The tools of soft power...

... can be wielded equally by both those who want to see it used for altruistic, bridge-building purposes, and those who have malintended interests. Particularly, the new communication platforms, (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that have proved to be so influential in shaping cross border relations are also in the hands of groups whose goals are to antagonize and provoke. A recent Wall Street Journal article handed in SIS 644 highlighted the rise of Twitter feeds coming out of North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela. The tweets are highly provocative and have little value in advancing cross cultural understanding. In the case of Venezuela for example, Hugo Chavez uses his account extensively but to a degree that is not purely antagonistic but still very assertive. While he tweeted his congratulations to the Chilean miners, he also constantly evokes Simon Bolivar which could be construed as an inward-directed public diplomacy effort, fostering a sense of nationalism around a shared history, and a figure all can unite around.
Moving to North Korea, the tweets while not originating from within the isolated state (who would see them..?) echo a very aggressive rhetoric that is consistent with much of their interactions with outside nations. Here, the case seems to be the farthest thing from a public diplomacy movement-rather, using soft power means to advance a hard power-based position. Although, they did tweet about a recent victory by the U-21 soccer team over the Australian U-21 team, which seemed strangely out of place surrounded by much more inflammatory remarks!
So, this new use of communication mediums by countries who are less than friendly to the US and others, raises the question of how to define their use. Is it propaganda? Is it public diplomacy? Either way, it seems like all nations are realizing the relevancy in engaging in noopolitik approaches to IR, one that is based around ideas. Posturing through social media seems weird, but also strangely efficient and increasingly a legitimate means of communicating with the world. Especially for the less personable of nations who reduce their communication to 3-4 sentence barbs anyway. Fits the twitter character limit perfectly!