Draft:Naren J. Chitty

Professor Emeritus Naren J. Chitty AM is an internationally recognized social theorist of 'influence' (particularly communication, media, public diplomacy, soft power, and propaganda). He has held various senior academic positions and played a pivotal role in shaping academic discourse in these areas. He is known internationally especially for his work in developing and editing the influential The Journal of International Communication.

He has served in several senior academic capacities. He was elevated to Professor Emeritus in 2022, having been Foundation Chair in International Communication since 2006 when he established the Department of International Communication after serving as Deputy Dean and Dean. He later founded the Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre (SPARC) at Macquarie University and continues as its Inaugural Director. He received national recognition through being invested in a prestigious Order of Australia (AM) "for service to education, particularly in the field of international communications as a researcher and academic, and to a range of professional associations" in the 2009 Australia Day Honours.

Roles in international professional associations
It has been noted that "Chitty was among those who contributed to a deepening of Australian engagement with IAMCR by serving in senior positions..." . This reference is to Chitty's service as Secretary General of the International Association for Media and Communication Research from 1996 until 2000.

He has played an active role in intercultural relations and cultural diplomacy and is a founder member of the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICCRA) set up by Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) and the British Council. Chitty is also Founder President of the Global Communication Research Association (GCRA), an organization that focuses on under-represented areas.

Recognition and influence in academic discourse
Chitty has delivered numerous invited keynote addresses internationally a few of which are mentioned here. He participated in the IAMCR Keynote Dialogue on Cultural Diversity: Voices From the South with the late Ms Fatema Mernissi of Morocco in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne in Paris in 2007. He delivered the 'Late Girija Prasad Koirala Talk on ” Soft Power and Public Diplomacy ” on July 10th 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the late prime minister. He was a keynote speaker together with former ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan at the Conference on Innovative Communication and Sustainable Development in ASEAN in Bangkok in 2015.

He has held several visiting university appointments including visiting professorships in France (Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3), Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), and China (Communication University of China, Jilin University, South China Normal University, and Southwest University of Political Science & Law).

Contribution as a journal editor
As a journal editor he is best known in his role as Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of International Communication which he led since 1994. The influence he has had on the field is seen in the leading scholars he attracted to the International Advisory Board of the journal, and the leading international contributors that have been drawn to publish in the journal. The star-studded International Advisory Board listed in the first issue (JIC 1:1) included Florangel Rosairo-Braid, the late George Gerbner, Cees Hamelink, Armand Mattelart, Hamid Mowlana, Roland Robertson, Everett Rogers, and John Sinclair.

Top-ranking international scholars who have been published by the journal include Cees Hamelink, Hamid Mowlana, Nicholas Onuf, and Roland Robertson - whose seminal first article on glocalization ('Globalization or glocalization') was published in the maiden issue (JIC 1:1).

Influential Special Issues included one on Human Rights (JIC 5:1&2) that featured Cees Hamelink and the late George Gerbner, Editor-in-Chief from 1974 to 1991of the Journal of Communication. A Special Issue on 'UN at 60' (JIC 11:2) included a 'Message for the UN at 60 of JIC' from Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations, seen on page 7 of the hard copy. The 'Olympic Communication' issue (JIC 2:1) included a brief note on 'The Olympic Movement' by Juan Antonio Samaranch,the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seen on pages 3 to 5 of the hard copy. As Editor-in-Chief of JIC Chitty was invited along with editors of other leading communication journals to contribute an article for the 50th anniversary issue of the International Communication Gazette 67:2. His contribution was 'International communication: Continuing into the 21st Century as an Academic Commons'.

Chitty continues to be on the advisory/editorial boards of several international journals including Global Media Journal, Canadian Issue, Journal of Global Communication, Journal of Content, Community & Communication , and Communication and Media in Asia Pacific, and the International Journal of Infrastructure Research and Management.

