Citizen diplomacy in the covid-19 pandemic:

Between sharp power and soft power

Abstract

Given the huge challenge imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, countries have stepped up actions aimed at citizen security. At the same time, driven by different purposes, citizens are also involved in actions, which have had international repercussion, such as the development of citizen diplomacy. From the standpoint of public diplomacy, citizen diplomacy is a source of soft power. This research debates how citizen diplomacy performs under sharp power, and highlights the impact on foreign policy. Working within constructivism, the paper uses the case study method and is aimed at identifying the fight against the covid-19 pandemic by China, Portugal, and Brazil. To this end, the key concepts are operationalized, namely public diplomacy, citizen diplomacy, soft power, and sharp power. Then, a matrix of variables and attributes of soft and sharp power is built. The matrix guides collection of quantitative and qualitative data by content analysis. The news agency, Reuters, is the source of news collected from February 1 to April 30, 2020. After presentation and discussion of results, the last session presents conclusions, including recommendations for public policies, and opportunities for future developments.