Abstract
Extant research has examined the significance of interpersonal relationships in affecting public diplomacy outcomes. Relational public diplomacy is a long-term approach to public diplomacy which posits the importance of people-to-people exchange programs that facilitate two-way interactions between people from two different countries. Using survey data (n = 385) collected from alumni of the Global Korea Scholarship in 2018, this study found that respondents’ perceptions of treatment by South Korean people influenced their comparisons of people from South Korea and their home countries. Moreover, the more highly they evaluated South Koreans compared to people in their home countries, the more likely it was that they would develop an affection and make positive recommendations toward South Korea as a destination for study and tourism. The empirical findings in this article have policy implications for scholarship programs as a public diplomacy tool beyond South Korea.
Special Issue
This article is part of a special issue that uses our Global Korea Scholarship dataset. See other articles in the special issue here.
BibTeX citation
@article{tam_evaluations_2021,
title = {Evaluations of people, affection, and recommendation for a host country: A study of Global Korea Scholarship ({GKS}) recipients},
volume = {49},
issn = {1555-5623},
doi = {10.1111/polp.12438},
pages = {1292--1307},
number = {6},
journaltitle = {Politics \& Policy},
author = {Tam, Lisa and Ayhan, Kadir Jun},
date = {2021},
note = {Type: Journal Article},
keywords = {affection Asia Global Korea Scholarship P\&P Special Issue people-to-people exchanges public diplomacy South Korea Afecto Beca global de Corea Intercambios entre personas Diplomacia pública relacional Corea del Sur},
}