Increased international competitiveness to host sport mega-events indicates their perceived value in stimulating regional and national economic, social and cultural development. In the context of broader governmental public opinion management strategies, sport mega-events hold the potential to mobilize soft power resources of the host country, expressed in values, culture and policies, and engage with and influence the publics of other countries. This thesis investigates the significance of sport mega-events for the host country’s public diplomacy strategies and practice by exploring the concepts of public diplomacy, sport mega-events, soft power and national image within a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework. The analysis of scholarly literature, official and media reports reveals how aspects of reputation, credibility, and legitimacy guide both foreign public opinion and the practice of public diplomacy in conjunction with sport mega-events. Moreover, international reputation of the host nation, including status, prestige and image, appeared to benefit the most as a result of strategic application of sport mega-events to public diplomacy. This can be achieved by proving functional reputation though demonstration of financial and organizational success. Alternatively, social reputation of the host is at risk of sustaining considerable damage as a result of resistance from social activists groups, thus requiring extensive damage control efforts of the host country's image. The conclusions drawn from this study raise significant questions about the potential of sport mega-events being effectively used for public diplomacy and the experience of the host governments, revealing functional competence as having the greatest potential to influence public diplomacy strategy built around hosting sport mega-events.

The most valuable contribution of the Fulbright Program, at its founding in 1946 and today in 2012, remains its ability to inculcate mutual understanding, which represents a vital component in the success of multilateral cooperation necessary to create a secure and thriving international community. During the Cold War, promoting mutual understanding was valued for its ability to share the ideals and benefits of American democracy and create strong relationships between Americans and foreigners in direct competition with the Soviet Union’s projection of communist ideology. This thesis demonstrates how, through the lenses of leadership, multiculturalism, soft power, and public diplomacy, the Fulbright Program achieves its founding goals by maintaining healthy diplomatic relations, developing competent leadership in political and professional realms, and fostering the perspective and skillset necessary to address the multifaceted challenges that America and the international community face today.

This thesis seeks to examine Russian foreign policy in the post-Soviet era and its evolution in terms of Russia&rsquo / s use of soft power in the post-Soviet space. Contrary to the views that consider Russia exclusively as a hard power, this thesis argues that Russia has started to develop its soft power capabilities and how to use its soft power effectively in the post-Soviet space, especially since the beginning of Vladimir Putin&rsquo / s second Presidential term in 2004. In this context, Russia pursues a proactive foreign policy particularly in the spheres of language and education, which are important elements of its soft power. The thesis is composed of three main chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion chapters. The first main chapter discusses the evolution of the soft power concept in Russian foreign policy by analyzing the period of 1992-2008. The second chapter seeks to analyze the position of Russian language in the CIS countries as lingua franca. The last chapter examines the Russian education system and the attraction of its higher education institutes for students from the CIS countries.

This thesis examines the applicability of the concept of soft power in the Chinese context. After a brief discussion of the concept of &quot / soft power&quot / , which was coined by Joseph S. Nye Jr. in 1990, and also similar concepts developed in western academia, the Chinese understanding of soft power is investigated with reference to statements made by Chinese policy-makers and academics, Chinese soft power applications in Africa and the use of the Confucius Institutes as soft power tools. It is argued that although China pursues non-coercive policies to augment its power in the international arena, this power is not solely attained by the methods of soft power as suggested by Nye. Although the concept of &quot / sticky power&quot / , coined by Walter Russel Mead, and/or that of &quot / smart power&quot / , intorduced by Nye and Richard Armitage, can be beneficial in understanding the Chinese experience, the Chinese goal-oriented and empiric approach to attaining power differs in essence from the western understanding both in theory and practice.

This thesis will examine the transformation in the Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East and evaluate the relevance of &ldquo / soft power&rdquo / term for describing Turkey&rsquo / s new activism in the region. Since the establishment of the Turkish Republic, Turkey has aligned itself with the Western world so that this alignment has been the main determinant of its relations with the non-Western world. The Middle East was not an exception in this process. After decades of remaining aloof from the Middle Eastern affairs, Turkey has followed a new foreign policy towards the region, as part of its new foreign policy vision, since the AK Party coming to power in 2002 and has shown a growing willingness to participate in Middle Eastern affairs. Various arguments are developed by different actors, including the one elaborated in this thesis, to explain the new activism of Turkey in the region.

My dissertation mainly focuses on the changing of China¡¦s soft power and tries to explain the reasons why Beijing loses its biding for Olympic Games in 1993. China¡¦s economic reforms have transformed its international status. Today China is already a country of rising power. In order to keep maintaining a peaceful international environment China has learnt to use soft issues to serve its national interests. Because changing China¡¦s image and undermining the scenario of a China threat were vital to Beijing and crucial to the future of its foreign policy, the analysis concerning China¡¦s rise should not focus entirely on the economic and military power. It is better for us to aim at filling that gap in knowledge about China¡¦s soft power and its increasingly sophisticated diplomacy. According to Joseph Nye, soft power is attracting force derived mainly from intangible resources such as national culture, political values, and its foreign policies. It is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. Nye states that technological advances have led to a dramatic reduction in the cost of processing and transmitting information. The result is an explosion of information which leads to scarcity of attention. Therefore, attention becomes the scarce resource. Nye also finds that publics have become more wary and sensitized about propaganda. Governments are often mistrusted. Therefore, Nye suggests that governments to work with non-state actors, such as NGOs in international affairs. However, there are a lot of arguments about how to measure the soft power of a country or a private actor. Since converting resources into realized power in the sense of obtaining desired outcomes requires well-designed strategies and skillful leadership, I state that soft power results from the structural forces and media technology in the system. Through development of the analysis structure of soft power, including media technology, institution, and material resources, I examine several cases to prove that China is gradually enhancing its international position by means of changing its institutions and reinforcing its international communication abilities. Today, special events are more than just well-known athletic competitions and cultural performances. International Olympic Committee is an important non-state actor with charm and soft power in the international society. I use three chapters to deal with the topic that Beijing bided for 2000 and 2008 Olympic Game. My argument is that the issues of Deng Xiaoping¡¦s successor and overheated economic problem leaded to China¡¦s lost in biding for the Olympic Game in 1993.

