WebinarThursday 30 April 2020
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Soft power in the era of the pandemic - challenges and possibilities
This event will be hosted as an online webinar
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Fully bookedOver recent months, governments around the world have been dedicating enormous efforts to fighting the coronavirus outbreak. This new pandemic is posing significant challenges for institutions and individuals globally, and at the same time, is becoming a test case for the capabilities of the different systems of organisation adopted by each state. Those nations that will emerge successfully from this crisis, demonstrate international solidarity and contribute to international efforts to address the consequences of the pandemic could gain stronger influence, strengthen their diplomatic positions, and even attract more foreign investment—the vital components of soft power.
In this webinar chaired by Professor Corneliu Bjola, Professor Watanabe of Keio University discussed the role of soft power in the context of the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as the major challenges and possibilities presented, providing a perspective of how the new pandemic might reshape the international order.
This event was hosted as an online webinar, accessible remotely.
A video of the webinar can be found here:
About the contributors
Professor Corneliu Bjola
Corneliu Bjola is Associate Professor in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford and Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group. He also serves as a Faculty Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California and as a Professorial Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He has published extensively on issues related to the impact of digital technology on the conduct of diplomacy with a recent focus on public diplomacy, international negotiations and methods for countering digital propaganda. His forthcoming co-edited volume “Digital Diplomacy and International Organizations: Autonomy, Legitimacy and Contestation” (Routledge, 2020) examines the broader ramifications of digital technologies on the internal dynamics, multilateral policies and strategic engagements of international organisations.
Email: corneliu.bjola@qeh.ox.ac.uk @cbjola
Professor Yasushi Watanabe
Professor Yasushi Watanabe is Professor of Public Diplomacy at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University. Before joining Keio University, he was awarded a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and undertook post-doctoral research at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He was previously a Fellow at Downing College, University of Cambridge in 2007, a Visiting Professor at Sciences-Po in 2013, a Japan Scholar at the Wilson Center, and Visiting Scholars at Peking University and College of Europe in 2018. Yasushi serves on the Advisory Panel at the Japan Foundation, as a programme director of the International House of Japan, and a co-chair of the Japan Advisory Council of the Salzburg Global Seminar. His books include the co-edited volume Soft Power Superpowers: Cultural and National Assets of Japan and the United States (2008) and the edited volume Handbook of Cultural Security (2018). In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Japan Academy Medal, which is the highest national prize awarded to mid-career academics.