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[Commlist] CFP: Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI

Fri Jun 07 02:11:16 GMT 2024






*CALL FOR PROPOSALS*
*Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI*
*Anthem Studies in Soft Power and Public Diplomacy* is a comprehensive multidisciplinary corpus of work, incorporating titles addressing actors and issues; political, economic, social and cultural aspects; technological and normative aspects; evaluation, training and policy development. The series promotes innovative and consequential work in the conjoined areas of soft power and public diplomacy, by scholars in fields or disciplines including anthropology, cultural studies, economics, geography, law, history, international communication, linguistics, media, museum studies, philosophy, security studies and sociology.

/Anthem Studies in Soft Power and Public Diplomacy/ series editor, Naren Chitty, is developing an *Anthem Handbook of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI *with Craig Hayden, Hendrik Ohnesorge, and Chenjun Wang._[i] <#_edn1>_ We are presently seeking chapter proposals from potential contributors. Thoughts about the Handbook are laid out under the textbox (below) that outlines the Anthem Studies series. We are seeking proposals (500-word max with ten keywords) and biodata (250 words max) by the _end of September 2024_. The intention is to commission chapters by the end of the year or earlier. Book chapters will be limited to 6000 words all inclusive. While not essential, it would be of value if chapters could lead to proposals of expansions as books for the /Anthem Studies in Soft Power and Public Diplomacy./
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Critical perspectives that examine dangers and benefits to society and individuals are welcome as well as administrative ones that go beyond celebrating performative excellence or prescribing ways of implementing successful public diplomacy and/or soft power generation programs, through critical commentary. Critical perspectives may relate to discussion of theories, methods, technology deployment, state policies and strategies, campaigns, human rights, and influencer suppression to name a few possibilities. On occasion chapters on public diplomacy feel as if they serve the public diplomacy of states, something we would like to discourage in the edited volume.  Our preference is critical inquiry that goes beyond observing what actors do, to consequences and recommendations. _Questioning the relationship between soft power and public diplomacy._ The series’ aims (in the textbox above) speak of ‘the conjoined areas of soft power and public diplomacy’. A theoretical question that will benefit from discussion is whether these areas continue to be enjoined or if not, what is their relationship. Recent theorisation within soft power publications, of influence through attraction (such as in experiential theory that has a philosophic base) have themselves critiqued aspects of soft power conceptualisation._[ii] <#_edn2>_ Additionally the emergence of a rapidly growing digital space for communication action has led to inquiry and theorisation on digital diplomacy. There would be merit in exploring whether recent research on public diplomacy in the digital sphere, such as digital diplomacy, and recent scholarship on influence through attraction are of relevance to each other._[iii] <#_edn3>_  Research on concepts that overlap with soft power such as charisma also need further exploration. _[iv] <#_edn4>_ _How elastic is the term public diplomacy?_ Public diplomacy has atomised, branched, metastasized, or segmented, as the case maybe. It can be subsumed by diplomacy, implemented in parts through international public relations, strategic communication, and place-branding._[v] <#_edn5>_emphasize cultural diplomacy and intercultural relations as significant parts or things apart, focus on digital diplomacy – to mention areas that come to mind. The term also figures in discussions of propaganda that include Ellulian notions of technique, and digital rhetoric in analysis of content._[vi] <#_edn6>_What are the relationships among these and between them and attraction-based influence? In what ways are content fabrication (the innuendo is intended) affected by digital technology for the various subsets or parallel sets of public diplomacy? _Actors and factors:_ Contributors may consider several types of actors, domains of digital diplomacy, and stances of communication, and audiences.  Prominent among actors are states and interstate organizations. States and organizations tend to be strategic with a preference for measuring outcomes. Soft Power ranking tables have become a fixture and have attracted serious inquiry._[vii] <#_edn7>_Some state agencies advocate a ‘hands off approach’ that resonates with Joseph Nye’s observation that ‘public diplomacy is done more /by/ publics, government find themselves caught in a dilemma about control’._[viii] <#_edn8>_This statement is also open to debate. However, there are various non-state actors including diasporic communities, intentional influencers, and publics whose responses to content entangle with algorithms in ways that impact the calculus of states. Potential domains of digital diplomacy increase by the day on the Internet-of-Everything. _State strategy and demotic disruption._ The proposed volume will present contributions capturing disruptive transformations in how international actors engage publics in pursuance of foreign policy objectives, at home and abroad, in the context of an increasingly overlapping and contested information environment. Both case studies and analytical approaches are welcome. Contributors may present findings from studies of state strategies to leverage the potential of platforms to enable new forms of outreach and influence, as well as counter the malign efforts of competing actors using similar technologies. While the volume does not envision a deterministic approach to how technology changes state influence campaigns, it invites consideration of how technologies such as social media and AI open-up new opportunities for statecraft – and demotic influences.  Studies of international communication and technology have centred on these questions for some time. Long before soft power became popular in policy parlance, new communication technologies were prompting prognostications on the affordance of these technologies to be technologies of freedom._[ix] <#_edn9>_ _AI governance, soft power, and public diplomacy._ The ways in which states have turned to different applications of artificial intelligence signal new lines of effort seen as necessary to ministries of foreign affairs, and, herald new challenges for any form of public diplomacy in a contested information space._[x] <#_edn10>_ The ‘coming out’ by generative artificial intelligence (AI) of the developer’s closet has prompted debates on benefits and threat posed by AI – while also revealing crucial assumptions about the requirements of influence, not just for advancing policy objectives, but for a broader conception of national security and attraction-based influence. As scholars move to capture developments in digital influence practices, the broader theoretical and analytical implications of technological affordances remain open to further contributions beyond previous attempts to link affordances to practice._[xi] <#_edn11>_ The bearing of AI governance initiatives in influential jurisdictions, national and international, on soft power and public diplomacy in the networked AI era would also be of interest. Theoretical discussions as well as case studies are invited in the following and any other area pertinent to the Handbook title:

