Authoritarian propaganda campaigns on foreign affairs: four birds with one stone

• Main Authors: CHUBB, Andrew, WANG, Frances Yaping
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Propaganda campaigns; China; Authoritarian states; International conflicts; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3683; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4941/viewcontent/Authoritarian.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Why do authoritarian states sometimes play up dangerous internationalcrises and embarrassing diplomatic incidents in domestic propaganda? Isit to mobilize, threaten, divert or pacify? Recent studies in comparativepolitics have focused on regime legitimacy and stability as key drivers ofauthoritarian propaganda practices, overlooking other possiblemotivations such as mobilization of the regime’s domestic allies orstrategic signaling aimed at foreign audiences. Foreign policy analysts,meanwhile, have emphasized international dimensions of thepropaganda behavior of China — the contemporary world’s mostpowerful and technologically sophisticated authoritarian state — but haveoften mistakenly framed complementary theories as competingalternative explanations. Paying attention to the multiple domestic andinternational audiences for authoritarian propaganda, this articledemonstrates the logical and empirical compatibility of four supposedlycompeting explanations for propaganda campaigns on foreign policyissues: mobilization, signaling, diversion, and pacification. Afterelaborating the theoretical and observable implications of these fourexplanations, the article illustrates their simultaneous operation withinthe single case of China’s high-intensity propaganda campaign over the2016 South China Sea arbitration.