Soft Power in a Pandemic World: a Story of Contagious Appeal: How did countries' Covid-19 response affect their attractiveness abroad?

The Covid-19 pandemic has altered how countries project and gain soft power. Within the context of this global crisis, most researchers followed the conventional trend to investigate soft power as a resource (i.e., health diplomacy). Yet, scant studies have approached soft power as an outcome. The present thesis fills this gap by examining how countries’ (i.e., United States’ and New Zealand’s) Covid-19 response affected their attractiveness abroad (i.e., in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands). In order to address this inquiry, the theoretical lenses of rational and social attraction are amplified with socio-psychological literature on the Similarity-Attraction Theory. The theories are tested by means of minimalist process-tracing, combined with a cross-case analysis. The findings support the proposition that (in)competencies (demonstrated through the Covid-19 response) sparked rational attraction (or aversion) among foreign audiences. While support indicating the presence of...Show moreThe Covid-19 pandemic has altered how countries project and gain soft power. Within the context of this global crisis, most researchers followed the conventional trend to investigate soft power as a resource (i.e., health diplomacy). Yet, scant studies have approached soft power as an outcome. The present thesis fills this gap by examining how countries’ (i.e., United States’ and New Zealand’s) Covid-19 response affected their attractiveness abroad (i.e., in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands). In order to address this inquiry, the theoretical lenses of rational and social attraction are amplified with socio-psychological literature on the Similarity-Attraction Theory. The theories are tested by means of minimalist process-tracing, combined with a cross-case analysis. The findings support the proposition that (in)competencies (demonstrated through the Covid-19 response) sparked rational attraction (or aversion) among foreign audiences. While support indicating the presence of social attraction (or aversion) is detected, it warrants a more cautious interpretation due to case-specific alternative explanations. The findings challenge the assumption that “likeness goes with liking”, by underscoring how dissimilarities tied to success appeared to elicit attraction. Further research should investigate whether this effect is still present when the scope condition is not met.Show less

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Soft Power in a Pandemic World: a Story of Contagious Appeal: How did countries' Covid-19 response affect their attractiveness abroad?