Soft Power

As an emerging regional power, Turkey’s soft power and public diplomacy are attracting the attention of researchers in recent years. One of the principal elements of
Turkish soft power and public diplomacy are religious diplomacy run by Diyanet,
today one of the most influential religious institutions in the Islamic World, student exchange diplomacy run by Turkiye Burslari, and very vibrant city diplomacy run by the different municipalities and municipality unions, among which the
most prominent is the Union of Turkish World Municipalities-TDBB.
For centuries Balkan peninsula was an area of interest for the Ottoman Empire and later for Turkey. The region serves Turkey as the only gateway to Europe.
After a break during the Cold War, Turkey’s active engagement in the Balkans has
been restored. Today it is possible to say that Turkey is back in the region. It is the
soft power that has been the main tool of Ankara’s influence and public diplomacy lies at the core of that soft power. Public diplomacy institutions are serving
as the visible face of Turkey’s policies, ambitions, goals, and vision in the region.
For that reason, analysis of Turkish public diplomacy provides a clear insight into
what Turkey’s aims and potentials in the Balkans are.

Soft power and nation branding are essential factors for a state to communicate with global audiences around the world. A state's investments in public diplomacy, and nation branding campaigns can prove to be effective in terms of establishing relationships with other countries, promoting tourism, and to gain influence in the international community. Qatar has established various soft power resources such as the Al Jazeera news network, FIFA World Cup 2022, and several cultural and educational exchange programs with countries from around the world. This dissertation will conclude that soft power has proved to be an effective strategy to be implemented by the state of Qatar, the small state has established itself in the international community by gaining legitimacy and credibility in the international community, which gives the small state the ability to gain regional influence. Through these soft power strategies the small state can go forward to pursue its ambitious foreign policy objectives.

From Chinese Brand Culture to Global Brands uses a Chinese
perspective to examine the capacity of Chinese brand culture to
serve as a complement to existing models of brand globalization.
Moving away from the trend to study the managerial aspects of
Western brand building in Chinese contexts, we examine how
Chinese branding efforts express significant aspects of their own
brand culture. Our selection of Jay Chou, the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Opening ceremony, and Shanghai Tang, an aspiring global fashion brand with aesthetic roots in Chinese historical culture, as illustrative cases, is fully consistent with this unwritten and unspoken consensus around exploiting Chinese cultural specificity towards the global development of Chinese brands. Although these three cases may seem “under the radar,” we believe that, together, they provide unique insights into the relation between brands and Chinese culture, and offer intriguing possibilities for thinking about global Chinese brands.

In the age of disruption and in today’s platform society (Van Dijck et al., 2019), communication between nation states is influenced by the development of technology. The nation state is responding to the new communication environment through “techplomacy” and through the use of Artificial Intelligence as a strategic asset in the global tech race. Artificial Intelligence (AI), including the strategies to come up with viable AI, has a big potential for nation branding, being also a competitive advantage for countries worldwide. In this context, the aim of our research is to investigate technology as a soft power (Nye, 2004) instrument for Romania and to analyze how the nation brand is constructed in relation to technology. In doing so, our research revolves around the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for Romania, presented at the IT&C Summit on May 8, 2019, and 50 news articles, published in the quality press (Adevărul, Gândul, România Liberă) employing mixed methods such as fra...

(If you need this paper, send me a message).
This article questions the universality of smart power and substantiates the pertinence of a Costa Rican approach when facing the challenge to generate a Public Diplomacy strategy. The theoretical and empirical analysis of the investigation allows determining the suitability of soft power to provide Public Diplomacy with epistemic consistency in a Small State lacking armed forces such as Costa Rica, which currently is considering to create a Public Diplomacy strategy. To test Nye’s hypothesis, a non-probabilistic exploratory approach was conducted between 2013 and 2014 with 40 career diplomatic officials (representing 20 per cent of the total amount of career officials), as an innovative exercise, considering the extensive academic literature review carried out for this study.

