The importance of soft power is one of the most striking features of contemporary international relations. The concept of soft power has a strong appeal outside the Western world, most countries now makes serious business of developing their public diplomacy, and the challenge of engaging with overseas audiences is under close scrutiny in foreign ministries everywhere. Soft power possesses an almost magical attractive quality in East Asia, to a degree that it never attained in the United States or Europe. This study shows the continuing importance of empirical measurement and critical examination of this analytical concept. The awareness of public diplomacy’s centrality in international relations is also shared in East Asia and recent experience has something to offer to current thinking. Public Diplomacy and Soft Power in East Asia helps to fill in empirical gaps and informs broader conceptual and theoretical debates.

 

 Contents

 

Introduction | Sook Jong Lee and Jan Melissen

 

1. The Theory and Reality of Soft Power: Practical Approaches in East Asia | Shin- wha Lee 

2. Soft Power as Productive Power | Yong Wook Lee 

3. Measuring Soft Power in East Asia: An Overview of Soft Power in East Asia on Affective and Normative Dimensions | Byong-kuen Jhee and Nae-young Lee 

4. Modern Japan and the Quest for Attractive Power | Akiko Fukushima 

5. Soft Power and Public Diplomacy: The Case of Indonesia | Rizal Sukma

6. Taiwan’s Soft Power and the Future of Cross- Strait Relations: Can the Tail Wag the Dog? | Yun- han Chu

7. South Korean Soft Power and How South Korea Views the Soft Power of Others | Sook Jong Lee 

8. The Limits of China’s Soft Power in Europe: Beijing’s Public Diplomacy Puzzle | Ingrid d’Hooghe 

9. Asian Perceptions of American Soft Power 191 | Marshall M. Bouton and Gregory G. Holyk 

10. The Complexities of Economic Soft Power: The U.S.-China Case | Benjamin I. Page and Tao Xie

11. Concluding Ref lections on Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in East Asia | Jan Melissen 

Major Project

Center for National Security Studies

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