Soft power applications in perception management: The case of Türkiye

Up until the 21st century, political, social-economic, and social factors such as nationalism, unipolarity, capitalism, consumption culture, identity, migration, exile, and assimilation influenced relations between countries and societies globally, causing major world wars. Following the wars, the challenging position of the rulers began to soften due to rising social events, economic changes, technological advances, and scientific developments. These factors also changed the political perception, creating the grounds for behavior patterns such as antipathy and sympathy towards a country. Attempts by political figures to promote humanitarian values to ensure peace around the world have led to the emergence of new diplomatic methods in international relations. With the balances they have been trying to achieve, governments have begun to emphasize culture and civil society to influence more people, legitimize their policies, and generate consent. In this new system, states that lead the universal values have deep cultural connections worldwide and hold values such as security, prosperity, and law over becoming centers of attraction with the stories they design for others. In contrast to the methods such as coercion, threats, and economic sanctions, the use of "soft power" has been introduced as a means of force to describe this situation, and it has been seen as a form of communication that embodies favorable attraction and the use of persuasion to achieve the foreign policy goals of a state. This type of power includes the notion that the nature of the international environment can change by factors such as culture, ideology, and institutions, thereby re-establishing the existing forms of power. Despite the intensification of political initiatives it tried to implement in soft power in the 2000s, Turkey was shaken by economic turmoil and domestic political problems. Additionally, the foreign press failed to follow a stable and active foreign policy strategy due to lobbying activities and negative perception management conducted by the cinema industry over many years, and consequently, it could not express itself as it wished. In light of this view, Turkey's efforts toward the positive image it wants to build will be significant in terms of positive perception management. However, before putting the tools and values to use in this area first, it is necessary to determine the positive and negative aspects of image and perception management, evaluate the applications within the framework of soft power, and create a road map for the future. This study assessed the concept of "soft power" in the context of the potential that arises from the strategies implemented by the Republic of Turkey, and it revealed how successful it has been in soft power policy with its existing institutions and practices and the importance it attaches to the values that are regarded as attractive elements. In this context, PESTLE and SWOT analyses have been conducted to examine Turkey's soft power resources and practices and establish a road map for the country's future.