The thesis concerns with communication of Armenian and Azerbaijani Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministries of Defence on Facebook in relation to 2020 Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The official institutional accounts were used to bolster one sided narratives of the conflict, often by emotional appeals and misinformation targeting international and domestic audence. By analyzing FB communication of the named institutions, it aims to identify the key narrative-building tools utilized by state institutions in communication practice and how these tools are used prior to and during wartime. It also aims at comparing the communication practice across the institutions and in between the countries by analyzing Facebook posts of named ministries over period of 100 days using a dataset generated via Crowdtangle.

The doctoral thesis focuses on the People's Republic of China's influence in international relations. It follows two main research objectives, a theoretical and an empirical one. The first goal is to more firmly establish the concept of influence and distinguish it from power, the second is to analyze China's influence in the Czech Republic before, during and after the 'restart' of Czech-China relations in 2012. The thesis rests on the idea of a conceptual 'filter' through which power (conceptualized as ability) passes on its way to becoming influence. As a result, the effects of policies implemented by an actor who aims to exert a power on another actor are co-dependent not only on its power, but also the perception of the actor which is being influenced. The thesis claims that in case of a significant distance (defined geographically or otherwise) between 'the sender' and 'the receiver', perception matters more as it has greater ability to amplify or decrease the effects of the sender's power - i.e. the influence. The latter objective aims at explaining the methods the People's Republic of China uses to impose its interests on others and the receivers' reactions to such efforts. The thesis uses a case study of the Czech Republic as a country where China's influence is just getting established and...

MSc. Jitka Pánek Jurková CULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF A DIVIDED SOCIETY: The Case of Israel in the Czech Republic Abstract: The thesis explores the cultural representation of the State of Israel in the Czech Republic from an anthropological perspective, depicting how the topic of the state is appropriated and represented by different actors. Among its key theoretical statements, the thesis differentiates between cultural diplomacy-governmentally facilitated communication with a foreign audience through whatever is considered as culture-and the cultural representation of a state-the resulting picture of a state that depends on a multiplicity of narratives that emerge when various actors use the topic of the state to publicly assert their self-understanding. In an actor-oriented analysis, based on events observation, the thesis deals with the Israeli foreign policy institutions, artists engaged in cultural diplomatic activities, the Diaspora, audiences, various Czech non-governmental actors including pro-Israeli support groups, BDS movements, and others. The thesis analyzes Czech-Israeli bilateral relations and their impact on current Israeli cultural representation, concluding that while formerly close, the contexts of the two countries are drifting apart, creating "false familiarity" in cultural...

In current era of globalization when cultural diplomacy became one of the inherent tools of "soft power" of a foreign policy, it is relevant to research on the place of cultural diplomacy in foreign policy portfolio of nation-states. The focus of this thesis is to evaluate the attitudes of the Canadian government towards cultural diplomacy from 1990s until today. In 1995, Canadian values and culture became one of the three pillars of Canadian foreign policy. The author therefore attempted to map whether cultural diplomacy became a coherent and strategic tool of the Canadian foreign policy during this era. By analyzing the tools of the Canadian cultural diplomacy of the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and the present Conservative government of Stephen Harper, the author seeks to answer whether we are witnessing a gradual eclipse of cultural diplomacy as a means of soft power under the Harper administration. The research of government documents and cultural diplomacy programs along with the analysis of interviews with important government officials suggest that the cultural diplomacy was not practiced as a strategic tool in foreign policy management until the third election term of Jean Chretien in the year of 2000. Since then we can track fulfilling the Third Pillar as an...

[pt] Ascensão e queda da imagem de um Brasil ambientalmente responsável: uma análise à luz do arcabouço da diplomacia pública. A dissertação trata da aparente contradição na literatura de análise de política externa brasileira que ressalta a ativa participação brasileira em fóruns multilaterais de meio ambiente, mas também aponta sua falta de sistematicidade e contradições. A diplomacia pública é oferecida como saída para essa contradição ao interpretar os esforços brasileiros como iniciativas de comunicação visando lidar com pressões internacionais que retornam – após cerca de 30 anos - em uma aparente correlação com o abandono por parte do Estado da imagem construída de um país ambientalmente responsável. Para isso, o trabalho se vale de uma combinação de métodos qualitativos e quantitativos e de extensa revisão bibliográfica nos campos de política externa brasileira para meio ambiente e diplomacia pública. / [en] Ascensão e queda da imagem de um Brasil ambientalmente responsável: uma análise à luz do arcabouço da diplomacia pública. The dissertation deals with the apparent contradiction in the Brazilian foreign policy analysis literature that highlights the active Brazilian participation in multilateral environmental forums, but also points out its lack of systematicity and contradictions. Public diplomacy is offered as a way out of this contradiction when interpreting Brazilian efforts as communication initiatives aimed at dealing with international pressures that return - after 30 years - in an apparent correlation with the State s abandonment of the country s built image of itself as environmentally responsible. For this, the work uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and an extensive bibliographic review in the fields of Brazilian foreign policy for the environment and public diplomacy.

In the field of public diplomacy, it has increasingly become relevant to develop analytical operations in order to gain knowledge on the perceptions of foreign publics and their attitudes towards countries – a construct known as the country image. In recent time, research on public diplomacy has been increasingly occupied with the impact of media on country images due to the continuous expansion and fragmentation of the hybrid media landscape. Academics and practitioners alike must navigate through large quantities of data and different choices regarding prioritization of sources and methods in order to find suitable analytical frameworks to properly investigate the country image as an analytical object. This thesis addresses these analytical challenges by developing a diachronic text mining analysis of the Swedish country image in the British newspaper the Guardian. Sweden has in recent years drawn attention from the international media, for example during the so-called refugee crisis of 2015 and during the covid-19 pandemic of 2020. In the extensive media coverage of these major events the Swedish course of action was met with a wide range approval and criticism. Using a mixed-method approach of distant and close reading, this thesis approaches the news coverage of Sweden in the Guardian through a content analysis designed in three analytical steps: topic modelling, collocation and concordance analysis, and diachronic corpus assisted discourse analysis. In each of these steps, the appearance of different dimensions of the country image was explored using a dimensional model for integrative country image analysis developed by Ingenhoff and Buhmann. The design of the mixed-method approach showcase how large quantities of textual data can be analyzed in a new diachronic approach, bringing strains of research from digital humanities to the field of public diplomacy.

