China’s Soft Power Projection Strategy: Confucius Institutes in the MENA Region

China has become a major player in the MENA region, and its soft power projection strategy plays a key role. Confucius Institutes are a highly visible manifestation of this strategy, and they have been welcomed by many in the region and beyond. However, there are concerns about their lack of transparency and potential to be used for propaganda purposes. While these concerns have caused Western governments and institutions to close several Confucius Institutes down, their numbers continue to grow in the MENA region.

The WhatsApp Crisis Reveals Cracks in Iran’s Soft Power Strategy

The “WhatsApp crisis” in Lebanon revealed a crack in Iran’s grand diplomatic strategy of using its proxies to push ideological soft power concurrently with hard power. Since 1979, Tehran has been trying to brand itself as the epicenter of the Islamic Revolution. That notion is being challenged—not by Lebanese tanks and Iraqi bullets but by citizens armed with smartphones.

Soft Power and Global Standing – No. 1

The term “soft power” came into currency in the 1990s but its use has accelerated dramatically in recent years, reflecting the explosion of the digital age. Soft power is defined as the application of persuasive, rather than coercive, techniques to attract positive attention on the international stage and thereby achieve greater room for diplomatic maneuver. Soft power assessments can be used to compare how countries stand in terms of democracy, global image, corruption, life expectancy, and many other criteria. Soft power combined with hard power – i.e., military strength and the ability to coerce – amounts to “smart power,” a metric in which Israel is particularly strong.