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

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.