Systematized Review of the Academic Production on Latin American Public Diplomacy

Abstract

Public diplomacy is an international political communication activity used by countries to achieve political objectives abroad and establish positive relationships with foreign publics. There are four types of public diplomacy: cultural, media, branding, and niche. Methodology: Following the SALSA framework and the PRISMA statement’s four-phase flow diagram, this paper seeks to answer the following research questions: How has the production of academic literature about Latin American public diplomacy evolved? What are the characteristics of the production country by country? What characterizes such production according to the type of public diplomacy it is focused on? The systematic review of the academic literature on Latin American public diplomacy resulted in a sample of 95 items published in databases such as Scopus, Science Direct, SpringerLink, ProQuest One Academic, Jstor, and DOAJ. Results: Academic publications on Latin American public diplomacy emerged in 2007 and have grown consistently since 2016. The primary focus has been on Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, with Brazil and Colombia being the primary editors of journals publishing articles on the topic. Studies on Brazil and branding constitute a significant portion of the research, representing 28% and 60% of the sample, respectively. Conclusions: Academic production about Latin American public diplomacy begins later than that focused on other parts of the world, consistent with its later practice in the region. The dominant powers have the leading role. Branding focused on promoting tourism, investment, and exports, is the type of public diplomacy generating the most interest, to the detriment of strategies with more political weight such as media diplomacy