Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a global comparative history of how “soft power” came to define the interregnum between the celebration of global capitalism in the 1990s and the recent resurgence of nationalism and authoritarianism. It brings together case studies from the European Union, China, Brazil, Turkey, and the United States.
Trade ReviewThis rich book discusses cultural influence in international relations as soft power through case studies on the United States, Europe, Turkey, Brazil, and China. Soft power’s conceptual vagueness, ambiguity, and fecundity (in the form of its smart and sharp power descendants) have created an intellectual project of surprising generative capacity and have shaped diplomatic practices with wide circulatory potential. -- Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University
Baykurt and de Grazia begin their cogent and cohesive edited volume with essays that provide a sophisticated theoretical discussion of soft power. The comparative case studies that follow include China, Brazil, and Turkey. This interdisciplinary collection is a must-read that contextualizes the institutions that provide the scaffolding for the diffusion of Western political cultural practices. -- Mabel Berezin, author of
Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: Culture, Security and Populism in the New EuropeSoft-Power Internationalism offers a highly informative deep dive into the post–Cold War period when soft power was considered the ultimate method of peace building. It shows how a concept largely promulgated by the West was successfully upended by emerging countries for the sake of their own postcolonial narrative. An essential eye-opener for policy makers seeking a better understanding of today’s vacillating world order. -- Pierre Vimont, Ambassador of France, Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe
A bold and original rereading of soft power, internationalism, revitalized nationalism, and the internet. Baykurt and de Grazia enlarge our understanding of a familiar idea through a new taxonomy of influences, a new perspective on shifts in global power, and a new map of actors of significance as the twentieth century morphs into the twenty-first. -- Monroe E. Price, author of
Free Expression, Globalism, and the New Strategic CommunicationTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Soft-Power Internationalism, by Burcu Baykurt and Victoria de Grazia
Part 1: Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Soft-Power Internationalism1. Soft-Power U.S. Versus Normative Power EU: Competing Ideals of Hegemony in the Post–Cold War West, 1990–2015, by Victoria de Grazia
2. Circulating Liberalism: The Global Internet and the Rise of Soft-Power Internationalism, by Burcu Baykurt
Part 2: Turkey3. Turkey’s “Soft Power”: A Conceptual Overreach and a Conversation in Multiple Concepts, by Dilek Barlas and Lerna Yanık
4. Turkey as “Trading State”: The High Hopes for Commerce from the Boom Years to the Arab Spring, by Mustafa Kutlay
Part 3: Brazil5. Bridge Builder, Humanitarian Donor, Reformer of Global Order: Brazilian Narratives of Soft Power Before Bolsonaro, by Oliver Stuenkel
6. Lula’s Assertive Foreign Policy: Soft Power or Dependency?, by Fernando Santomauro and Jean Tible
Part 4: China7. China’s Soft Power in Africa: Promoting Alternative Perspectives, by Martina Bassan
8. The Evolution of China’s Soft-Power Quest from the Late 1980s to the 2010s, by Zhongying Pang
9. Global China and Symbolic Power in the Era of the Belt and Road, by Anastas Vangeli
Part 5: Euro-Atlantic Perspectives10. The End or the Beginning of Normative Power Europe? Transcendence and the Crisis of European Foreign Policy, by Thomas Diez
11. Is There a Coherent Ideology of Illiberal Modernity, and Is It a Source of Soft Power?, by Jack Snyder
Power, Culture, and Hegemony: A Selected Bibliography
Contributors
Index