Richard C. Bush's Hong Kong in the shadow of China: Living with the Leviathan (2016) represents an important study on post-"Handover" Hong Kong focusing on the making of the 2014 Occupy Campaign and Umbrella Movement and the impact on the coming development in politics, governance and economy of Hong Kong, taking into consideration China's Hong Kong policy and the response of the Hong Kong people as well as the perspectives ofTaiwan and the United States. This article, while reviewing the book, also provides a detailed analysis of the wider implications of the issues the author of the book has raised as regards Hong Kong-as China's policy approach towards Hong Kong and by extension Taiwan and the struggle of the Hong Kong people, as well as the Taiwan people, to protect the political freedom and democratic rights they aspire to maintain (in the case of Hong Kong) and that they have fought hard to secure (in Taiwan) have impacts that reach far beyond Hong Kong and Taiwan in the light of the PRC's current relentless global projection, riding on the wave of her economic miracle, of her hard and so-called "soft" power in a through an intricate nexus of her domestic and foreign policies that not only serves to strengthen domestic governance and enhance international influence but also involves extraterritorial actions to maintain CCP's one-party authoritarianism. <http://icaps.nsysu.edu.tw/var/file/131/1131/img/2374/CCPS3(2)-Yeoh.pdf> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/dq1z15ggssdld6v/CCPS-V3N2-Yeoh.pdf> Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh (2017), “Hopes against Hobbes: On Authoritarianism, Regime Legitimation and Soft Power with a Review of Richard C. Bush’s Hong Kong in the Shadow of China: Living with the Leviathan (2016)”, Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal (CCPS), Vol. 3, No. 2, July/August 2017, pp. 889-987. [Scopus]

During President Barack Obama's visit to India last year he was invited to plant a Peepal tree sapling at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi. The Peepal tree also knows as the " Bo " tree in Sanskrit is a sacred and pivotal symbol of the Buddhist culture. Culture and its integral components play a major role in marking the global presence of any nation. One very clear portrayal of this is perhaps the way the French culture has spread out across the globe, and how culture itself becomes France. France was the most visited country in 2014 and French is the second language studied by the most number of people in the world after English. That is the power culture and its element have on impacting the global stage virtually since its inception. Soft powers by definition are the means of influencing the preferences of others in order to secure national interests with regards to the political, economic and social policy of the country by means of national assets such as attractive personality, culture, political values, policies and institutions that are seen as legitimate. It also resonates the power intellectual sharing, cultural and political exchange as well as concepts like lobbying have, to change and influence the public's and nations' perspective and opinion. Cultural diplomacy can thus become strong suits of promoting culture, political views and foreign policy. Cultural diplomacy as a tool stimulates other people to give the nation the benefit of the doubt on specific policy stances or requests for cooperation, since there is a presumption of shared interest. Furthermore, cultural diplomacy can reach significant members of foreign societies who cannot be reached through traditional diplomatic mission networks. It also provides a positive agenda for cooperation in spite of policy differences, creates a neutral platform for people-to-people contact, and serves as a legitimate, creative and subtle approach to countries where diplomatic relations have been compromised or are absent.

The military diplomacy has increasingly occupied a wider space in Nepal-India bilateral ties. It has been an effective soft power instrument to convey the message of alive relationship, to bond the ties stronger and to revive the strained relationships. Today, it has got a central place of political as well as public concern. Such glorious history of military diplomacy begins after the challenging official visit of Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) of Nepal to India in 2016 and successful role to revive the severely ruined Nepal-India relationships by ending the unofficial blockade of India imposed to Nepal. Later, it has been recertified considering the Indian Army (IA) Chief’s visit to Nepal in 2020 as an icebreaker visit to reset soured bilateral relationship between two immediate neighbors developed after a bitter boarder row dispute in Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura area. These instances produce a new sequence, value and significance of military diplomacy in contemporary Nepal-India t...

Al Jazeera English: Global News in a Changing World, edited by Philip Seib, is an important book that provides a fresh analytical perspective grounded in a solid overview of the rising news channel. As Al Jazeera expands its audience in the United States, and as it plans to launch new channels in several languages, the book fills a gap in academic literature about the global news network. Thus, it is likely to appeal to a diverse scholarly and media practitioner readership. The volume includes nine chapters that analyze varied facets of Al Jazeera English (AJE) audience and coverage in the United States, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.

