culture

The Cultural Awakening in Public Diplomacy is the fourth and latest issue of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy for 2012. Written by R.S. Zaharna, a CPD Research Fellow 2011-2013, the paper addresses the oversight of culture in public diplomacy and makes a case for its growing influence.

Building China into a socialist country with strong cultural influences is a core principle... In order to achieve this goal, we must understand how best to enhance China's soft power and introduce the Chinese culture to the rest of the world. Take the book publishing industry as an example.

Turkey steadily since the rise of AKP party in 2002 in power, is investing considerable resources upon expanding its reach both in the Islamic and in the Western world, by the use of Islamic organizations that are spread in dozens of countries and are mainly composed by Turkish-descent citizens. The web of relations and transactions between them and with Turkey are multitude and far-reaching.

...From the perspective of ASEAN, Korea has become a strategically important, economically crucial, and culturally rich partner. Korea’s soft power seems to make its impact felt everywhere in Southeast Asia. It fosters an atmosphere favorable for various exchanges between Korea and ASEAN....

April 7, 2012

Kung fu, pandas or Peking Opera are what one would commonly associate with China - but they are also vital cogs in a massive "soft power" exercise that China hopes will give it more global voice and an image makeover. It is also proving to be a tough challenge for policymakers, as the growth of the country's "soft power" has not been in tandem with that of its "hard power".

Nonetheless, Austad believes Norwegian design going in a positive direction. He suggests that it has a growing number of young and ambitious designers all eager to identify how Norwegian design should be in the 21st century. He also adds Norwegian design has a strong cultural foundation and hopes that Norway will be able to continue to brand itself as a design nation in the future.

Ireland is using St. Patrick’s Day as the basis for a global branding campaign to publicize the country’s cultural and educational assets, Jimmy Deenihan, its minister of arts and heritage, told the Irish Chamber of Atlanta’s annual breakfast celebration March 16.

One aspect is culture, a powerful, but as-yet poorly deployed tool in the exercise of China's soft power and public diplomacy... This is important because as the Chinese learn how to use these tools better, they will more effectively compete in the contest for hearts and minds. It's also critical if this country is ever to move from merely "Made in China" to its long elusive goal of "Created in China."

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