  * Relationship between soft power and public diplomacy
  * Content fabrication (the innuendo is intended) and subsets of public
    diplomacy
  * Elasticity of the term public diplomacy
  * Actors and factors in public diplomacy
  * States’ strategic public diplomacy and demotic disruption
  * AI governance, soft power, and public diplomacy.

Interested parties are invited to consult with Naren Chitty  <(_naren.chitty /at/ mq.edu.au) <mailto:(naren.chitty /at/ mq.edu.au)>_> regarding a topic before preparing an abstract.

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_[i] <#_ednref1>_ Naren Chitty AM is Professor Emeritus and Foundation Chair in International Communication at Macquarie University, Sydney; Craig Hayden is  Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College, Quantico; Hendrik Ohnesorge is Managing Director of the Center for Global Studies (CGS) at the University of Bonn; Chenjun Wang is a Researcher at the Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre (SPARC) at Macquarie University, Sydney. _[ii] <#_ednref2>_ Chitty, Naren (2023) “An Experiential Theory of Attraction-Based Influence (Unintended and Intended).” In /The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power/, 2nd ed., 6–34. Routledge. _[iii] <#_ednref3>_ Bjola, C. & Manor, I. (2024) /Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy/. Oxford University Press. _[iv] <#_ednref4>_ Ohnesorge, Hendrik (2023) “The gift of grace: soft power, charisma, and transatlantic relations.” In /The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power/, 2nd ed., 35–46. Routledge. Ohnesorge, HW 2020, /Soft Power: The Forces of Attraction in International Relation/, Springer Nature, Cham. _[v] <#_ednref5>_ Golan, Guy, Sung-Un Yang, and Dennis Kinsey, eds /International Public Relations and Public Diplomacy: Communication and Engagement./ New York, NY: Peter Lang. 2015. 458 pages. Pamment, James (2014) Articulating influence: Toward a research agenda for interpreting the evaluation of soft power, public diplomacy and nation brands, /Public Relations Review,/ 4,1., pp. 50-59. Pamment, James (2013) /New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century: A Comparative Study of Policy and Practice/, Routledge. _[vi] <#_ednref6>_ Chitty, Naren (2021) World propaganda and personal insecurity: intent, content, and contentment, In /Edward Elgar Handbook of Political Propaganda /(Eds. Gary Rawnsley et al) Edward Elgar, p. 7-27.; Crowley, S. (2003). Composition is not rhetoric/. Enculturation/, [online] 5(1). Available at: http://www.enculturation.net/5_1/crowley.html [Accessed 18 Nov. 2020];  Ellul, Jacques. (1973). /Propaganda: the formation of men’s attitudes/. New York: Vintage Books. _[vii] <#_ednref7>_Wang, Chenjun (2023)  A study of soft power rankings: concepts, method(ology), and evaluation In /The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power/, 2nd ed., 190–212. London & New York: Routledge. _[viii] <#_ednref8>_  Nye, Joseph (2011)/ The Future of Power. /Public Affairs, New York, p. 109/./ _[ix] <#_ednref9>_ Sola Pool, Ithiel de. (1983) /Technologies of Freedom/. Harvard University Press. _[x] <#_ednref10>_ Huang, Z.A. (2024) “Terminology, AI bias, and the risks of current digital public diplomacy practices.” /Place Branding and Public Diplomacy/. _https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-024-00324-x <https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-024-00324-x>_ _[xi] <#_ednref11>_ Hayden, Craig (2018). “Technologies of influence: The materiality of soft power in public diplomacy.” In /The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power 1st edition/, (eds) Naren Chitty, Lilian Ji, Gary Rawnsley & Crag Hayden. Oxon: Routledge.


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