Case Studies
The Public Diplomatic Significance of Kennedy’s “Peace Corps”
Wang Chuanxing & Wang Jing • 63 •
American public diplomacy originated from the Truman government during the “Cold War”. Foreign aid holds an important place in soft power which is different from traditional forms of armed confrontation. The “Peace Corps”, as a volunteer organization, is an important component of Kennedy's “Peace Strategy”. On the one hand, it serves the national interests of the United States, which gives priority to security interests and a secondary role to economic interests, and then strengthens public diplomacy with the aim to build a good national image of the United States. On the other hand, the "Peace Corps" organization is also an important part of the “Cold War” strategy of the United States to infiltrate the socialist camp and curb the spread of communism. From the perspective of public diplomacy, this paper analyses the significance and impact of this organization.
The “Xining Phenomenon” in City Diplomacy: Building and Dissemination of the City Brand of Inland Cities of China
Fan Lei • 69 •
In recent years, China’s inland city Xining has been active in promoting its brand of “World Cool City” and expanding the mechanism of international cooperation based on the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Xining has made achievements in many aspects, such as the institutional design, theoretical innovation, rules making and practical promotion. It has its own unique advantages in the building and dissemination of its city brand, including its long history, the diversity of culture, unique geographic location and active development of people-to-people exchanges. All these have provided a strong momentum for the city diplomacy of Xining. However, due to historical and realistic reasons, there are also some shortcomings and bottlenecks in Xining’s development and brand promotion, including the strains on personnel training, transportation and infrastructure construction, communication platform building and development concept. Although with the shortcomings and bottlenecks, Xining’s city diplomacy has made fruitful achievements thanks to the strong support from the government, the active participation of the people and the efforts on integrating into the overall development strategy of the whole country. And it is believed that in the future, the temporary difficulties and shortcomings in Xining can be overcome in the city’s development through further integration into the brighter future plan the BRI.
China’s Public Diplomacy toward Kazakhstan with the Backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative
Zhang Hui • 77 •
During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013, he put forward the idea of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). To boost the BRI, China has conducted a series of public diplomacy toward Kazakhstan. State leaders, ambassadors, people working for the media, think tanks and enterprises are all active in conducting public diplomacy to serve the Silk Road Economic Belt. However, there are still many problems, such as the lack of talents who are proficient in Kazakh or Russian languages, the lack of knowledge or rather superficial understanding of the Silk Road Economic Belt. This paper puts forward relevant proposals to address these problems.
Japan’s Youth Public Diplomacy toward ASEAN Countries and Its Enlightenment for China
You Kaiyu • 83 •
The Abe government emphasizes the strengthening of cultural exchanges with ASEAN countries in its “value diplomacy”, especially the promotion of youth exchanges between Japan and ASEAN countries. Youth public diplomacy is an important part of public diplomacy. Youth has great potential in development, and youth public diplomacy has gained more and more attention. This paper analyses the basic content, modes and characteristics of Japan’s youth public diplomacy toward ASEAN countries, and then puts forward some suggestions on strengthening China’s youth public diplomacy.
Dilemma and Enlightenment of Sino-Russian Cooperative Project of Developing Natural Drinking Water from the Lake Baikal
Xing Xuhui • 91 •
Recently, there have been heated discussions in China and Russia about the plan of constructing factories and developing natural drinking water from the Lake Baikal by Chinese enterprises. Many Russian people have openly opposed the project with jointly signed name lists, believing that the project would affect the ecological environment of the Lake Baikal area. There will be more and more similar projects of international cooperation on developing natural resources or multinational investment under the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And at the same time, difficulties and conflicts with regional characteristics will also arise. The future development of China and Russia in the Far East cannot rely solely on the cooperation between the governments and state-owned enterprises, but on the expansion of exchanges between private enterprises. By analyzing the advantages and difficulties in developing international projects with the case of the project on natural drinking water in Lake Baikal, this paper puts forward some suggestions and proposals.
The Museum Diplomacy as Part of China-ROK Relations
Hao Nan • 99 •
Though today’s world is increasingly characterized with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, “peace and development” remains the consensus among countries, and the interaction of international relations tends to be focused on “soft power”. As an important component of “soft power”, cultural diplomacy has been conducted by governments in different countries in a variety of new forms. “Museum diplomacy” is one of the typical emerging forms of cultural diplomacy. When studying the China-ROK relations, people can find that museums have played an important role almost throughout the development of the bilateral relations. Especially during the Park Geun-hye’s presidency, China and the ROK made visible achievements in the practice of “museum diplomacy”. However, in the academic sphere, the study on “museum diplomacy” has been scarce, especially the study on the “museum diplomacy” between China and the ROK. This paper explores the role and function that “museum diplomacy” plays in the China-ROK relations in light of Joseph Nye’s soft power theory and through studying the two cases of the China-ROK museum diplomacy.
