Aviation Diplomacy as Soft Power? Qatar Airways in the Balkans

Introduction. This work inspects the activities of Russian institutions (government agencies, foundations, public associations and educational organizations) as instruments of soft power in the field of the dissemination of the Russian language and culture in Spain. The pre-requisites of establishing the language strategy as a foreign policy instrument, the main forms and sphere of activities in promoting and supporting the Russian language in Spain are analyzed in this article. Methods. The comparative historical method is used to substantiate the aspects of the formation and development of the language policy program of the Russian Federation in Spain and other European countries in the historical retrospective. The systematic approach is used to formulate a holistic view of the policy of promoting the Russian language and culture in Spain as an instrument of soft power. Also, the institutional and neo-institutional approaches are used to identify formal and informal institutions of soft power in the field of popularization of the Russian language and culture in Spain. Analysis. As a result of analyzing the problem, the legal foundations and institutional foundations of the activities of the Russian Federation to popularize the Russian language and culture in Spain have been studied. The main directions and results of the soft power policy in the field of popularizing the Russian language and culture in Spain and their role in creating a positive image of Russia in Spain have also been identified. Results. The study shows that in recent years, thanks to the soft power policy, the Russian Federation has managed to maintain and, in some positions, expand its presence in Spain in the humanitarian and information space.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The study examines the organisational potential of leaders responsible for major mega-events hosted in Poland between 2016 and 2024. Its central aim is to identify how these leaders use large-scale events as instruments of soft power and public diplomacy, and to evaluate their transformational leadership capacity within the frameworks of CSR, ESG, and Economy 5.0. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: While mega-events are widely discussed in International Relations, the micro-level agency of leaders remains insufficiently explored. To address this gap, the study uses a mixed-methods design, combining a diagnostic survey of the entire leader population (n = 20), semi-structured interviews, and analysis of legal and audit documents. Descriptive statistics are complemented by thematic analysis to capture both systemic constraints and individual leadership strategies. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article first conceptualises mega-events as tools of statecraft, linking them to soft power and European integration. It then integrates transformational leadership theory with CSR/ESG principles to propose the notion of the “guardian leader.” Empirical results are interpreted through this analytical lens, highlighting the tension between technocratic delivery and internal relational competence. RESEARCH RESULTS: Findings indicate exceptionally high adaptability (92.19%) and strong collaborative capacity (83.52%), demonstrating leaders’ ability to navigate fragmented governance systems, institutional volatility, and diplomatic pressure. However, internal relational communication scores were significantly lower (75.67%), producing a “diplomatic paradox”: external effectiveness coexists with weaker internal cohesion and limited sensitivity to equality-related outcomes. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Mega-event leaders serve as effective diplomatic managers but need to shift towards more human-centric governance. The study recommends institutionalising “event diplomacy” structures, enhancing soft skills training, and embedding ESG standards as explicit foreign policy instruments. Developing leaders’ capacity for empathetic communication and relational stewardship is essential to maximise soft power gains and ensure internal legitimacy.

This chapter presents a synthesis of our key arguments presented in various chapters to show how Iran’s soft power instruments have been employed and received in both countries. This chapter particularly focuses on differences between Iran’s soft power resources, instrument and strategies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Considering the recent developments in Afghanistan in the shape of the Taliban’s takeover, this chapter also discusses possible or likely modifications in Iran’s soft power strategies might change.

This study aims to examine the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a prominent international organization representing Muslim-majority states, and its utilization of soft power tools to advance its objectives and influence global affairs. The authors use soft power as a theoretical framework throughout the research. The principal aim of the study is to analyze how the OIC leverages various soft power instruments, including diplomacy, cultural exchange, development assistance, and interfaith dialogue, to promote its agenda on issues like human rights, peacebuilding, and economic cooperation. This research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing content analysis of official OIC documents, speeches, and resolutions, alongside academic literature and secondary sources. This journal article reveals the specific soft power tools employed by the OIC and their relative effectiveness, the challenges and limitations faced by the OIC in utilizing soft power as well as the impact of the OIC's soft power efforts on international relations and global issues relevant to Muslim-majority states. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the OIC's role in international relations and its strategic use of soft power. It also provides valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in Muslim-majority states' engagement with the global community and the dynamics of soft power in the contemporary world.

