Soft power in its current, widely understood form has become a straitjacket for those trying to understand power and communication in international affairs. Analyses of soft power overwhelmingly focus on soft power ‘assets’ or capabilities and how to wield them, not how influence does or does not take place. It has become a catch-all term that has lost explanatory power, just as hard power once did. The authors argue that the concept of strategic narrative gives us intellectual purchase on the complexities of international politics today, especially in regard to how influence works in a new media environment. They believe that the study of media and war would benefit from more attention being paid to strategic narratives.

Strategic narrative: A new means to understand soft power

Chinese-African relations became an issue of increasing importance leading up to the 2006 China-Africa Summit in Beijing. Nevertheless, academics and policymakers have largely neglected China's expanding relationship with Africa. Scholars have yet to explore the concrete ways in which Chinese actors operate in different parts of Africa, and developmental policy advisors have yet to take the political dynamics and implications of this involvement into consideration when forming policy. China Returns to Africa addresses key issues in contemporary Chinese-African relations, examining the impact of this relationship in issues of diplomacy, trade, and development. Beginning with the assertion that China is engaged in a "scramble for Africa" and that we are now on the brink of a "new Chinese imperialism," the essays in this volume transcend narrow, media-driven concerns and offer one of the first far-ranging surveys of the consequences of China's investment in Africa.

China returns to Africa : a rising power and a continent embrace

Economic convergence of the large emerging economies (Brazil, China and India) on the incumbent industrialized economic powers has produced divergent predictions: rising powers are viewed as challengers of existing global governance or nascent supporters of the status quo. The preferences of rising powers, as revealed in global economic negotiations and international security regimes, indicate that they are moderate reformers that seek greater influence within existing forums and also attempt to safeguard their policy-making autonomy. Even if their preferences change, the translation of growing economic weight into usable capabilities is not automatic. Domestic political constraints often make the mobilization of capabilities difficult in international bargaining. Strategies of collective action, whether South-South or regional, have not yet produced a consistent increase in bargaining power at the global level. The counter-strategies of delay and cooptation implemented by the incumbent powers have maintained incumbent influence and enhanced the legitimacy of existing global governance institutions. Risks of conflict remain along three negotiating divides: system friction, distributional conflict and institutional efficiency. Institutional innovations such as greater transparency, institutional flexibility and construction of informal transnational networks may provide modest insurance against a weakening of global governance and its institutions.

https://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/Rising%20powers%20and%20global%20governance%20-%20negotiating%20change%20in%20a%20resilint%20status%20quo.pdf

Rising powers and global governance: negotiating change in a resilient status quo

Research Highlights and AbstractThe article discusses how states are increasingly using sports mega-events as part of their ‘soft power’ strategiesThe limited literature on ‘soft power’ and sports mega-events fails to either explain the concept and how it pertains to sport or provide examples that operationalize the concept empirically.Further research can build on the idea of sports mega-events being used for public diplomacy; the case of Germany, it could be argued, has led many ‘emerging’ states to seek to bid for and host such events.We show how the UK—with a very different international image to Germany prior to 2006—engage in a different manner in its ‘soft power’ strategy.Finally, the macro-level concept of ‘soft power’ offers at least a partial answer to the unanswered question (in the sports studies literature) of why states host sports ‘megas’.The potential positive impact on a nation's image has moved from being a welcome consequence to a significant justification for investing in hosting sport...

