Does China have the most diplomatic pull on the planet?

The article questions the claim that China had become the world’s dominant diplomatic power simply because it surpassed the United States in the number of embassies and other diplomatic posts. The authors argue that counting diplomatic missions captures only one dimension of influence and can overstate what those facilities actually mean in practice. Using Pardee’s Country and Organization Leader Travel (COLT) dataset, the piece looks at diplomatic influence through another lens: where heads of state and government travel and which countries attract high-level visits. This broader measure suggests that diplomatic “pull” depends not just on the size of a country’s overseas network, but also on its ability to attract and maintain important political relationships.

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