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The Hard Edge of Soft Power: My keynote at the (Il)liberal Nation Projection symposium

The Hard Edge of Soft Power: My keynote at the (Il)liberal Nation Projection symposium

Vitaly Kazakov at the University of Manchester invited me to give one of the keynotes at a symposium he organized. Over two intense and enjoyable days, we explored various national projection strategies from illiberal and democratic states across different contexts, channels, and platforms. It was interdisciplinary, relevant, and exciting. A real honor to attend. I wrote a short twitter thread about it: My keynote explored the uncomfortable connections between the Russian mega-event decade and the war in Ukraine. Here’s a…

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Unstable soft power – new article in print

Unstable soft power – new article in print

This was a highlight of my year. I’ve long admired the work on soft power and mega-events by Jonathan Grix and friends, and I had some ideas on soft power myself. But I intended these ideas as a refinement of the notion of soft power, not as a criticism per se of Grix et al. I wanted to suggest that there were a few ways that we could augment our traditional understandings of soft power in order to account for…

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