Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/01/2025
17:30 - 19:30
Location
Press Club Brussels Europe
Categories
Book launch
Diplomacy by narrative – New soft power in Asia (China, Kazakhstan and Pakistan)
Talk in English, book in French
14 January 2025 – 5. 30 – 7. 30 p.m. – Press Club Brussels Europe (www.pressclub.be)
In cooperation with Diplomatic World and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Belgium.
Book talk followed by Q&As and a tasting of Chinese and nomadic teas (in the presence of a tea master) and light snacks.
Governments today tell stories – fictional or real – to attract attention, captivate minds or impose visions based on supposedly attractive narratives. Storytelling and its corollary, influence, are developed by states using history, myths and heroes, gastronomy, culture, values, overt or covert cooperation, etc. These practices, known by various names, such as lobbying, soft power, public diplomacy and information manipulation, have blurred the boundaries.
Asia, rich in initiatives, offers some fascinating cases: the image of China confronted with time, Kazakhstan, a middle power in search of its identity, and the troubled perception of Pakistan. A case of the reception of Europalia Georgia in 2024 concludes the volume.
Between the biblical narrative, the political narrative and the fictional narrative, the human need for meaning – the narrative in the service of a project – has created a method that allows states to develop their visions.
This book, written by a traveller open to Asia since 1997, outlines the new faces of communication that have become mostly influenced. It presents public diplomacy initiatives in a world of shifting identities.
https://www.editionsducygne.com/editions-du-cygne-diplomatie-recit-soft-power-asie.html
About the Author: Olivier Arifon is Professor of Political Communication at the Université Catholique de Lille. Based in Brussels, he is also a consultant. Previously, he founded the communication company, was a university cooperation attaché in Munich and, as a researcher, has been between Europe and Asia for 20 years.
Before that he published Le récit politique chinois : Soft power, communication, influence. L’Harmattan, 2021.
Registration : olivier.arifon@pm.me