The growing visibility of China’s soft power projection in international relations

The growing visibility of China’s soft power projection in international relations - Paul Irwin Crookes

China is now embracing a number of different foreign policy levers to project its interests into the international space. The country’s use of soft power, and the conceptual differences in interpretation between Chinese and European perspectives on the dynamics of soft power construction, has now become a topic of considerable importance and policy salience. In April 2013, Paul Irwin Crookes presented his latest research on this topic at an international conference organised by the College of Europe and hosted by the EU Committee of the Regions in Brussels. The conference explored the growing visibility of soft power in China’s international relations and, in particular, highlighted the implications that this might have for European Union foreign policy. The event attracted both leading academics from around the world and also policy makers from across the EU’s institutions. These themes, including Paul’s paper, will be explored further in forthcoming articles on China’s soft power, to be published in the journal European Foreign Affairs Review.