of its public reception. The research examines the ceremony’s symbols, visual and performative narratives, and the discursive reactions it triggered in media and social networks. By incorporating this dual-level analysis, the study offers insights into the communicative strategies of mega-events and their reception within an era of increasing ideological division. The Paris 2024 case underscores the complexities of presenting cohesive national identities through mega-events, offering valuable insights into their role in soft power and global cultural and political negotiation.
The Olympic Games are among the most globally significant mega-events, with profound implications for the branding, image, and reputation of host cities and nations. Sustainability has become an increasingly central pillar in the evaluation of these events, yet the criteria used to assess their environmental, social, and economic impacts remain inconsistent and fragmented. This study conducts a systematic literature review of 117 academic contributions to identify and analyze the diverse criteria used in sustainability evaluations of Olympic host cities. The findings reveal a wide range of evaluation criteria and methodical approaches, as well as a lack of standardized assessment frameworks, which in turn influence how the Games contribute to—or detract from—the long-term perception of host cities. Given these insights, this paper underscores the urgent need for a standardized, long-term evaluation framework to ensure that sustainability commitments translate into measurable, positive legacies for host cities and nations. Such an approach would not only enhance transparency and comparability across Olympic events but also strengthen the role of sustainability-driven initiatives and their evaluation as strategic tools in public diplomacy, place branding, and international reputation management.
The main aim of this work is to better understand the effect of new mechanisms that can enhance loyalty towards ERASMUS + cities through antecedent variables such as the cool image of the city and the transformative experiences achieved by the students. A quantitative empirical study was conducted with students who had enjoyed an ERASMUS + stay of at least two months in Spain. Data was analyzed using structural equation analysis with AMOS v.24. The results show that there is a positive and significant effect of the cool city image on students' loyalty towards the city where they did their ERASMUS + stay and on their transformative experience during the stay. Moreover, they show that the transformative experience lived by the students has a positive and significant effect on their loyalty towards the city. This is the first work to empirically demonstrate the direct impact of cool city image on transformative experience, as well as the first to demonstrate in ERASMUS + cities the effect of cool city image and transformative experience on loyalty. This work has important implications for city managers in attracting ERASMUS + students, who have a significant positive economic and social impact on cities.
Cultural centers function as vital spaces where the cultures of foreign nations are introduced and communicated to audiences in host countries. Through the dedicated work of cultural communicators, these centers help familiarize locals with cultures that may otherwise be too distant to experience or even imagine. Their importance as a field of study stems from their role of cultural diplomacy transmitting elements of one culture into another’s social and cultural context. Based on that, the study explored the cultural diplomacy activities of foreign cultural centers and examined how visitors perceive cultural diplomacy practices implemented by foreign cultural centers through their cultural, educational, and artistic programs. The study utilized the 4D model, a helpful framework for categorizing opinions about the functions, normative, and aesthetic dimensions of cultural diplomacy techniques. A survey method was employed, with a purposive sample of 400 individuals who frequent the following foreign cultural centers: the Korean Cultural Center, Goethe-Institute, French Institute, British Council, Russian Cultural Center, Turkish Cultural Center, Confucius Institute, and American Cultural Center. The findings revealed that the cultural diplomacy activities of these centers increased visitors’ knowledge of the respective countries and heightened their interest in traveling for educational and work purposes. The study further demonstrated that more frequent visits to cultural centers enhanced perceptions of the country’s aesthetic, cultural, functional, and normative aspects. Moreover, activities such as cinema, culinary arts, theater, music, and language courses were identified as key contributors to improving a country’s image. Scholarships and cultural exchange programs were also highlighted as promoting better understanding, peaceful coexistence, and human rights. Finally, the study stressed that a country’s image is an important factor that needs to be carefully considered.
The European Union has traditionally relied on public diplomacy as its primary instrument for communicating its external policies to foreign publics. Yet in recent years the EU has increasingly adopted branding in its external communication, most prominently through the Global Gateway strategy. This article examines why branding emerged alongside established public diplomacy practices in the EU’s external action communication. Based on an analysis of EU policy documents, communication guidelines, and the branding practices associated with the Global Gateway, the study compares the communicative logics of public diplomacy and branding. The findings suggest that while public diplomacy primarily focuses on explaining policies and fostering understanding among foreign audiences, branding operates through the construction of a recognisable umbrella identity that organises communication across diverse initiatives. The emergence of the Global Gateway brand can therefore be interpreted as a response to persistent challenges in EU external communication, particularly low visibility and fragmented messaging. By consolidating diverse policies and projects under a single communicative identity, branding offers a mechanism that may strengthen recognition and coherence in EU external action. The article contributes to the literature on nation branding and public diplomacy by clarifying the distinction between the two approaches and by providing an empirical example of how branding practices are applied within a political and institutional context.
