Capturing Hearts: Charm, Personal Magnetism and the Iranian Nuclear Deal in the American and Israeli Press.

A "charm offensive" is a diplomatic technique in which negotiators use the power of their personal magnetism to achieve particular goals in international relations. This paper focuses on the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal negotiations with a special interest in the charm offensives of the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We examine the journalistic coverage of Zarif's and Netanyahu's charm offensives in the American (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal) and the Israeli (Haaretz and Israel Hayom) press. Bringing together literatures in communication studies, sociology, political science and international relations, the paper presents preliminary definitions of "charm" and "charm offensive," it examines non- Western charm, challenging the notion that it is a characteristic of Western leadership, and finally, it analyzes the role of media, in particular the press, in constructing and presenting charm offensives in Israel and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]