The “Glob­al” cat­e­go­ry exam­ines the influ­ence oper­a­tions of a range of state actors that pur­sue strate­gic goals through a com­bi­na­tion of soft pow­er, lob­by­ing, and infor­ma­tion cam­paigns. These states often lever­age cul­tur­al, reli­gious, and eco­nom­ic tools to expand their region­al and inter­na­tion­al influ­ence. Turkey stands out as a key play­er, employ­ing a range of tac­tics that include orga­ni­za­tions serv­ing the Turk­ish dias­po­ra, Islamist groups, polit­i­cal and edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives, and lob­by­ing net­works that effec­tive­ly advo­cate for the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment. Sim­i­lar­ly, Qatar exerts its influ­ence by fund­ing projects aligned with the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood across Europe, main­tain­ing a robust net­work of lob­by­ists, and uti­liz­ing Al Jazeera as a pow­er­ful media plat­form to advance its nar­ra­tives glob­al­ly. Mean­while, North Korea focus­es on pro­ject­ing its pow­er and secur­ing regime sta­bil­i­ty through an intri­cate web of pro­pa­gan­da, cyber­at­tacks, and illic­it eco­nom­ic activ­i­ties, all aimed at under­min­ing adver­saries and evad­ing inter­na­tion­al sanc­tions. Togeth­er, these exam­ples illus­trate how states out­side the major glob­al pow­ers employ tar­get­ed influ­ence strate­gies to shape inter­na­tion­al dis­course and region­al dynam­ics, rais­ing crit­i­cal ques­tions about their impact on gov­er­nance, secu­ri­ty, and demo­c­ra­t­ic institutions.