Despite the growing relevance of country branding, research on South American nations remains limited. In particular, the concept of mutant brands—a prominent strategy in product branding—has been largely overlooked in place branding. This study aims to explore how mutant brands influence a country’s brand recognition, with a specific focus on Colombia. Using Atlas TI software for content analysis, the research draws on 24 in-depth interviews across two distinct samples. The findings reveal that mutant country brands can serve as effective tools for image recognition, offering both positive and negative attributes. However, their implementation requires careful planning of brand management timelines, media communication strategies, and audience segmentation. As brand variations increase, maintaining consistent messaging over time becomes more challenging. Notably, mutant place brands tend to resonate more strongly with mature audiences than with less experienced ones. The study also provides actionable recommendations for graphic design and strategic guidelines for developing mutant brands. Two key contributions emerge: (i) the integration of mutant branding into place branding theory as a visual communication tool, and (ii) a deeper understanding of its theoretical foundations and practical applications as a brand identity strategy within the place branding literature.
The practice of diplomacy has been transformed by the advent of the internet and social media, which have expanded traditional diplomatic channels and enabled direct engagement with local audiences Within this context, digital public diplomacy (DPD) has become an essential tool for embassies seeking to shape narratives, foster dialogue, and strengthen international relationships. This shift has become particularly relevant in the European security environment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Sweden’s subsequent accession to NATO, which has intensified Swedish–Polish strategic cooperation. The study adopts a qualitative case-study design combining conventional content analysis of 201 Instagram posts published between August 2023 and June 2024 with two semi-structured interviews conducted with embassy communication staff in 2025. The analysis identifies dominant thematic categories, communication strategies, and narrative elements and assesses their alignment with Sweden’s foreign-policy priorities and strategic narratives. The study addresses four key research questions: (1) What are the features and elements of the Embassy’s communication through social media? (2) What are the main thematic areas of its online communication? (3) To what extent is the communication tailored to the local Polish context? (4) How does the Embassy’s DPD align with Sweden’s broader foreign policy and strategic interests? By analysing both digital content and institutional perspectives, the study seeks to reveal how the Swedish Embassy in Warsaw operationalizes digital diplomacy to advance bilateral relations, foreign policy goals and contribute to Sweden’s international image. The findings indicate that the Embassy’s Instagram communication is primarily oriented toward cultural diplomacy, value promotion, and relationship-building, with comparatively increasing emphasis on hard security issues due to the changing regional security context. Addtionally, the study indicates that Instagram is used strategically to support long-term image-building and public engagement rather than short-term policy messaging. The study also finds that the Embassy’s digital communication broadly aligns with Sweden’s branding and public-diplomacy strategies.
Vietnam’s diaspora diplomacy has undergone a proactive transformation since the Đổi Mới reforms of 1986, evolving from a state-centric, insular stance to a more flexible approach that actively integrates overseas Vietnamese communities into its foreign policy. Based on this change, this study further examines the proactive actions of Vietnam’s diaspora diplomacy in the case of the Vietnam Town project in Udon Thani, Thailand. Employing a theoretical framework of diaspora diplomacy and city branding, the study combines institutional analysis of documents and reports with the primary data from key stakeholders to examine how Vietnam operationalises this new diaspora engagement strategy. The findings indicate that Vietnam Town is a new approach to solving the limitations in Vietnam’s diaspora diplomacy. It is a collaborative project co-created by Vietnamese diplomats, Thai authorities, and the local Vietnamese diaspora. By actively scaling up diaspora participation in city branding, the project reinforces transnational cultural ties and exemplifies the integration of diaspora communities into Vietnam’s public diplomacy. Vietnam Town thus stands as a distinctive diplomatic instrument and cultural symbol, highlighting Vietnam’s innovative approach to leveraging diaspora networks for diplomatic outreach.
This paper explores public diplomacy as a governmental or government sponsored communication activity that aims to induce or support identification with foreign publics. This approach goes beyond the two already established public diplomacy persuasion paradigms which are based on the traditional “broadcast” model of information dissemination and on the more recent “relational” model of dialogic engagement, to research public diplomacy as an omnidirectional dynamic process of continuous external and internal identity presentations, negotiations, and constructions that addresses, intentionally or unintentionally, mediated or not, foreign individuals’ needs for communion, commonality and self-categorization in the constantly changing international environment. Reviewing some of the most notable to the most recent examples of publics’ integration into existing, or even abstract or imaginary foreign cultures and identities, this paper underlines how identification in public diplomacy connects foreign publics to causes or identities that transcend their own national borders and induces feelings of oneness with foreign lifestyles, values, ideas, policies and interests.
This article examines how international events are institutionally framed as instruments of city-level public diplomacy. While existing research has explored city diplomacy, place branding, and international events, less attention has been paid to the institutional mechanisms through which event-based public diplomacy is structured, particularly in non-Western contexts. Adopting an institutional perspective on city public diplomacy, the study analyses publicly available bidding frameworks, national bidding support manuals, and official city-level strategic documents related to international events in the Republic of Korea. Using qualitative document analysis and thematic analysis, the article identifies three recurring diplomatic logics: capacity-oriented, value-oriented, and network-oriented public diplomacy. These logics show how event-related policy texts frame hosting not simply as a promotional opportunity, but as a means through which cities may demonstrate governance competence, articulate normative commitments, and build transnational relationships. By foregrounding institutional texts rather than post-event outcomes, the study suggests that international events may function as institutionalised platforms for city public diplomacy and contributes to place branding and public diplomacy scholarship in a non-Western governance context.