RESUME
Avec le processus de mondialisation, de plus en plus de pays sont désireux de présenter une image d'eux-mêmes facilement compréhensible et favorable à leurs politiques et le Japon ne fait pas exception. Comme la plupart des pays aujourd'hui, le Japon, avec sa politique «Cool Japan», tente de se créer une image de lui-même à travers des stratégies de l’image de marque nationale. Les racines de cette politique se trouvent dans la diplomatie culturelle du Japon, qui remonte à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale par laquelle le Japon a tenté de créer et de gérer l’image d’une nation pacifique et pacifiste. Depuis le début du millenium, ces efforts de diplomatie culturelle essayant à renforcer une image pacifique et pacifiste du Japon a été transformée à une politique de l’image de marque nationale par laquelle le Japon a commencé à promouvoir son soft power en le fusionnant avec les éléments attirant de sa culture populaire. Même si les termes de « la puissance douce » et « l’image de marque nationale » sont relativement nouveaux, ils sont essentiels pour la compréhension de la diplomatie culturelle japonaise et donc la politique de « Cool Japan » comme elles sont intimement liées.
Dans ce travail, les efforts de marque nationale du Japon sous le nom de « Cool Japan » et par extension sa diplomatie culturelle à travers l'utilisation de la culture populaire sont discutés et évalués selon la notion de la puissance douce développée par Joseph Nye et selon les objectifs et le contexte dans lesquels les politiques de l’image de marque nationale « Cool Japan » sont mises en œuvre.

ABSTRACT
With the process of globalization, more and more countries are keen to present an image of themselves that is easily understandable and favorable to their policies and Japan is no exception. Like most countries today, Japan, with its “Cool Japan” policy, tries to create an image of itself through nation-branding strategies. The roots of this policy can be found in Japan's cultural diplomacy, which dates back to the end of World War II in which Japan attempted to create and manage the image of a peaceful and peaceful nation. Since the turn of the millennium, these cultural diplomacy efforts trying to bolster a peaceful and pacifist image of Japan has been transformed into a nation-branding policy whereby Japan began to promote its soft power by merging it with the attractive elements of its popular culture. Even though the terms “Soft Power” and “nation-branding” are relatively new, they are essential for the understanding of Japanese cultural diplomacy and therefore the politics of “Cool Japan” as they are closely related.
In this work, Japan's national branding efforts under the name “Cool Japan” and by extension its cultural diplomacy through the use of popular culture are discussed and evaluated according to the notion of Soft Power developed by Joseph Nye and according to the objectives and the regional and global context in which “Cool Japan” nation-branding policies are implemented.

ÖZET
Küreselleşme süreciyle birlikte, giderek daha fazla ülke kendileriyle ilgili kolayca anlaşılır ve politikalarına uygun bir imaj sunmaya istekli hale gelmiştir ve Japonya da bu konuda bir istisna değildir. Bugün birçok ülke gibi Japonya da “Cool Japan” politikasıyla ulus marka stratejileri aracılığıyla kendi imajını yaratmaya çalışmaktadır. Bu politikanın kökleri, Japonya'nın barışçıl ve barışçıl bir ulus imajını yaratmaya ve yönetmeye çalıştığı II. Dünya Savaşı'nın sonuna kadar uzanan Japonya'nın kültürel diplomasisinde bulunabilir. 2000li yılların başlangıcından bu yana, Japonya'nın barışçıl ve pasifist imajını güçlendirmeye hedefinde olan bu kültürel diplomasi çabaları, Japonya'nın yumuşak gücünü popüler kültürünün çekici unsurlarıyla birleştirerek güçlendirmeye çalıştığı bir ulus markalama politikasına dönüşmüştür. “Yumuşak Güç” ve “ulus-marka” terimleri nispeten yeni olsa da, yakından ilişkili oldukları için Japon kültürel diplomasisini ve dolayısıyla “Cool Japan” siyasetini anlamak için gereklidir.
Bu çalışmada, Japonya'nın “Cool Japan” adı altında ulusal markalaşma politikaları ve buna bağlı olarak popüler kültürü kendine bir temel edinmeye başlamış olan kültürel diplomasisi, Joseph Nye tarafından geliştirilen Yumuşak Güç kavramına ve Japonya'nın dış politika amaçlarına ve bölgesel ve küresel bağlama göre tartışılmakta ve değerlendirilmektedir.

