In light of recent Saudi Arabian foreign policy, this article examines the valorization of public diplomacy in regional leadership struggles—a widely neglected topic in discussion on regional powers. Concentrating on regions with distinct power hierarchies, the literature offers nuanced explanations for how already-established regional leaders seek to maintain their position but only limited discussion of how ambitious states seek to assume leadership in the first place. The proposed binary set of coercive and persuasive strategies used by aspirant leaders does not capture the complexities of these regional leadership struggles. This article argues instead that aspirant leaders lacking the power assets to exclusively embark on either strategy become prone to resorting to a strategy mix combining elements of both coercion and persuasion. Because of the inconsistencies arising from applying such antithetical policies, however, public diplomacy significantly gains in importance as a magnifying and balancing tool amid this strategy mix.

鉴于最近的沙特阿拉伯外交政策，本文探讨了公共外交在地区领导权斗争中的价值化——一个在讨论地区大国时被广泛忽视的话题。文献集中于具有不同权力等级的地区，对已确立的地区领导人如何寻求保持其地位提供了细致入微的解释，但仅对雄心勃勃的国家首先如何寻求领导地位进行了有限的讨论。有抱负的领导者使用的强制性和说服性策略的提议二元组并没有捕捉到这些地区领导斗争的复杂性。相反，本文认为，缺乏权力资产的有抱负的领导者会倾向于采用结合了强制和说服元素的策略组合。