Klaipėdos universitetas

Internet users using digital diplomacy techniques can generate state soft power on social networks through the promotion of traditional power resources – culture, values and behaviour. In this way, the digital dissemination of information by states becomes an instrument of their power policy. This article analyses the concept of digital diplomacy, the transformation of its characteristics and activities in the digital space. The text examines the interaction between digital diplomacy and soft power, also focuses on the European Union’s digital diplomacy, which has become an important part of the EU’s foreign policy. Due to the novelty of the topic and the lack of research in the public discourse, the article is relevant to research in order to find out what digital diplomacy methods the EU institutions, diplomats, individual Internet users are and how it forms the European information geopolitics.

This article presents the concept of China’s sharp power, and features of its formation that support it. The article deals with theoretical interpretations of soft power that are inseparable from the properties of sharp power. Soft power has been a very influential concept in recent decades to describe a country’s ability to influence others by cooperating, persuading and promoting a positive attitude in other states to achieve the desired results. Nevertheless, the concept of power has changed dramatically in recent years, due to shifts in the international system, and no longer fits definitions of the relationship between authoritarian and democratic systems. It is necessary to introduce a new concept of power, in order to expose the new world order posed by China as an emerging normative power. Authoritarian methods of influence can no longer, in principle, be described as soft power. There is a need to introduce a new term for power in academic discourse, in order to conceptualise the influence of authoritarian states on democracies. The article highlights the problem that sharp power can restrict freedom of expression and distort the political environment, by taking advantage of asymmetric levels of freedom between democratic and authoritarian systems. Having identified and clarified the terminological framework, the article presents three components of China’s sharp power, which allows for empirical research into its mechanisms for spreading influence, expanding the country’s interests abroad, and damaging democratic systems.