Persuasion, positioning and issue framing: a cross-cultural comparison of British, German and Slovak political discourse relating to the Ukraine conflict

A central aspect of diplomacy is persuasion in the context of intercultural communication. A challenge is that persuasive appeals are culturally informed, reflecting differing linguistic affordances and rhetorical traditions. This study investigated persuasion through a cross-cultural comparison of the identity positioning work and issue framing of British, German and Slovak politicians as they communicated with their own national audiences. A key difference was that German and Slovak politicians made use of more collective and communitarian positioning cues and framing work than was present in the English language discourse. While contextual factors are important, linguistic affordances also seem influential.