Contribution to investigation of soft power
Chitty is 'interested in the relationships between public diplomacy, good governance, and the rule of law'. The Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre (SPARC) that he founded provided a vehicle for his research. SPARC was inaugurated in 2012 by Professor Emeritus Joseph S. Nye Jnr. the scholar who introduced the notion of soft power,. The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power 1st edition (2017) and 2nd edition (2023), co-edited by Chitty were facilitated by SPARC.

Chitty's chapter on "World propaganda and personal insecurity: Intent, content, and contentment" leads The Edward Elgar Handbook of Political Propaganda. He is the Series Editor of the Anthem Studies in Soft Power and Public Diplomacy.

National and international public sphere
His research has garnered international recognition, and his insights have been sought after by scholars and policymakers alike. In 2013 he chaired a Roundtable Discussion on soft power and civility in the Australian Parliament House, with The Hon. John Howard OM AC (former Australian prime minister) and The Hon. Gareth Evans QC FAIIA AC (former Australian foreign minister) as panelists. His thoughts on soft power and civility were also aired internationally in 'The rise of blunt power in the strongman era' in The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad, India, invited him to deliver its inaugural lecture on international communication research

Tertiary education
Chitty’s PhD in International Relations was completed at the School of International Service (SIS) of the American University (AU) in Washington DC in 1992. His doctoral committee consisted of Professor Emeritus Nicholas Onuf (Chair) and the late professors Gary Weaver and Marshall R. Singer His thesis was entitled ‘Framing South Asian transformation: An examination of regional views on South Asian cooperation’. A book review on the published thesis describes it ‘[o]n the one hand as an account of international relations in the South Asian region reflecting Chitty’s background in diplomacy, on the other it attempts to redirect development communication studies away from purely national concerns towards and International Communication perspective’.

Career outside academia
Chitty, who is married to Dr. Gina Ismene Chitty, an Australian composer. was Counsellor of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC from April 1982 until December 1987. The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation of the US 'was announced through a White House press release at the inaugural celebration of World Communications Year’ in 1983; ‘Counselor Chitty of the Sri Lankan embassy played a key role in the Foundation’s creation]’. Chitty has been described as a 'thought leader' in a book that devotes its first two pages to him. . He was in a small group that met in Washington DC where the idea for the International Space University was first mooted. Keirstead and Keirstead have noted that “Community radio in Sri Lanka came about as a result of an article written by N. Chitty”.

Selected publications
Chitty, N 2023, “An experiential theory of attraction-based influence (unintended and intended)", in Chitty, N, Ji L, & Rawnsley G (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power (2nd edition), Routledge, New York, pp. 6-34.

Chitty, N & Wang, C 2023, "Soft power, US foreign policy, and George Washington's warning of 'Alternate Domination'", in Ohnesorge, H (ed), Soft power and the future of US foreign policy, Manchester University Press, Manchester.

Chitty, N & Wang, C 2023,“Essaying experience of soft power: CALD community narratives in New South Wales in COVID-19 pandemic times", in Chitty, N, Ji L, & Rawnsley G (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power (2nd edition), Routledge, New York, pp. 231-246.

Chitty, N 2021, "World propaganda and personal insecurity: Intent, content, and contentment", in Rawnsley G, Ma Y & Pothong K (eds), The Edward Elgar Handbook of Political Propaganda, Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham, pp. 7 - 27.

Chitty, N. 2021, Soft power, public diplomacy and post-AUKUS Indo-Pacific security, Evatt Journal, 20,1.

Chitty, N 2020, “Australian public diplomacy”, in Snow N and Cull N (eds) Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, 2nd. edition, Routledge, New York, pp, 306-313.

Chitty, N 2019, "Advancing Australia through soft power: virtue and virtuosity", The Journal of International Communication, 25,2, pp. 193-205.

Chitty, N 2017,“Soft power, civic virtue and world politics", in Chitty, N, Ji L, Rawnsley G & Hayden C (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power (1st edition), Routledge, New York, pp. 9-36.