CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Manvelishvili, Tamuna |
|---|---|
| Title | Effectiveness of Presidential Soft Power in the Times of Crisis: Case of Georgia |
| Summary | Do presidents possess soft power, and what role does the Presidential Soft Power (PSP) play in crisis mitigation? What are the conditions under which PSP can successfully contribute to crisis management? To answer these questions, this thesis, rooted in Nye’s soft power theory, shifts the level of analysis from the state to the individual and focuses on the agency of presidents as the chief executives possessing soft power resources. This study specifically explores the conditions under which the Presidential Soft Power (PSP) is effective in crisis mitigation, using Georgia as the case study. This thesis first develops a novel framework for measuring PSP, which is applied to three Georgian presidents. It is followed by a longitudinal study of five crises under their presidencies. Finally, it deploys the csQCA analysis as a technique to formalize the cross-case patterns. It finds that PSP can be effective in crisis management when two conditions are absent: namely, hard power and an external intervention. The csQCA analysis reveals that the configuration of PSP* ~HP*~EI (i.e., presence of Presidential Soft Power and absence of both Hard Power and External Intervention) is descriptively sufficient for effective crisis mitigation. The case study of the Georgian context as the plausibility probe lays the solid foundation for a future, broader examination of the Presidential Soft Power across various political contexts and contributes to the literature on leadership, soft power, and crisis management. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin Kristin |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/manvelishvili_tamuna.pdf |
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