Υπό τη σκιά της κρίσης στην οποία η Ελλάδα έχει διέλθει σήμερα, καθώς και των δομικών
αδυναμιών που αντιμετωπίζει διαχρονικά, θα πρέπει να λαξευτεί ένας συγκροτημένος κεντρικός
στρατηγικός σχεδιασμός στον τομέα της εξωτερικής πολιτικής. Σε αυτό ακριβώς το πλαίσιο
προτείνεται η διαμόρφωση της «Στρατηγικής 2020», η οποία οραματίζεται την Eλληνική
διπλωματία ως εθνικό εργαλείο και κωδικοποιείται μέσα από μια δέσμη προτάσεων για τον
εξορθολογισμό του στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού, με χρονικό ορόσημο το έτος 2020. Συγκεκριμένα, η
«Στρατηγική 2020» προτάσσει ως βασικό κορμό του νέου στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού της Ελληνικής
εξωτερικής πολιτικής έναν άξονα τριών θεματικών προτεραιοτήτων που σχετίζονται με την
ήπια ισχύ: α) της οικονομικής, β) της δημόσιας και γ)της πολυμερούς διπλωματίας, αντίστοιχα.
Ταυτόχρονα, το θεματικό τρίπτυχο με επίκεντρο την ήπια ισχύ θα πρέπει να συναρθρωθεί με
έναν εξορθολογισμό των γεωγραφικών προτεραιοτήτων της Ελληνικής διπλωματίας με τρεις
γεωγραφικές προτεραιότητες στρατηγικής εστίασης α) στην Ανατολική Ασία και τις αναδυόμενες
χώρες, β) στην Ελληνική Περιφέρεια, καθώς και γ) στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση.
Ένας εξορθολογισμός του στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού συνεπάγεται σαφώς κι έναν λειτουργικό
εξορθολογισμό της Eλληνικής διπλωματίας. Ο τελευταίος αφορά την κατανομή των πόρων της
διπλωματίας και φιλοδοξεί να παρωθήσει τους ιθύνοντες να πρωτοστατήσουν αφενός στη μείωση
του κόστους των ενεργειών που σχετίζονται με την διπλωματία και, αφετέρου, στη μεγιστοποίηση
των οφελών που μπορεί η διπλωματία αυτή να διαχύσει στην ελληνική κοινωνία. Μεταξύ άλλων
προτείνεται η τοποθέτηση και θέσπιση στην κορυφή της επιχειρησιακής πυραμίδας της Ελληνικής
Διπλωματίας μιας Ειδικής Γραμματείας Στρατηγικού Σχεδιασμού. Παράλληλα, προτείνεται η
θέσπιση Υπηρεσίας Δημόσιας Διπλωματίας, η καθιέρωση Επιτελικής Γραμματείας Οικονομικής
Διπλωματίας (ή παρεμφερούς θεσμού) και, πιθανώς, μια ενισχυμένη ποιοτικά Γενική Διεύθυνση
Πολυμερούς Διπλωματίας (ΕΕ & Διεθνείς Οργανισμοί).
Τέλος, προτείνεται ένας προσαρμοσμένος λειτουργικός εξορθολογισμός τόσο στην επιλογή και
στελέχωση του ανθρώπινου δυναμικού της Ελληνικής διπλωματίας (π.χ. μέσα από στοχευμένη
στελέχωση –οικονομολόγων, Ασιατολόγων και επικοινωνιολόγων) όσο και στην αξιολόγηση
του ανθρώπινου δυναμικού (π.χ. εξορθολογισμένη διπλωματική ανέλιξη βάσει σταθμισμένων
κριτηρίων αξιολόγησης με έμφαση στην χειραφέτηση του Έλληνα διπλωμάτη). Να προστεθεί
επίσης ότι μέσω της «Στρατηγικής 2020» προτείνεται να εμφυσηθεί μια νέα διάσταση στον τρόπο
άσκησης της εξωτερικής πολιτικής, με τη διεύρυνση του φάσματος των ενδιαφερομένων μερών,
τόσο σε εθνικό επίπεδο όσο και σε διεθνές επίπεδο. Η ανάμιξη των μη-κρατικών δρώντων και
ευρύτερα των φορέων της κοινωνίας των πολιτών, της τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης, του ακαδημαϊκού
στερεώματος και των δημοσίων φορέων συνιστά αναπόσπαστο μέρος της σύγχρονης διπλωματίας.
Αυτό προϋποθέτει τη διαμόρφωση ενός γενικότερου στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού με γνώμονα μια
Υψηλή Στρατηγική, βασικό βραχίονα της οποίας θα πρέπει να αποτελεί ο στρατηγικός σχεδιασμός
και οι προτεραιότητες της νέας Ελληνικής Εξωτερικής Πολιτικής.