<p>The thesis investigates how two of the world’s most powerful international actors, the US and the EU want to promote democracy and human rights. The aim is to compare how the US and the EU work in order to support a democratic development in the world. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis a qualitative text analysis was used. Since the aim is to compare the US and the EU I believe this method is beneficial. The questions that are being investigated are about the contributions the US and the EU give to e.g. Saudi Arabia and Russia and if the contributions are mainly characterized by `hard or soft power´. The result showed that in general no conclusion can be drawn when it comes to the characteristics of the contributions. However, in the examples taken from the EU- Russian and the US- Saudi Arabian relationships the contributions are characterized by `soft power´. The other relationships the thesis discusses are instead characterized by `hard power´.</p>

This thesis inquires into the factors behind Hollywood's depiction of the Middle East. That depiction is not static, but is modified in response to changes in political events and US government foreign policy. Although the events of 9/11 seemed to justify the traditional negative stereotype of Arabs, the image has been partially and rationally re-interpreted. This was due to the rise in prominence of the ideas of a minority of radical and free-thinking members of the Hollywood community who embraced a more intellectual approach, which advocated that the popular Western view of the Arab world was unjustified and based on a fallacious fabrication for Western political advantage. The research further shows that these activists did not owe allegiance to the Hollywood-US government propaganda machine. They were able to fracture this traditional alliance and provide the opportunity for the appearance of films of a radical nature, which were critical of US Middle Eastern policy and projected the Arab world in a new light. The study analyzes a selection of films that represent the Middle East in terms of their philosophy and cinematic structure, which enables them to act as vectors to raise public awareness of the issues and to promote reconciliation and co-existence between East and West.

In the construction of their media infrastructure, most of the Arab countries are spending millions of dollars on US and Western contracts. Regarded as one of the fastest growing and dynamic markets for media technologies in the world, the region may lack a clear media policy as a guideline to shed light upon the mega million investments on the industry. Some critics suggest that the advanced media technologies provided to the Arab world are mostly initiated by Western sales/marketing strategy rather than Middle Eastern choice and initiative. They see the process as a reaction to the Western media practices, rather than a pre-planned policy. This study is directed toward constructing a critical understanding of the development, and current status, of media policy and infrastructure in the Arab world. Being undertaken as the basis of a Ph. D. thesis in an inter-disciplinary department, the research is informed by a strong inter-disciplinary perspective, but with a clear political economy emphasis. The study seeks to examine whether there is a clear media policy in the Arab world, either at a national or regional level. Within this context, ARABSAT, perhaps the most popular media system in the Arab world, constitutes a specific case study. Inaugurated in 1985, the system has been the subject of extensive debate, sometimes heatedly discussing its pros and cons. Its long period of operation, the extensive contribution of most Arab/Muslim countries in the process of the creation and operation of ARABSAT, as well as the footprint coverage of the system including the Middle East, most parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Europe, make the contribution of ARABSAT within the Middle East media environment of particular interest. Now, nearly 15 years after the advent of ARABSAT, established and supported by the overwhelming majority of the Arab states, a critical assessment of the system in terms of policy/strategy is timely.

The conceptual divide between “hard power” and “soft power,” and the resources that constitute the basis of each, remain hotly debated topics among International Relations theorists as well as foreign policy advisors and analysts. Two developments in the last decade that have greatly influenced the study of the hard-power/soft-power dichotomy are: (1) the pursuit by many single-state actors of foreign policy strategies identifying and actively incorporating soft-power instruments, and (2) the realization by political theorists that individual policy instruments often exhibit unexpected hard and soft-power characteristics and effects, sometimes resulting in hard power acting soft and soft power acting hard. Exploring this dichotomy further, I examine the Russian Federation’s use of its hard and soft power with respect to the de facto independent Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia from 1999-2009 by identifying specific Russian foreign policy instruments employed in the bilateral relationship and analyzing how these instruments draw upon and project Russian hard and soft power. My findings support research addressing instances when traditionally defined hard-power instruments display soft-power effects, and vice versa, and highlight examples of individual policy instruments producing both hard and soft-power effects simultaneously; coercing a subject while they co-opt its interests. In addition, I find that the Russian Federation is actively employing soft-power methods of engagement in its contemporary foreign policy strategy, having substantially increased this employment between 1999-2009— particularly with respect to Abkhazia. Concerning the Russia-Abkhazia relationship specifically, I conclude that, based on Russia’s engagement of the region from 1999- 2009, ties between the country and the de facto state will continue to strengthen, however, with Abkhazia in an increasingly supplicant position. / text