HomeChinese public diplomacy: Soft power, sharp Power, or harsh Power?
Chinese public diplomacy: Soft power, sharp Power, or harsh Power?
La diplomatie publique chinoise : « Soft Power », « Sharp Power », ou « Harsh Power » ?
Appel à Article Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie n° 60
Published on Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Abstract
This 60th special issue of Monde Chinois nouvelle Asie aims to address a series of questions: How to define soft power in China? How to measure it? Is it aimed for internal or external use? What are these effects and its relays? Shall we discard the term and rather adopt new ones, such as sharp power?
Announcement
Argument
The term soft power is defined primarily by what it opposes: hard power, or the set of coercive military and economic tools through which a state imposes its will onto others. Conversely, soft power is said to be constituted by a set of intangible cultural assets of a society which lead others to adopt themselves to its values. It differs from propaganda in which the State intentionally constructs the image of the country to be conveyed to others. Should we use the notion of soft power to characterize China’s public diplomacy?
After the Tiananmen 4th June 1989 events, Chinese politicians and intellectuals started to look at the concept as a means to renew and reshape its international legitimacy. The notion of soft power emerged in China after He Xiaodong’s and Ge Yuyun’s 1992 translation of Joseph Nye’s book Bound to Lead, and with Wang Huning 1993 paper on this topic. Its official use in 2007 was inaugurated by Hu Jintao’s speech during the 17th National Congress. Between 2004 and 2013 of 435 Confucius Institutes were opened in 117 countries, and China hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. There does not seem to be much evidence that these efforts of cultural diffusion and persuasion have borne fruits. Moreover, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has adopted a more affirmative or aggressive form of external diplomacy at regional and global levels: China’s soft power seems less and less soft.
This 60th special issue of Monde Chinois nouvelle Asie aims to address a series of questions: How to define soft power in China? How to measure it? Is it aimed for internal or external use? What are these effects and its relays? Shall we discard the term and rather adopt new ones, such as sharp power?
Submission guidelines
Submission of papers: a synopsis of 4000 characters (in French or English) of proposed papers should be sent to the two editors of this special issue: Jean-Yves Heurtebise (jy.heurtebise@gmail.com) & Emmanuel Dubois de Prisque (e.duboisdeprisque@gmail.com)
before 15 October 2019.
Accepted articles, of no more than 40000 characters must be sent before 15 November 2019.
Subjects
- Political studies (Main category)
Date(s)
- Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Attached files
Keywords
- Chine, Soft-Power
Contact(s)
- Jean-Yves Heurtebise
courriel : jy [dot] heurtebise [at] gmail [dot] com
Reference Urls
Information source
- Jean-Yves Heurtebise
courriel : jy [dot] heurtebise [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Chinese public diplomacy: Soft power, sharp Power, or harsh Power? », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, https://calenda.org/630648
