Creating Future Through Soft Power: Culture and/in International Relations 2100-ERASMUS-CFTS
This course focuses on the increasingly prominent and multidimensional role of culture in
international relations, where culture is understood broadly as a range of practices, values, norms and
systems that influence how people and societies interact, communicate, and manage their
relationships. Assuming that all international relations are ultimately intercultural relations (Iriye
1979), the course focuses on fostering better understanding of approaches, concepts and cultural
practices at the international levels, and ways in which culture shapes and features in international
agreements. It also explores ways in which we can ‘read’ or influence global politics through various
fields of cultural activity. The course explores, among others:
- theoretical approaches to culture and their relevance in international relations
- the role of cultural exchange & products in global politics (cultural diplomacy)
- economic and extra-economic values of culture
- cultural diversity and international order (cf. Chris Reus-Smit)
- cultural heritage and diaspora
- approaches to culture for external relations – the EU and the Indo-Pacific case studies
- qualitative research methods in IR
Assessment criteria
Class participation (10%)
In-class quiz (10%) – end of week 1
Presentation (30%) – over week 2 and 3
Written assignment, 2000 words (50%) – completed within a week after the course
Bibliography
This is an indicative bibliography which includes a selection of texts that cover various disciplinary
perspectives. The texts will be provided to students at the beginning of the course:
Ang, I., YR Isar, P. Mar. (2015). Cultural Diplomacy: Beyond the National Interest? International
Journal of Cultural Policy 21, no. 4, pp. 365-381.
Appadurai, A. (2020) The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition [selected
fragments]
Apthorpe R (2005). “‘It's [the] Culture, Stupid!’ Why ‘Adding Culture’ is Unlikely to Make Any
Serious Difference to International Developmentalism, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology,
6:2, 130-141.
Clarke, D. (2014). “Theorising the role of cultural products in cultural diplomacy from a Cultural
Studies perspective”. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22(2), 147–163.
Griffiths, E., Wesley, M. (2019). Taking Wing: The Australian Soft Power Review. Australian
Strategic Policy Institute.
Grincheva, N. (2023). “The past and future of cultural diplomacy.” International Journal of Cultural
Policy, 30(2), 172–191.
Kwapisz Williams, K. (2023). “Culture in External Relations: The EU and its International Economic
Agreements.” In The European Union and the Evolving Architectures of International Economic
Agreements, Eds. O Quirico & K Kwapisz Williams, 3-24, Springer.
Nisbett, M. (2012). New perspectives on instrumentalism: an empirical study of cultural
diplomacy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 19(5), 557–575.
Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. Public Affairs. [selected
fragments]
Singh, J.P., ed. International Cultural Policies and Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
[selected fragments]
Selected documentaries, podcasts and short reads
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: