Abstract:Asian states are increasingly finding strategic communications to be an important tool of foreign and defense policy. Strategic communications involve coordinated messaging to achieve political objectives, utilizing words, actions, images, and various forms of signaling or symbols with the intention of influencing or persuading the target audiences. Such purposeful, coordinated, and targeted communications necessarily give rise to action-reaction dynamics that may have a tangible impact on interstate relations and the balance of power. How, then, do states in Asia employ such messaging activities in order to achieve influence? What dynamics are created by the employment of strategic communications by states in the region, and how do these affect intense greatpower rivalries and competition for leadership of international norms and in institutions in the region? The contributors to this special section address a series of common questions as the analytical framework for investigating how states conceptualize and utilize strategic communications to further national interests vis-à-vis their target states and domestic populace. The articles explore the communicative dynamics of strategic communications and how they impact perceptions of threat and the cost-benefit calculus associated with certain actions, such as escalation or de-escalation of tensions. This special section demonstrates the ways in which strategic communications are an integral element of an ongoing power transition in Asia and thus shape international relations in the region in critical ways.

中文翻译：

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亚太地区的区域交流动力和国际关系

摘要：亚洲国家越来越多地将战略通信视为外交和国防政策的重要工具。战略沟通涉及协调信息传递以实现政治目标，利用文字、行动、图像和各种形式的信号或符号来影响或说服目标受众。这种有目的的、协调的和有针对性的沟通必然会产生可能对国家间关系和权力平衡产生切实影响的行动-反应动态。那么，亚洲国家如何利用此类信息传递活动来获得影响力？该地区各国利用战略沟通创造了什么样的动力，这些如何影响激烈的大国竞争以及争夺国际规范和该地区机构领导权的竞争？本特别部分的撰稿人将一系列常见问题作为分析框架，用于调查国家如何概念化和利用战略沟通来促进国家利益，以促进其目标国家和国内民众的利益。这些文章探讨了战略沟通的沟通动态，以及它们如何影响对威胁的感知以及与某些行动相关的成本效益计算，例如紧张局势的升级或缓和。这个特别部分展示了战略沟通如何成为亚洲正在进行的权力转移的一个组成部分，从而以关键的方式塑造该地区的国际关系。