ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter explores how information and communication technology platforms present implications for the soft power concept. The relationship between such technologies and soft power is particularly relevant given recent developments within US public diplomacy practice and strategy, which may offer broader insights into the potential “mediatization” of soft power (Pamment 2014). Soft power, in other words, may be increasingly defined by the media technologies and practices associated with these technologies. Such practices may also reveal a disconnect between what soft power proposes about available routes for international influence and the realities of how international actors deploy communication technologies to cultivate such influence. The growth of digital media platforms for engagement among public diplomacy practitioners illustrates a pivotal moment to consider soft power as a prescriptive concept for statecraft. Is there some aspect about the presence of the technology itself – its materiality – that prompts a reconsideration of soft power’s basic elements?