ბოლო დროს განსაკუთრებით გააქტიურდა  ანტიდასავლური რიტორიკა სოციალურ ქსელებში, ონლაინ მედიაში, ზოგიერთ რადიო და ტელეგადაცემებში. ამგვარი მიზანმიმართული ნარატივი უმეტესწილად სწორედ პრორუსული რიტორიკის პოპულარიზაციას ახდენს.  ამავე დროს ის ორგანიზაციები, რომლებიც დასავლეთს (აშშ, ევროკავშირი) საქართველოს მტრად წარმოაჩენენ, გამოირჩევიან ქსენოფობიური, ჰომოფობიური განცხადებებით და აქცენტს აკეთებენ რუსეთ-საქართველოს „მეგობრობის“ აღდგენაზე, ურთიერთობის ნორმალიზებაზე ან საქართველოს ნეიტრალიტეტზე.

წინამდებარე კვლევაში თავმოყრილია ის არასამთავრობო და მედია ორგანიზაციები, რომლებიც ამგვარი რიტორიკით გამოირჩევიან.

(Article language German, English Abstract)
Facticity, Identity, and Emotionality: Cultural Strategies addressing Genocide Denial in the Case of Srebrenica.
Twenty-six years after the Srebrenica genocide, the topic remains a discursive minefield. On the one hand, there are the facts and a self-confident commemorative culture of the genocidal events of July 1995. On the other hand, revisionism, negation and counter-memorialization. This essay is grounded in three sources: first, the findings of the "Srebrenica Genocide Denial Report 2021" by the Memorial Center Srebrenica; secondly, the proposals for breaking the narrative of genocide denial by Jasmila Žbanić, director of the film "Quo Vadis, Aida?"; and finally, the results of the anti-revisionist, cross-national projects "Ko/Tko je prvi počeo?" (Who started first?) and "Histoire pour la liberté" (History for freedom) complete this contribution. The aim of the essay is not merely to identify reasons, backgrounds, and interests in the revisionist discourse. Rather, it suggests possible solutions to this polarized situation which could be relevant beyond the regional framework.

The concept of soft power occupies a prominent place in International Relations, foreign policy, and security studies. Primarily developed by Joseph S. Nye, the concept is typically drawn upon to emphasize the more intangible dimensions of power in a field long dominated by overtly material (i.e. military) power. Recently, some scholars have reframed soft power — specifically the key notion of attraction — as a narrative and linguistic process. This literature, however, has downplayed some of the other deep-seated underpinnings of soft power, which this article argues lie in the dynamics of affect. Building upon the International Relations affect and aesthetics literatures, this article develops the concept of soft power as rooted in the political dynamics of emotion and introduces the concept of affective investment. The attraction of soft power stems not only from its cultural influence or narrative construction, but more fundamentally from audiences’ affective investments in the images of identity that it produces. The empirical import of these ideas is offered in an analysis of the construction of American attraction in the war on terror.

Across regions where the luxury of sport is eclipsed by the struggle of everyday life, including revolutions, wars, poverty, unemployment, injustice and occupation, sport can still play an influential role for positive change. The ability to transcend cultural, religious and political borders, fostering a culture of friendship and mutual respect whilst combating stereotypes, are some of the key features we often associate with sport. In the last three decades, discrimination against Muslims in Europe has become more explicit, detrimental and damaging. The mass media obsession with Islam is prevalent in all sections of our society, albeit dominated by a type of thinking we still call today Orientalist. The frequent exclusion of Muslims from economic, social and public life in Europe and their victimisation by discrimination and harassment have never been greater (Amnesty International, 2012). As issues pertaining to cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue are of paramount importance in today's world, Muslim elite sportspeople practicing 'soft power' as a tool of attraction with respect to their Islamic faith is an unexplored occurrence. This chapter will explore and analyse these practices by Muslim football players acting as ambassadors of faith. The first segment of the chapter will look at the globalisation of sport as an influential contributor to global popular culture in our time. Subsequently, there will be a focus on the practice of diplomacy in light of technological advancement and public perception. The third and final part will look at empirical case studies of Muslim football players practicing soft power in the Premier League and introduce a new theory of Islamic diplomacy respectively.

Si la création des instituts Confucius est récente, elle est également souvent analysée avec méfiance par des observateurs craignant que, derrière les apparences du soft power, ne se cache une volonté de propagande. Cette méfiance mérite d'être interrogée : les instituts Confucius sont-ils vraiment des instituts linguistico-culturels comme les autres ?

Findings of the Literature Review

    The term ‘cultural relations’ refers to interventions in foreign cultural arenas with the aim of enhancing intercultural dialogue and bringing about mutual benefits connected to security, stability and prosperity. There is no universally agreed definition of cultural relations. The conceptual confusion can lead to differences in practice, though it can also enable flexibility.

    Just as there is no common definition of cultural relations, there is no one correct approach to good cultural relations, or simple method of evaluating them

    Just as there is no common definition of cultural relations, there is no one correct approach to good cultural relations, or simple method of evaluating cultural relations.  Practitioners face very different cultural and geopolitical contexts. Effective cultural relations necessarily involve flexibly adapting programmes in ways that resonate with these contexts.
    ‘Cultural relations’ is primarily a practitioners’ term and often regarded as synonymous with ‘cultural diplomacy’, ‘public diplomacy’ and - for some - as contributing to their country’s ‘soft power’. These terms belong within the same broad semantic field and share many common features, but it is important to distinguish them.  Cultural relations practitioners aspire to genuine reciprocity and mutual understanding, while cultural and public diplomacy, and soft power, sometimes bear connotations of instrumentalism and self-interest.
    The emphasis on the intrinsic versus instrumental value of culture varies between different institutions and countries. Some tend to eschew overt instrumentalist ambitions and instead stress intrinsic value, while others are more comfortable with a balancing act between intrinsic and instrumental goals.  The intrinsic value of cultural projects should remain paramount. But instrumental goals, when defined in ways that express mutual benefit, can and should be included for pragmatic purposes, and in response to changing funding regimes and requirements.

    German cultural relations are founded on a ‘strong’ conception of culture (where culture is closely tied to national history, language and identity). In contrast, British cultural relations are based on a ‘weak’ conception of culture, emerging from a tradition of liberal individualism and British empiricism

    Assessing the value of cultural relations in different countries and for different actors requires a range of methodologies that take diverse perspectives into account. It is important to situate the strategies and practices of cultural relations organisations like the Goethe-Institut and British Council within the wider histories of their countries to understand their distinctive approaches. German cultural relations are founded on a ‘strong’ conception of culture (where culture is closely tied to national history, language and identity). In contrast, British cultural relations are based on a ‘weak’ conception of culture, emerging from a tradition of liberal individualism and British empiricism. Germany and the UK have very similar goals in deploying culture relations to assist societies in transition.  But they have different modi operandi.
    The complex and nuanced nature of cultural relations suggests that attempts to evaluate them will themselves have to be sophisticated, nuanced, and sensitive to the different contexts in which they are taking place and different actors involved.

The Literature Review draws on a detailed investigation of the existing academic literature in German and English on cultural relations, soft power, and related concepts.

The article discusses the distinctive features of Qatar’s contemporary public diplomacy influenced by the contesting for the regional dominance. Main approaches to conducting public diplomacy and corresponding instruments are being analyzed, including media holdings, educational, humanitarian and peacekeeping initiatives. The research also covers the role of Qatar in Arab Spring and Al Jazeera’s innovative approaches to reporting on protest actions in the Middle East.

This collection of essays examines the subject of power politics in Africa, paying special attention to the interests of African regional powers, as well as their capabilities and strategies in the international arena. It provides a theoretical bridge between concerns for militarised national interest, perpetual distrust and insecurity, struggles for power and hegemony in power politics, and the spirit of pan-African solidarity, brotherhood, consensus, cooperation and integration. It is on these bases that this volume offers rich empirical insight into leading regional powers in Africa with special attention given to Nigeria and South Africa. It serves to contribute African perspectives to the field of International Relations, particularly regarding power politics, which is important in terms of Africanising the narratives of a subject matter that is largely considered as Eurocentric in African and other non-Western societies.

