As cultural relations are engaged in the shaping of preferences of others through appeal and attraction, this distinct field fits into Joseph Nye’s popular theoretical concept of soft power (see Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, 1990) denoting the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce (using force or giving money as a means of persuasion).
Due to the increasing pervasiveness of ongoing developments in digital communication and social media networks, which greatly facilitate these processes of global cultural production, participation and dialogue, the importance of direct and indirect cultural relations is growing and developing.
First and foremost, cultural relations are conducted through the enormous range of non-state actors engaged transnationally.
There is necessarily an ongoing interaction between the field of cultural relations and a state's foreign policy, given the scale and importance of cultural relations activity, which dwarfs state driven policies in quantity, frequency, inclusiveness and speed.
[10] These characteristics of scale, the prominence of the digital, the range from formal to informal actors, generate a need for new forms of evidence, descriptions and theorisation.