A challenge when reforming public management is the potential risk of side effects as policy intentions often come with unintended consequences in practice. For the field of International Relations (IR), management reforms affecting the foreign service are particularly relevant as they go beyond the domestic context with potential implications also for state relations with foreign publics. However, little academic attention has been directed towards visa management, which serves not only as a consular function of the diplomatic missions but also plays a key role in facilitating their diplomatic functions as stated in the Vienna Convention. Employing the theoretical perspectives of New Public Management (NPM) and The Visa Dimension of Public Diplomacy, this thesis investigates the intentions and outcomes of Sweden's decision to regionalise its Schengen visa management in Sub-Saharan Africa. The inquiry is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with public officials currently or formerly working at the Swedish Migration Agency, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish embassies in Abuja, Addis Abeba, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka, Nairobi and Pretoria. The thesis finds the regionalisation of Sweden's Schengen visa management to be an NPM-inspired reform intended to establish economies of scale in visa management. While the reform was motivated to improve cost efficiency and quality in terms of increased uniformity and legal certainty in visa processing, it was meantime anticipated to come with challenges related to resource allocation, transfer of local competence and service delivery to applicants. In practice, the reform has led to permanent side effects on applicants by making the visa process more time-consuming and expensive from a user perspective. Thus, the thesis concludes the regionalisation of the Schengen visa management to be an NPM-inspired reform that focused too narrowly on internal efficiency gains that it overlooked the negative effects on applicants to the detriment of Swedish diplomatic functions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Thesis (Ph.D. (International Politics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This thesis analyses China’s foreign policy towards Africa. Given that the rich literature on the discourse employs “traditional” theories such as realism, liberalism and social constructivism, the researcher employs an alternative theory of Afrocentricity on China-Africa relations. As an emerging theory in International Politics that is grounded and orientated in African value systems, Afrocentricity provides an alternative perspective in making sense of Global South relations. The study further makes use of case study design to make a comparative analysis of China’s engagement in Africa. The two African states utilised as case studies includes Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively. The usage of two case studies allowed the researcher to showcase how internal politics of African states influence to some extent; China’s engagements in the continent. Despite the two China-Africa policy of 2006 and 2015, this thesis argues that China’s relations with each African state is unique. The generalisation on several findings of China’s engagement with one African state observed in the existing literature enforces the epistemic violence on the rest of African states in terms of the explanation and understanding of their bilateral relations with China. This is so because China’s engagement with one state cannot be regarded as a microcosm of China’s engagement with the rest of African states in formal diplomatic relations with it. Unlike the dominant theories that problematise China-Africa relations, Afrocentricity proposes a holistic approach on making sense of Sino-Africa relations. The thesis comparatively explore China’s foreign policy towards Zambia and Zimbabwe from the year 2010 to 2018. In doing so, qualitative approach was conducted. Data source triangulation was utilised in addressing the research problem to enhance the credibility and dependability of the study. The study made us of thematic analysis by analysing data by theme and sub-themes. The thesis finds that China’s relations with African states is still a debated terrain with different views. The views can be quite misleading if focused on one specific state or project under study. v More so, China’s engagements become more explicit when explored at both regional and continental context. The study further denotes the ignored reality that China does not only prioritise rich oil states in the continent. Instead, there are quite a number of interests pursued by China in Africa such as mineral resources; investments, markets as well as farming and commercial agriculture driving China’s engagement in Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively. The thesis also reflects on China’s extent of abiding to the principles of peaceful co-existence in its relations with Zambia and Zimbabwe. Amongst the recommendations of this study and way forward is that future research on China-Africa relations could explore other African states in bilateral relations with it. This would assist in deviating from the generalised view of China-Africa relations which is not detailed and does not assist in showcasing comprehensive reality on the ground. Alternatively, scholars can consider the same case studies and make use of different delimitations to help detect if there is any gradual shift of China’s foreign policy from the years focused in this study. Upcoming works can consider contributions of China-Africa relations from a non-western perspective such as Afrocentricity employed in this study.

Russia has energetically expanded its involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade. Through a qualitative thematic analysis on a dataset of 191 English language posts from the websites of the Kremlin and the Russian MFA published between 2001 and 2023, this project seeks to describe how Russian state public diplomacy presents Russia’s relations with Sub-Saharan African nations and Africa as a whole. A typology by Bobba and Hubé (2021) was adapted, which focuses on how issues are problematised and politicised in political communication, and revolves around the categories of naming, blaming and claiming. The findings reveal that while anti-colonial and anti-Western rhetoric is prevalent in Russian state public diplomacy, themes emphasising cooperation, shared values, identity, and positive representations are even more widespread, a departure from previous research. This justified the creation of a fourth category in the typology: invoking. Combative portrayals of the West, and naming of colonialism as a problem, entered the dataset starting around 2018 for MFA posts and 2022 for Kremlin posts. From 2022, some posts also portrayed Russia as a country and Russians as a people as fellow victims of colonialism together with Africa, which was not mentioned in prior research. Further studies could apply the typology used in this thesis to include statements by Sub-Saharan African state officials, or study Russian state portrayals of relations with Russia’s Near Abroad.