Cet article ambitionne d’analyser la gastro-diplomatie, devenue une tendance dans les relations internationales, comme un ensemble de pratiques institutionnelles qui repousse les limites des usages politiques des cultures alimentaires. J’essaierai de montrer que l’essor actuel du concept tient à ce qu’il s’étend aux niveaux national et international, à sa nature intrusive et performative (c’est-à-dire, génératrice de participation et d’action) et à sa forte charge idéologique. Plus précisément, je rendrai compte de la façon dont la gastro-diplomatie, telle qu’elle est instrumentalisée par des agences publiques et privées, participe de la fabrication des imaginaires pour faciliter l’adhésion des citoyens aux intérêts des élites politiques et économiques.

Global Trends in Museum Diplomacy traces the transformation of museums from publicly or privately funded heritage institutions into active players in the economic sector of culture. Exploring how this transformation reconfigured cultural diplomacy, the book argues that museums have become autonomous diplomatic players on the world stage.

The book offers a comparative analysis across a range of case studies in order to demonstrate that museums have gone global in the era of neoliberal globalisation. Grincheva focuses first on the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which is well known for its bold revolutionising strategies of global expansion: museum franchising and global corporatisation. The book then goes on to explore how these strategies were adopted across museums around the world and analyses two cases of post-Guggenheim developments in China and Russia: the K11 Art Mall in Hong Kong and the International Network of Foundations of the State Hermitage Museum in Russia. These cases from more authoritarian political regimes evidence the emergence of alternative avenues of museum diplomacy that no longer depend on government commissions to serve immediate geo-political interests.

Global Trends in Museum Diplomacy will be a valuable resource for students, scholars and practitioners of contemporary museology and cultural diplomacy. Documenting new developments in museum diplomacy, the book will be particularly interesting to museum and heritage practitioners and policymakers involved in international exchanges or official programs of cultural diplomacy.

Los tenedores de bonos de la Deuda Inglesa aceptaron la entrega de títulos de propiedad de terrenos baldíos en la provincia de Esmeraldas, en cuyas extensiones podían aprovechar los recursos naturales, exportarlos y beneficiarse económicamente. Para llevar adelante el convenio indicado, en 1855 se firmó la constitución de la empresa Ecuador Land Company Limited. Sus representantes en el Ecuador se encargarían de tomar posesión de los terrenos, instalar las colonias para los potenciales inmigrantes e iniciar la explotación de los recursos naturales, entre los que se consideraba importante a la tagua. El ensayo contiene los hechos más significativos que ocurrieron en el proceso de funcionamiento de la compañía y de las empresas subsidiarias o arrendatarias.

En referencia a los monopolios propiamente dichos, no parece que la empresa inglesa concentró la exportación de tagua, porque este recurso salía también de Manabí y de otros puntos de la Costa ecuatoriana. Lo que sí está documentado, es la eficiente productividad de este recurso en manos de la empresa extranjera, a juzgar por los valores que se declaran anualmente.

El interés inglés, en las colonias hispanoamericanas a comienzos del siglo XIX, respondía a un deseo político y económico. En el primer caso, contribuir a la conformación de naciones y estados independientes con los cuales establecer vínculos que permitieran la expansión de la revolución industrial que se hallaba en auge en los países europeos, particularmente en Gran Bretaña. En el aspecto económico, el financiamiento de las guerras de la independencia de los países de Sudamérica permitió la apertura de un mercado de capitales que a la larga ató a los países como el Ecuador, durante más de un siglo, hasta pagar la llamada Deuda inglesa. Los dos factores, al final, quebraron el monopolio comercial del Imperio Español y permitieron el auge del Imperio Británico. Los gobernantes ecuatorianos, por sus propias iniciativas o por medio de terceros, accedieron y atendieron los intereses de los tenedores de bonos de la Deuda.

The political, social and security landscape in the region be- tween EU and Russia, which is also called the shared neighborhood, has been constantly changing after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of the rea- sons that stand behind this transformation consist of the will of states to change their domestic and foreign policy in order to become ”truly indepen- dent” and to be able to choose what is best for them, without being forced, as in a democracy. More or less, in this landscape, each of the three most important international actors - Russia, EU and NATO - can influence the destiny of these countries through their own measures, be them soft, hard or smart. In this game of power, each actor tries to gain more but in the mean- time seeks to keep a balance. From this angle, the present article analyzes the way in which NATO operates through its hard power and how EU through its soft power can attract the members of the Eastern Partnership on the West side. At the same time, it presents the challenges that may emerge in this kind of game, where Russia cannot permanently be denied. The proposed case study refers to Georgia.

