Beyond the scorecard diplomacy: From soft power rankings to critical inductive geography

Abstract

The article interrogates if data visualization, despite its inherited subjectivity, can be used not only as a tool for data representation but also as a research platform to facilitate an iterative exploratory process to identify new themes, raise new questions, and generate new knowledge. It addresses this task by pursuing a twofold research goal. On the one hand, it confirms previous findings that have documented the political power of data visualization specifically in the field of scorecard diplomacy. It critically discusses Portland Soft Power 30 Index that measures soft power of selected countries on the annual basis to reveal how the scorecard diplomacy works through the ranking dashboard. On the other hand, the article reflects on the experience of designing a geo-visualization system that, by contrast, intended to overcome shortcomings of data visualization’s politics to build a platform for an inductive academic research. It discusses a new deep mapping framework of soft power visualization that intended to address several critical problems of Portland’s measurements and shares research insights from the project “Deep Mapping: Creating a Dynamic Web Application Museum Soft Power Map.”

A figurational approach to soft power and sport events. The case of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™

“…The focus was on changing the policy of the state from force to attraction and on how an instrumental use of the more attractive aspects of the US in international relations could make its power (more) legitimate, cheaper and more effective. In a post-Cold War landscape, this concept was taken as key to increase its international influence in a new and multi-polar world ( 20 ). Revising the construct of power in an institutionalist direction, which according to Bakalov ( 21 ) was one of Nye's key theoretical motives, meant seeing it as “instances of A achieving desired outcomes in concert with B” ( 21 ), rather than the realist perspective where A controls or dominates B. Nye argued that getting others “to want what you want” ( 19 ) was better suited to the new world order than hard power (military and economic force) only.…”

The politics of data visualisation and policy making

“…Falisse and McAteer (2022) also examine visualising policy responses during public health emergencies with special focus on the responses to COVID-19. We then turn broadly to international politics by looking at how cartographies are used to map migration (Gomis, 2022) and a theorisation of data visualisation as a form of soft power (Grincheva, 2022).…”