/pdf/sports-mega-events-as-part-of-a-nation-s-soft-power-strategy-39tuyrog17.pdf

Sports Mega-Events as Part of a Nation's Soft Power Strategy: The Cases of Germany (2006) and the UK (2012)

....................................................................................................................... III TABLE DES MATIÈRES .................................................................................................... V LISTE DES SIGLES ......................................................................................................... VII REMERCIEMENTS .......................................................................................................... IX INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPITRE I : REVUE DE LITTÉRATURE ET CADRE THEORIQUE ..................... 11 1. 1. REVUE DE LITTÉRATURE ............................................................................................. 14 1.1. 1. La lutte contre l’impunité : un impératif moral discuté ........................................ 14 1. 1. 2. Téléologique et utilitariste .............................................................................. 15 1. 1. 3. Fonctionnaliste et instrumentaliste ................................................................. 17 1. 1. 4. Culturaliste et historique ................................................................................ 23 1. 2. CADRE THÉORIQUE ..................................................................................................... 31 1. 2. 1. Dignité humaine et principe de dignité ............................................................... 31 1. 2. 2. Impératif moral hypothétique, impératif moral catégorique ................................ 38 1. 2. 3. Morale et éthique, déontologisme et conséquentialisme...................................... 42 1. 2. 4. Lutter contre l’impunité : une définition ............................................................. 49 1. 2. 5. La sanction et la morale ..................................................................................... 68 1. 2. 6. Lutter contre l’impunité : une idée consubstantielle du système international ..... 75 1. 2. 7. Lutter contre l’impunité : lutte morale et contractualisation socio-politique du principe de dignité ......................................................................................................... 81 1. 2. 8. Droit et morale, éthique, kantisme : une relation étroite ...................................... 95 1. 2. 9. Droit(s) : questions et enjeux théoriques ............................................................. 98 1. 2. 10. Le droit : du discours commun aux questions et enjeux théoriques ................. 100 1. 2. 11. Le droit : une question (de) politique et de domination ................................... 106 1. 2. 12. Le droit : une question d’attribution de signification objective et d’interprétation authentique .................................................................................................................. 109

Justice pénale internationale : la lutte contre l’impunité en tant qu’impératif moral

Charm offensive: how China's soft power is transforming the world

This volume explains China’s foreign policy from the perspective of its historical recovery after 1949 and the country’s subsequent rise as a great power, including its transformation into a global power. It also illuminates how China has, in tandem with its rise, developed an increasing array of political, economic, ‘sharp power’ and military capabilities that is helping it to further its increasingly expansive foreign policy objectives. The volume examines two key questions: What have been the implications of China’s rise for its foreign policy? And how has an increasingly powerful and confident China used a range of foreign policy instruments to pursue its expanding national interests in Asia and beyond? The volume is divided into three parts, covering the conceptualization and drivers of China’s foreign policy, China’s relations with the world, and the instruments of China’s foreign policy, namely its economic power, military capabilities and its ‘sharp power’ manipulation of information and relationships. It will be of interest to academics, students and researchers interested in understanding China’s role in world politics. 

China's Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT Great power rivalry is a structural feature in Southeast Asia’s international politics which three decades of post-Cold War academic analysis and diplomatic activity has sought and failed to transcend. The acknowledgement of its return to a central role in the analysis of Southeast Asia’s international politics is both illuminating and instructive. Accordingly, this article centres discussion of three recent books on the region’s international politics around the following great power-related themes: the arrival of Chinese power in Southeast Asia; the return of Chinese activism and US-China rivalry in Southeast Asia; contingent Southeast Asian agency; and the value of theory in illuminating these dynamics.

Great power Rivalry and Southeast Asian agency: Southeast Asia in an Era of US-China strategic competition

is accompanied by solid academic writing and research. However, the book is not without its shortcomings. For instance, the insufficient use of social research methodologies is a major drawback in its approach. It would be worthwhile to consider the mood in Middle East societies vis-à-vis the globalisation processes, cosmopolitanism and radicalism. The Middle East itself is at least as important as the global West in determining the attitudes of people in the region. The results of such social research could provide a substantial basis for supporting the book’s main hypothesis.

Nicholas Khoo

Papers

Charm offensive: how China's soft power is transforming the world

China's Foreign Policy

Great power Rivalry and Southeast Asian agency: Southeast Asia in an Era of US-China strategic competition

These islands are ours: the social construction of territorial disputes in Northeast Asia