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Contextualisation
The world has become increasingly complex and interconnected. While there is a large body of literature that explores the impact of globalisation – the process of international economic integration – on policymaking, less is understood about how countries are responding, in varying ways, through diplomatic agency, roles and relationships (Wiseman 1999: 36 & 42). One of these diplomatic choices, an increasingly specialised field in both theory and practice, is public diplomacy:
government’s strategic diplomatic interaction with global and domestic non-state actors.
Within the international relations (IR) field, academic research on public diplomacy – as the latest diplomatic ‘advancement’ – remains dominated by a Western perspective, especially as an American-coined term. Yet the reality is that more and more non-Western countries, in particular emerging powers such as Brazil, India, Qatar and Turkey, are promoting their own narratives through public diplomacy, as part of what Zakaria (2008) calls ‘the rise of the rest’. The increased number of players suggests that this is not a uniform practice; rather there are different objectives and approaches that inform it, determining its relative success.1 Similarly the specific strategies employed also reveal insight into a country’s identity itself − and how societal dynamics are projected through their larger foreign policy (Brett, 2000: 102).
This study will join the discourse on the public diplomacy of emerging powers, a new and understudied area of international relations. The justification is as follows. Not long ago alternative forms of organising the world, as deviations from the traditional Westphalian world order,2 were explained as irrational and psychological rather than intellectual – but the world is also witnessing the rising wealth, power and confidence of Asian nations (Kissinger, 2014: 173; Moody, 1994: 734). This leads to the question of whether such nations are modernising and seeking to challenge the current world order, and how they communicate such interests to the world. One compelling element of historical East Asian politics is the relationship between imperial China and its periphery, characterised by a tributary system, with a unique set of ideas and practices.
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Contextualisation
1.2 Literature survey
1.3 Formulation and demarcation of the research problem .
1.4 Limitations and contributio
1.5 Research methodology
1.6 Structure of the research
Chapter 2 Conceptual framework: constructivism, diplomacy and public diplomacy
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Constructivism
2.2.1 Constructivism in International Relations
2.2.2 Selected aspects of constructivism summarised
2.2.3 Conventional and critical constructivism
2.2.4 Merging constructivism variants .
2.3 Diplomacy
2.3.1 Defining diplomacy
2.3.2 The development of modern diplomacy .
2.3.3 Contemporary diplomacy
2.3.4 Diplomacy and constructivism
2.4 Public diplomacy
2.4.1 Public diplomacy defined
2.4.2 The evolution and re-emergence of public diplomacy
2.4.3 The relationship between public diplomacy and other concepts
2.4.4 Public diplomacy instruments
2.4.5 Current debates
2.5 Conclusion
Chapter 3 China’s historical Sinocentric worldview and contemporary public diplomacy
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Defining a worldview .
3.2 China’s historical worldview
3.3 China’s contemporary diplomacy
3.4 China’s public diplomacy: as negotiation instrument
3.5 Conclusion: from an imperial social order to modern-day public diplomacy .
Chapter 4 China’s public diplomacy at the global level: The Belt and Road Initiative and
Africa
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Making meaning of the historical Silk Road narrative
4.3 Africa and the BRI .
4.4 Conclusion
Chapter 5 China’s public diplomacy in Africa and the FOCAC process .
Chapter 6 China–South Africa relations: the local element of public diplomacy
