The Anthem Handbook of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI - by Naren Chitty & Craig Hayden & Hendrik W Ohnesorge & Chenjun Wang

About the Book

The Handbook unravels the relationship between AI, soft power, and public diplomacy, dealing with conflict, culture, governance, narrative, and theory. With chapters by leading authors in the fields of soft power and public diplomacy as well as innovative fresh voices, it will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers .

Book Synopsis

Explores the complex intersections of AI, soft power, and public diplomacy, offering insights from leading experts and emerging voices on technology's evolving role in global politics.

AI is progressively becoming important in practically all fields. Soft power and public diplomacy are not insulated from this influence. Public diplomacy scholars have famously noted that it is a theoretically underdeveloped field. However, it is of great interest in the foreign relations community particularly among policy makers and practitioners. Soft power and public diplomacy have been likened to inseparable conjoined twins . Soft power is said to be a theory for public diplomacy. This has not so far been demonstrated in an effective way. A satisfactory connection between soft power and public diplomacy will allow connections to be made with Artificial Intelligence (AI). These connections will be of interest not only to students and researchers but also to practitioners and policy formulators. The volume's first section will deal with these issues.
The book's remaining sections deal with conflict, culture, governance, and narrative. The culture section discusses narrative celebrity influence, GenAI and soft power projection, network society, and social media. The conflict section investigates soft power and conflict, and CyberPower. The governance section addresses digital diplomacy and security, cyber soft power, and views on AI and public diplomacy. The narrative section features disintegration and counter-disinformation in soft power, and demotic disruption of international discourse. Sixty percent of chapters have leading international soft power and public diplomacy authors. There is also a complement of younger authors introducing cutting edge ideas to discussion of soft power and public diplomacy in the age of AI.

About the Author

Naren Chitty is Professor Emeritus & Inaugural Director of the Soft Power Analysis & Resource Centre (SPARC) at Macquarie University, Australia.
Craig Hayden chairs the Security Studies Department at the Marine Corps University (USA). He co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power (2016).
Hendrik W. Ohnesorge is Managing Director of the Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn (Germany). His latest book is Soft Power and Charismatic Leadership in German-American Relations (2025).
Chenjun Wang is a researcher at the Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre and a PhD candidate in International Studies at Macquarie University (Australia).