Saudi Arabia’s Soft Power Strategies under Vision 2030: From Religious Authority to Global Image-Building

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s soft power strategies, tracing the shift from traditional religious legitimacy to a diversified, state-led framework of global image-building under Saudi Vision 2030. Guided by the theoretical framework of soft power developed by Joseph Nye, the study explores how Saudi Arabia has reconfigured its international role in response to changing regional and global dynamics. The central research question of this study is: How has Saudi Arabia transformed its soft power strategy from a religion-based model to a multidimensional, state-driven approach under Vision 2030? Overall, the paper argues that Saudi Arabia’s soft power has shifted from a predominantly religious model to a multidimensional, state-driven strategy of global attraction, demonstrating how emerging powers strategically adapt soft power tools to achieve both domestic transformation and international influence in the twenty-first century.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia, Soft Power, Vision 2030, Muhammad Bin Salman, Public Diplomacy