• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.129-155
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• 2024

Public diplomacy is not a foreign concept to Russian-speaking authors. Nevertheless, there has been no systematic, comprehensive analysis of the Russian language-based academic literature on public diplomacy. This article attempts to fill this research gap. Thanks to the systematic literature analysis of 1002 articles included in the main data set, it was possible to identify a number of specific trends and characteristics of public diplomacy scholarship in Russian language for the period from 2000 to 2023. Among the main aspects analyzed were the number and distribution of articles by authors, gender distribution of authors, main keywords, and journals publishing articles on public diplomacy in Russia and abroad among others. The discussion suggests a critical approach to the data obtained and invites exploration of more specific aspects in the future.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.1-26
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• 2021

Applying discourse analysis of Russia's narrative on humanitarian aid and its perception by the Western collective identity at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study identifies several challenges that constructivism poses to the current understanding of public diplomacy (PD). In contrast to the mainstream positivist tendency to evaluate the effectiveness of PD through models, this article expands the PD narrative by inquiring about the role of power, intersubjective knowledge, and collective identities in public diplomacy. In particular, it examines the PD questions often ignored by researchers regarding how collective identities can exercise discursive power to interpret incoming narratives, which challenge domestic intersubjective knowledge. It also argues that, because the Russian political elite failed to ensure a coherent story and provide informational support for its humanitarian aid, the Western intersubjective knowledge on Russia negatively contributed to the perception of PD narratives. Thus, the article underscores the importance for PD practitioners to understand how the socially constructed nature of knowledge can improve or harm PD strategies.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2024

Public diplomacy scholarship remains largely confined to English, with limited cross-linguistic engagement, despite the fact that public diplomacy inherently involves communication with foreign publics. To promote inclusivity and dialogue in public diplomacy research, I launched this special issue initiative to explore the literature on public diplomacy in non-English languages. The authors reviewed literature in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, French, Russian, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia. Nearly all the articles highlighted methodological ambiguity or a lack of rigor in the majority of publications in these respective languages. In this editorial, I address two potential explanations for this: 1) the peripheral position of non-English publications in the global knowledge production hierarchy; and 2) potential epistemological American-centrism. Another significant finding is that the countries most frequently mentioned are almost always major countries where the respective language is spoken in a self-reflective way, underscoring the importance of cross-linguistic conversations to enrich the literature. I hope the articles in this special issue will inspire greater interest in "public diplomacy in other words" and encourage more cross-linguistic conversations, ultimately enriching our understanding of public diplomacy theories and practices.