The final Politics issue of 2015 will be a Special Issue edited by Michael Barr and Valentina Feklyunina on the Soft Power of Hard States. In their introduction the guest editors note that ‘the soft power ambitions of authoritarian states raise a number of questions that remain under researched: How do non-democratic countries wield influence without resorting to violence or coercion? How do we identify and define the boundaries between propaganda and soft power? Under what conditions are the legitimacy and credibility of state led image campaigns contested?’ The special issue explores these questions in relation to China, Russia, and Iran.
As a preview for this issue Wiley have made the articles available as a virtual issue. The Virtual Issue can be accessed here.