The subject of the research is the study of the Russian language as a source of Russia's soft power in the Arab world using the examples of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Morocco. Being a strong instrument of soft power, the spread of the Russian language can help Russia attract investment, tourism, the best minds of the planet, as well as promote a positive image of the Russian Federation in the world. The purpose of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of the Russian language as an instrument of Russia's soft power in the Arab region using the examples of the UAE and Morocco. The objectives of the study are to collect and analyze information from respondents from the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Morocco, respectively; to conduct a comparative analysis between data obtained from Morocco and the UAE; to create pie and bar charts to simplify the understanding and analysis of the information collected. The study used social survey methods, for which circular and bar charts were used to analyze responses. A comparative analysis method was also used to study how the spread of the Russian language differs in Morocco and the UAE, respectively. The scientific novelty of the article is the fact that the Russian language is insufficiently studied as an instrument of Russia's soft power in the Arab world. Russian is a strong source of Russia's soft power in Morocco and the UAE, as the majority of respondents stated that they had thought about learning Russian, as it is an important language of peace and diplomacy. Also, the majority of respondents stressed that the Russian language can be useful to them both in professional and academic fields. In addition, the vast majority of respondents in both countries stated that they associate the Russian language as a tool for cultural exchange and communication. It is important to note that the author also came to the conclusion that the institutions of the Russian language are much more developed in the UAE than in Morocco

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
 Lithuania has been a target of Russia’s soft power efforts for the past two decades. The aim of this article is to analyse Russia’s soft power influence possibilities in Lithuania. First, it analyzes how soft power is interpreted in Russia compared to the Western conception. Then, Russia’s soft power instruments and their core goals are reviewed, not all of which fall under the category of “soft power instruments” according to the Western understanding. The article proceeds with demographic changes in Lithuania and trends of consumption of Russian culture and information in Lithuania. The main argument is that Russia is not aiming to apply soft power to the general Lithuanian society but to particular groups within the population (Russophone minorities and residents with sentiments for the Soviet Union). It can be assumed that demographic trends and Russia’s aggressive actions will increasingly limit its soft power capabilities. However, the greatest setback to Russia’s soft power in Lithuania is arguably caused by its continuing reliance on hard power when it comes to countries of the post-Soviet space.

The article examines the cases of using religion as a “soft power” in the example of Russia and Turkey. Based on foreign policy strategies, each state forms its own discourse in the use of religions as “soft power”. The article substantiates the idea that world religions have the greatest potential in solving interstate issues, as carriers of a unique historical experience of spiritual and political globalization, as institutions of spiritual power that accumulate significant material and other resources, as well as as institutions of civil society that promote the values of freedom and humanism. The use of religion as «soft power» becomes another argument in criticizing the theories of secularism. The analysis of the discourse of religion as a “soft power” was made on the example of the foreign policy strategies of Russia and Turkey, taking into account their political authority in the international arena, as well as their perception as one of the centers of world religions.

The analysis of the soft power of terrorist organizations contributes to the broader debate on the transformation of power in contemporary international relations. Changes can be observed in the mechanisms controlling processes that occur in the international environment, as well as in the patterns of power distribution among various participants of international relations. Adopting the descriptive and correlational methods of research, based on desk research and literature review in this article the authors adopted a conceptual and analytical approach to examine the essence and specificity of soft power in the context of terrorist organizations. The analysis first explores the multidimensional structure of soft power and the concept of power diffusion, assuming that terrorist organizations benefit from these processes. Subsequently, it identifies the specific resources of soft power used by these actors and the mechanisms through which they are projected. The article elaborated on case studies to showcase that soft power is harnessed by terrorists across ideological hues. The case studies analyzed include: Red Army Faction, Boko Haram, ISIS. The study demonstrates that terrorist organizations systematically employ various soft power instruments and tools, including ideology, symbolism, media strategies, and community outreach, to enhance their legitimacy, attract recruits, and support political narratives. These mechanisms complement hard-power tactics and are increasingly professionalized. In conclusion, the authors state that soft power has become an integral element of terrorist strategy, operating alongside coercive methods. Thus, understanding the sources and applications of this form of influence provides insights into the evolving nature of non-state power in international relations and highlights the need for counterterrorism approaches that address both physical threats and ideological narratives.

In the age of disruption and in today’s platform society (Van Dijck et al., 2019), communication between nation states is influenced by the development of technology. The nation state is responding to the new communication environment through “techplomacy” and through the use of Artificial Intelligence as a strategic asset in the global tech race. Arti- ficial Intelligence (AI), including the strategies to come up with viable AI, has a big potential for nation branding, being also a competitive advan- tage for countries worldwide. In this context, the aim of our research is to investigate technology as a soft power (Nye, 2004) instrument for Romania and to analyze how the nation brand is constructed in relation to technol- ogy. In doing so, our research revolves around the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for Romania, presented at the IT&C Summit on May 8, 2019, and 50 news articles, published in the quality press (Adevărul, Gândul, România Liberă) employing mixed methods such as framing analysis (Entman, 1993) and critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1993). The results show that there are four dominant media frames: (1) artificial intelligence, (2) the 5G technology, (3) education and (4) smart city, while both journal- ists and public actors have an active role in constructing technology as a public issue in Romania.