This study systematically reviews empirical research on short-form video platforms in destination marketing and place branding to examine how these platforms shape tourists’ attitudes, electronic word-of-mouth, and behavioral intentions. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, 33 empirical studies published between 2022 and 2025 were identified from Scopus and Web of Science and synthesized through thematic analysis. Seven themes emerged: technology acceptance and platform adoption; source credibility and influencer persona; content characteristics and cognitive-affective processing; parasocial and relational mechanisms; content source and format contingencies; generational and individual-difference moderators; and engagement dynamics in platform-native data. These themes are organized into a four-stage integrative framework (platform entry, stimulus encoding, psychological processing, and behavioral response), that maps the sequential and contingent relationships among constructs drawn from Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)/Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), source credibility, Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R), parasocial interaction, and mental imagery theories. The framework’s primary contribution is connecting these theoretical constructs, which prior studies have used separately, into a unified processing architecture, showing how they interact within a structured processing sequence rather than operating as isolated explanatory lenses, while identifying critical gaps: the absence of observed tourist behavior, destination image as an outcome, and negative processing mechanisms. By integrating these strands, the study provides a structured basis for future empirical testing and offers managerially relevant insights for destination promotion in short-form video environments.
This study investigates how cognitive and affective associations shape the country images of Spain and Portugal across five nations: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Using a sequential mixed-method design, 5000 respondents (1000 per country) provided up to three free word associations for each country. Associations were, coded, and grouped into dimensions, which were then classified as cognitive (knowledge-based) or affective (feeling-based). Dimension salience was then compared within countries using non-parametric related-samples tests (McNemar) to derive rankings, and cross-national differences in cognitive versus affective use were assessed via χ² tests. Across markets, image content is dominated by cognitive descriptors—especially food and wine, climate, geography/landscape, and heritage - while affective associations (positive feelings/adjectives) are less frequent but more salient in North America. European respondents, particularly in the UK and France, rely more on tangible, tourism-consumption cues, consistent with greater familiarity and proximity, whereas North Americans show a more diffuse image and stronger affective heuristics. France uniquely links Portugal to the Portuguese emigrant community, illustrating how diaspora visibility can shape country imagery. Overall, the findings emphasize that country image is shaped by context and suggest that place and destination branding should balance attribute-focused messaging with emotionally appealing content, especially considering market familiarity.
This study unveils and compares the outcomes of distinct mediated public diplomacy strategies employed by China and Taiwan by content-analyzing their resulting news coverage in German and U.S. press. The key diplomats dispatched from China and Taiwan—who either practiced “wolf-warrior” strategy or the conventional approach—based in both Germany and the U.S. were focused as news sources. Overall, the examined coverage shows that German and U.S. media outlets used the Chinese diplomats far more frequently than the Taiwanese counterparts. The Chinese diplomats included in the news seldom resulted in positive tone or frame about topics that pertain to China. Despite only being involved in scanty coverage, the Taiwanese diplomats did not serve as sources in the news where the tone or frame is negative toward Taiwan. Implications for the varied strategies across different types of nations are provided.
Situated within the evolving theoretical discourse on non-state cultural diplomacy, this article examines the unique spatial politics of corporate-led cultural exchange in a non-democratic context through an analysis of China’s K11 Art Malls—hybrid “retail-oriented museums” that fuse contemporary art exhibitions with luxury shopping, dining, and entertainment. As the first study to systematically analyze the spatial dimensions of non-state cultural diplomacy within an authoritarian environment, it investigates how K11 utilizes its hybrid art-retail spaces to perform a strategically depoliticized form of international engagement. The article employs a three-dimensional framework—conceptualizing the mall as a paradoxical Agora, a site of glocal mediation, and a stage for performative depoliticization—to uncover the mechanisms through which commercial and diplomatic objectives are negotiated. Methodologically, it combines critical document analysis with semi-structured interviews of K11 stakeholders, artists, and curators, applying thematic analysis to decode the politics of space in this alternative diplomatic model. The findings reveal that K11’s commercialized, apolitical facade enables it to navigate state pressures and global markets while promoting a national cultural agenda. However, this same corporate logic constitutes its central paradox: by privileging spectacle and consumption, it systematically diminishes the potential for critical discourse and meaningful cross-cultural exchange, ultimately undermining the transformative capacity of the cultural diplomacy it purports to advance. The article concludes that K11’s spatial strategy represents a sophisticated, complementary extension of state soft power, one that simultaneously enables and limits the possibilities of non-state agency in authoritarian systems.