La comunicación global constituye una disciplina tan cambiante como compleja en el marco de la realidad internacional, tanto por la globalización, como por las interdependencias creadas entre los actores de la sociedad internacional. Además, la creciente utilización de las TIC ha venido a revolucionar la comunicación internacional de siglo XXI. Ya no responde solo a la que aparece en los medios de comunicación, sino que también es la que emana de otros actores de la sociedad internacional: como los estados, las organizaciones internacionales, las empresas trasnacionales, o las ONG, entre otros. En una disciplina transversal y multisectorial, que interconecta lo global con lo local, lo regional y lo nacional, tienen dimensión internacional: unas elecciones (victoria de Trump en EE.UU.); un atentado (Nueva York, Madrid, Londres, París, Bruselas o Estambul); un referéndum nacional (Paz en Colombia; Brexit en Reino Unido, Constitucional en Italia); una catástrofe (tsunami en Tailandia), una guerra civil (Siria), una decisión de una multinacional (deslocalización en Tercer Mundo lucrándose del trabajo infantil); una estrategia de marca territorio o de comunicación (Marca España y UE), o un simple partido de fútbol (la final del último Mundial entre Argentina y Alemania). Multisectorialidad, transversalidad y TIC suponen un desafío, no solo para comunicadores o/y periodistas internacionales, sino también para juristas, politólogos, sociólogos, estudiosos o el público general interesado en Asuntos Internacionales.

Jorge Tuñón es actualmente profesor de la Universidad Carlos III y experto científico externo de la Comisión y del Parlamento Europeo, además de colaborar con Consultoras en Asuntos Públicos y Escuelas de Negocios. Obtuvo su Doctorado Europeo (Premio Extraordinario y reconocimiento del Comité de las Regiones) tras licenciarse en Derecho, Periodismo y Ciencias Políticas. Ha sido profesor invitado en distintas universidades europeas y americanas, incluido el Colegio de Europa en Brujas (Bélgica) y publica y da conferencias en inglés, castellano, francés e italiano.  Además de abogado, traductor y consultor para diferentes administraciones regionales, tiene experiencia como periodista en diversos medios de comunicación y ha trabajado para el Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública (España) y la Comisión Europea.
✉ jorge.tunon.navarro@gmail.com;  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgetunon;  @JorgeTunonMAD

ABSTRACT
The existing discussion on the consumption and the reception of Japanese and Korean popular culture globally has been concentrated on the popular media and its derivatives. The academic investigation on different cultural sectors beyond the field of popular media, yet, has been relatively understudied. A study on transnational foods, in this thesis, comes as an effort to shift the perspective, and also provides a new alternative to correlate the emerging consumer culture with the consumers’ identity construction, particularly among urban communities in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. This research attempts to investigate the meaning of consuming transnational Japanese and Korean food as well as the influence of popular media on the consumption preferences and the level of cultural awareness. Another question is also raised regarding the authenticity issues of transnational foods while being consumed in different localities. Research findings are gathered through the dissemination of online questionnaires and in-depth interviews with consumers and restaurant managers. Then, the analyses of results are focused on three aspects of consumer culture, the implications of media on consumers’ preferences, and the application of the ‘staged authenticity’ strategy. This paper suggests that consumers’ conspicuous consumption of Japanese and Korean foods and the utilization of experience, place, and lifestyles have become essential factors in the process of identity construction, befitting what they assume as the practice of ‘cosmopolitans.’ This paper also identifies the influences of Japanese and Korean popular media in branding the nation images of both Japan and South Korea, in increasing the cultural awareness, and in setting the consumption preferences. Additionally, as transnational consumption involves disjuncture, issues such as authenticity and halalization arise as foods are consumed in a Muslim majority setting. Authenticity, then, becomes problematic as it has to be continuously adjusted to overcome cultural barriers. Finally, transnational food consumption remains a complex yet vibrant discussion in urban consumption practices.

Keywords: authenticity, consumer culture, identity construction, transnational Japanese and Korean foods, popular culture