This article explores aviation diplomacy, defined as diplomatic processes within civil aviation, acknowledging the expanded role of non-state actors. Employing a tripartite framework – aviation as a foreign policy tool, for shaping national image and soft power, and as independent diplomatic actors – the study analyzes Qatar Airways’ influence on Qatar’s soft power and nation branding in the South Caucasus. Findings indicate that Qatar Airways, with substantial government backing, functions as a strategic instrument of Qatar’s foreign policy and public diplomacy. Its global network, high-profile sponsorships (e.g. Formula 1, FIFA), and humanitarian initiatives are integral to nation branding, fostering positive perceptions via a ‘reversed country of origin effect.’ The airline itself also operates as an independent diplomatic actor through ‘business diplomacy,’ engaging directly in negotiations, shaping trade, and conducting humanitarian efforts. This framework’s empirical application highlights civil aviation’s dynamic role in international relations and the increasing importance of multistakeholder collaboration in diplomacy.

The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa has since 1994 actively participated in multilateral parliamentary diplomacy through inter-parliamentary institutions (IPIs). This article considers parliamentary diplomacy as an instrument of soft power and interrogates the soft power impact of agenda-setting in the context of IPIs. The qualitative analysis of various parliamentary records and other document sources reveals agenda-setting actions by Parliament that can be understood as instruments of soft power that hold positive implications for the state. Challenges to potential soft power gains were also identified. The research was enriched with primary perspectives from interviewed parliamentary members and officials who have consistently served as South African delegates to IPIs. The study provides insights for members of parliament and other policymakers on the merits and modalities of employing agenda-setting within multilateral parliamentary diplomacy as a soft power tool of the state.

The objective of this article is to analyze the experiment of international education as an instrument of soft power in the foreign policy of Dilma`s Rousseff government. It will be analyzed the context of action of the Itamaraty and the new players that have come to have an important contribution to foreign policy. We conclude that the foreign policy of the Dilma`s government, even though it has used international education as one of its foreign policy instruments, failed to implement soft power with a clear intention in the strategic scope of international insertion of the country.

India’s pursuit of a position within the structure of Southeast Asian States has seen its most extensive ‘soft power’ campaign in all probability. One of the most effective forms of these soft power campaigns is its cultural diplomacy invoked through a shared cultural heritage with the Southeast Asian States. This cultural diplomacy takes the form of a multitude of instruments. However, the instrument of temple restoration as a form of cultural diplomacy is rarely analyzed irrespective of its steady presence in the last decades. This article is an attempt to fill in the gaps between the understanding of soft power and cultural diplomacy through temple restorations. The authors in this article examine India’s restoration of temples across the Southeast Asian States as a form of its cultural diplomacy and analyzes the effectiveness of the same as an instrument of soft power. In the first section, the authors examine the concept of ‘soft power’ and India’s efforts in the exercise of the same through the restoration of temples. In the second section, the author analyzes India’s exercise and development of ‘soft power’ with specific reference to how Buddhism enables India to develop its relations with Southeast Asian States. In the third section, the author examines whether India’s cultural diplomacy through its restoration of temples has actually had a positive impact in developing India’s relations with other Southeast Asian States. Finally, the authors analyze whether there is any merit to a continuation of such measures of its cultural diplomacy as an instrument of its soft power.

ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ КАК ФАКТОР ВНЕШНЕЙ ПОЛИТИКИ

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the political crisis between the Russian Federation and Turkey in 2015 on the tourism sector in the latter. The political crisis was sparked by shooting down of a Russian military aircraft by the Turkish warplanes on the Turkish – Syrian border in November 2015. During that period, the Russian Federation implemented a number of decisions, one of which was a travel ban to Turkey, and this negatively impacted the Turkish tourism sector, particularly in Antalya. The research involved obtaining information on how tourism was used as a soft power instrument by the Russian Federation as a deterrent. A qualitative method was used, as well as phenomenology. The data were collected through a semi-structured survey that included five themes about which the selected tourism partners in Turkey were interviewed. For the research, with its subcategories of tourists and tour operators, tourism is regarded as a soft power instrument. The findings show that political crises have negative reflections on the tourism sector. This paper may assist researchers who interested in studying tourism within international relations.