China and International Harmony: The Role of Confucius Institutes in Bolstering Beijing's Soft Power

Asian Survey ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Paradise

China is setting up Confucius Institutes around the world to spread its language and culture and to increase collaboration with foreign academic institutions. The institutes could increase China's "soft power" and help it project an image of itself as a benign country. Concerns exist about a "Trojan horse" effect.

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (11) ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Thuy Le Thi Bich

The power of each nation is determined by many factors, including the role of its culture. Culture is seen as an effective tool of soft power to affirm the image of our country in the international community. As one of the originating centers of Asian civilization and one of the largest, oldest civilizations in the world, India's soft power exists naturally in its own long historical culture. The Indian epic is considered to be the source of soft power, the link between the world and Indian culture, helping Indian culture expand its influence on other countries and the world. In this article, we focus on presenting the unique features of thinking, soul, thought, and “Indian spirit” reflected in the epic - the source of Indian culture and the epic continuation in countries in Southeast Asia. Thereby, this article helps its readers have a comprehensive view of the Indian epic - the source of “soft power” of Indian culture in Southeast Asian countries to strengthen and develop the relationship between India and other countries in Southeast Asia more and more sustainably and lasting.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Ayub Khan

A handful of business schools in the world are famous in their respective countries of origin, but have also achieved global acclaim for their sustained and continued success as world-class academic institutions. This chapter describes some of these business schools and includes successful factors that have made them top quality institutions, such as general performance indicators used to rank and accredit business schools, common characteristics of success, as well as the role of ranking and accreditation as a source or force behind the fame and fortunes of such business schools. The chapter discusses the importance of national and international accreditation for the academic institutions and the pitfalls associated with accreditations. As examples of successful models, the chapter includes small success stories of business schools from emerging markets such as Pakistan and Mexico.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1143-1159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ayub Khan

A handful of business schools in the world are famous in their respective countries of origin, but have also achieved global acclaim for their sustained and continued success as world-class academic institutions. This chapter describes some of these business schools and includes successful factors that have made them top quality institutions, such as general performance indicators used to rank and accredit business schools, common characteristics of success, as well as the role of ranking and accreditation as a source or force behind the fame and fortunes of such business schools. The chapter discusses the importance of national and international accreditation for the academic institutions and the pitfalls associated with accreditations. As examples of successful models, the chapter includes small success stories of business schools from emerging markets such as Pakistan and Mexico.


1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 892-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin S. Lindauer

Color use interpreted as preferences among the flags of 139 independent nations of the world included red, blue, green, and yellow. With one exception (green among African states), each color was equally preferred among six geographic groups of nations. In addition, white was preferred to black, colors were horizontally placed, and symbols were more likely to be present than not. These data were related to judgments made by individuals of isolated colors, to differences in inferred need achievement between countries, and to the role of language and culture in color discrimination and preference.


Author(s):  
O. B. Yanush ◽  

The article studies the Finno-Ugric "world", understood as a transfrontier language community and its actors. The author marks tendencies of unification in the Finno-Ugric community of the 1990s and a stage of «disin-tegration» in the 2000s. The study goal is to explain the ongoing processes in the context of the foreign poli-cy of several western countries engaged and ethnic fragmentation among the Russian Finno-Ugric peoples. For this purpose, the work describes the creation of the Finno-Ugric community, the institutional setting and the results of the World Congresses; the role of the Finno-Ugric “world” in the foreign policies of Western countries. Attention is paid to practices aimed at constructing a common Finno-Ugric identity, among which the initiative "Cultural Capitals of the Finno-Ugric World" is noted.The author concludes that the Finno-Ugric “world” is a symbolically constructed project that connects the divergent positions of a diverse circle of participants, typologically defined as “the glottogenesis communi-ty”, where symbolic and discursive principles prevail over material ones. Moreover, bilateral and multilateral interactions between “western” and “eastern” Finno-Ugric peoples in the culture, science and education are more likely projections of the “soft power” of Finland, Hungary and Estonia than aspirations to create a common Finno-Ugric space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Neupane ◽  
Juna Rai ◽  
Sarita Chaulagain ◽  
Nisha Jha ◽  
Anishka Sah ◽  
...  

A novel coronavirus first reported from China has resulted in a formidable outbreak globally threatening millions of human lives with unprecedented challenges. Society needs effective information source to combat this pandemic. Academic institutions would play an important role in disseminating science-based information and planning pandemic crisis. This study aims to examine how academic institutions around the world have been working in combating COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and thirty three high ranking universities representing 44 countries from six continents, viz. Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania were selected and their websites visited. Any information on COVID-19 updated in the websites were noted and classified. Universities from developed world (North America, Europe) and Oceania were found to be actively disseminating up-to-date information on COVID-19 with compared to those from developing world. All universities in Oceania, 96.66% universities in North America, 96.55% in Europe, 83% in South America, 61.25% in Asia, and 56% in Africa had information regarding COVID-19 in their websites. The high income coutries were facing high casulaties of the disease, and majority of their universities (85.71%) were disseminating up-to-date information through their websites. There exists a gap between the universities of developed and developing world in disseminating COVID-19 pandemic information.


Author(s):  
Natalia Markushina

The chapter is devoted to the problem of the formation of “soft power” in the Eurasian space. All attempts to find a common language between states in the world lead to the fact that an appeal to “soft power” appears more and more often on the states' agenda as a tool of achieving the goals of the states, including the states of Eurasian region. The concept of “soft power”, introduced into the circulation of the modern theory of international relations by J. Nye, is being actively discussed in Russia. In recent years, President V. Putin and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S. Lavrov were repeatedly called upon to multiply the Russian resource of “soft power” for solving foreign policy tasks. Undoubtedly, this is also valid when we speak about Eurasian integration.


English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Pan ◽  
Philip Seargeant

In an article published in English Today in 2005, Niu and Woolf contend that: EFL is a modern day Trojan horse filled with EFL teachers/soldiers or missionaries, armed with English words rather than bullets, intent upon re-colonizing the world to remake it in the image of Western democracy. China has brought the Trojan Horse within its gates and the army of EFL teachers is hard at work Westernizing China.


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