Place Branding and Public Diplomacy最新文献

The ancient origins of diplomacy can be traced back to the first encounters between bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers and the emergence of the Other in prehistory. The character of diplomacy (how it is made) should not be confused with its nature: person-to-person interactions and how to conduct peaceful relations among foreign and/or separate political communities. Language was critical for behavioral modernity in Homo Sapiens evolution. ChatGPT seemingly mastering language was a tipping point. As AI systems increasingly generate alien, non-human outputs, and encroach upon cognitive tasks that once were a monopoly of our biological brains, seeing the Other in the machine will become more common. Human intellectual supremacy will likely be challenged in several narrow domains, raising long-term anthropological questions as well. This is why the AI conundrum is better understood by making a distinction between foreignness (Us-Them) and alienness (Us-It). Although technological disruption has been changing the landscape where diplomats work, the very nature of their profession remains the same. However, considering the risks involved, caution is advised while deploying new AI tools, particularly in sensitive diplomatic decision-making. Human–machine collaboration will be key to successfully dealing with the inherent alienness of AI.

Some have heralded generative AI models as an opportunity to inform diplomacy and support diplomats’ communication campaigns. Others have argued that generative AI is inherently untrustworthy because it simply manages probabilities and doesn’t consider the truth value of statements. In this article, we examine how AI applications are built to smooth over uncertainty by providing a single answer among multiple possible answers and by presenting information in a tone and form that demands authority. We contrast this with the practices of public diplomacy professionals who must grapple with both epistemic and aleatory uncertainty head on to effectively manage complexities through negotiation. We argue that the rise of generative AI and its “operationalization of truth” invites us to reflect on the possible shortcoming of AI’s application to public diplomacy practices and to recognize how prominent uncertainty is in public diplomacy practices.

Nation branding plays a critical role in attracting foreign businesses and, by extension, sustaining countries’ economic development and global competitiveness. Using Qatar as a lens for investigation, this research applied the single, embedded case study method. Purposive sampling with key decision makers in Qatar-based foreign companies representing diverse geographies and industries were used to understand the influence of nation branding on their investment location decision. The findings revealed five key thematic features of Qatar’s nation brand as an investment destination: socioeconomic prosperity, integrated global hub, activist engagement, collectivist culture, and high-end lifestyle. These brand characteristics were compared in relation to the Eclectic Paradigm’s locational advantage and the Anholt Ipsos NBI’s dimensions of exports, governance, culture/heritage, people, tourism, and investment/immigration. The dimensions exerted a strong effect on Qatar’s nation brand and varying levels of influence on FDI attraction. This research contributes to the nexus between nation branding and the FDI literature. Importantly, the results of the study provide useful guidance to government officials, policymakers, and public and private agencies involved in investment promotion. The findings will also prove relevant to foreign investors with regard to their international expansion and location choice.

This article explores the question of whether place branding should be considered a public policy. While place branding has gained attention in the fields of marketing and related disciplines, its connection to various public policy areas highlights its broader implications. This study aims to provide conceptual clarity on the matter, arguing for the inclusion of place branding within the public policy discourse. The article employs a conceptual framework to assess the alignment of place branding with the key attributes of public policy. A comparative case study of nation branding practices in seven European countries—Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and Slovakia—is conducted to assess the applicability of the conceptual framework of public policy to studying nation branding. The case study demonstrates the potential of such approach, highlighting gaps and challenges in the current practices of nation branding. The article concludes by discussing the implications of applying the policy approach to place branding and exploring future research opportunities.

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) bias and digital public diplomacy based on terminology use in three ChatGPT dialogues we initiated. AI bias is discursively constructed through rhetoric and narrative, presenting how users and algorithm designers perceive social reality. These elements of language then spread through Internet technology. This study examined the potential threat of AI bias in constructing knowledge in the digital age. Indeed, AI bias arising from terminology use can shake up the decision-making and communication practices of public diplomacy, especially the formulation and implementation of advocacy. We identified two potential types of bias: (a) the content provided by ChatGPT reflects a set of opinions with a particular orientation that does not account for the multiplicity of viewpoints on complex geopolitical issues, and (b) the answers given by generative AI tools tend to be affirmative views that are not subject to argumentation, justification, and reflection.

Large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 have the potential to dramatically change the landscape of influence operations. They can generate persuasive, tailored content at scale, making campaigns using falsified content, such as disinformation and fake accounts, easier to produce. Advances in self-hosted open-source models have meant that adversaries can evade content moderation and security checks built into large commercial models such as those commercialised by Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. New multi-lingual models make it easier than ever for foreign adversaries to pose as local actors. This article examines the heightened threats posed by synthetic media, as well as the potential that these tools hold for creating effective countermeasures. It begins with assessing the challenges posed by a toxic combination of automated bots, human-controlled troll accounts, and more targeted social engineering operations. However, the second part of the article assesses the potential for these same tools to improve detection. Promising countermeasures include running internal generative models to bolster training data for internal classifiers, detecting statistical anomalies, identifying output from common prompts, and building specialised classifiers optimised for specific monitoring needs.