scholarly journals Book Review: Transational Sites of China's Cultural Diplomacy: Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe Compared.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton O Clark
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Hearts And Minds

This review celebrates editors Jarmila Ptáčková, Ondřej Klimeš, and Gary Rawnsley’s Transnational Sites of China’s Cultural Diplomacy. Ptáčková Et. Al. advocate for a transnational approach to the study of Chinese cultural diplomacy, suggesting that various sites or localities that aim to improve the image of the PRC aboard can be read as discrete units of analysis. This method stresses the need to expand our understanding of how state or non-state actors’ excerpt or fail to excerpt influence within a given region. An emphasis is placed on the diverse set of forces that are involved in shaping the meaning of a given states cultural diplomacy. The nine chapters in this volume demonstrate how different “sites” influence China’s cultural diplomacy. An effort is made to emphasize how China has adapted or failed to adapt to local circumstance, stressing the governments rapidly changing and developing cultural-diplomatic apparatus. It is concluded that this volume constitutes an important contribution to the study of policy, cultural diplomacy, and our future understanding of the PRC and its ability to win over hearts and minds in a global context.

English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the issue of proficiency

English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Issue

ABSTRACTThe contemporary visibility and importance of English throughout the Asian region coupled with the emergence and development of distinct varieties of Asian Englishes have played an important part in the global story of English in recent years. Across Asia, the numbers of people having at least a functional command of the language have grown exponentially over the last four decades, and current changes in the sociolinguistic realities of the region are often so rapid that it is difficult for academic commentators to keep pace. One basic issue in the telling of this story is the question of what it is we mean by the term ‘Asia’, itself a word of contested etymology, whose geographical reference has ranged in application from the Middle East to Central Asia, and from the Indian sub-continent to Japan and Korea. In this article, my discussion will focus on the countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, as it is in these regions that we find not only the greatest concentration of ‘outer-circle’ English-using societies but also a number of the most populous English-learning and English-knowing nations in the world.

scholarly journals The Islamic World and Digital Threats of the 21st Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
G. N. Valiakhmetova
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
South And Southeast Asia ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Regional Leaders

The article analyzes the stages and reasons for involvement of the Islamic world in digital wars and the cyber arms race. Digital threats are carried not only by Muslim states that claim to be regional leaders in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, but also by non-state actors – groups of highly skilled hackers, hacktivists, «lone wolves», radical extremist Islamist groups. The realities of the digital age significantly enhance the heterogeneity and inconsistency of the modern Islamic world. It puts on the international agenda the question of increasing global cooperation in the cyber arm control process as well as the settlement of the most pressing issues of Muslim countries and communities.

Iran’s New Cultural Nationalism: Iranian Cultural Diplomacy in Tajikistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-46
Author(s):  
Lukas Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
State Identity

Iran’s state identity is frequently described as Islamist, Shia, and anti-imperialist when discussing its behavior in the Middle East, but as pragmatic and even non-ideological in its approach to Central Asia. By parsing Iranian officials' speeches and purpose-written schoolbooks for ideology, this article documents the multiple identities that cultural diplomats present in Tajikistan and the functions they perform, including propagating normative Iranian identity among Iranian expats, lobbying Tajik officials, and influencing Tajik citizens. In contrast to the Middle East, Iranian cultural diplomacy in Tajikistan prioritizes a Persian identity as the basis for economic, scientific, cultural, and political integration in the region. Moreover, this identity is being discursively securitized as a strategic asset and an answer to threats from Salafism and globalization.

Book Review: Youth and Education in the Middle East by Daniele Cantini

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 303-306
Author(s):  
Tariq Tell ◽  
Jocelyn DeJong
Keyword(s):  
Middle East
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