The use of soft power in digital public diplomacy

Abstract

The focus of this comparative study is on the use of soft power in the digital‎ public diplomacy of two Global South players, Brazil and India, in EU member‎ states. The main objective of this research is to find out how their embassies‎ use digital diplomacy in communication through their official websites‎ and to identify which soft power resources they dominantly use. Quantitative‎ content analysis and thematic analysis were used to analyze the categories and‎ subcategories on the main menu and special banners on each embassy’s home‎ page, and the associated content. Unlike the Indian embassies, which fully‎ embraced digital diplomacy 2.0, the Brazilian embassies do not utilize the full‎ potential of digital diplomacy and primarily remain reliant on websites only.‎ According to this research, the Brazilian embassies in the EU use film as a‎ dominant soft power resource in their digital diplomacy, while the Indian embassies‎ use yoga as a powerful diplomatic tool. Still, both approaches are not‎ enough to attract European publics. There remains a lot of space for improvement‎ and better usage of soft power resources and digital public diplomacy‎ potentials in communicating the powers of Brazil and India in EU countries.‎