Current Affairs / Politics
Book Details

Charm Offensive

How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World

Joshua Kurlantzick

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power.

Opinion

“Kurlantzick’s analysis manages to avoid the fallacies common in a number of recent books in China. He acknowledges the risks of China’s rise with illustrations that show he clearly appreciates the potential complications as the interests of China and the United States competitively overlap.” Benjamin A. Shobert, Asia Times Online, 12/05/2007

About this Title

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. And though much has been written of China's rise, a key aspect of this transformation has gone largely unnoticed: the way that China is using soft power and diplomacy to appeal to its neighbours and distant countries alike.

In this provocative book, Joshua Kurlantzick examines the significance of China's recent reliance on soft power-diplomacy, trade incentives, cultural and educational exchange opportunities and other techniques-to project a benign national image, position itself as a model of social and economic success and develop stronger international alliances. Drawing on years of on-the-ground experience tracking China's policies in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, Kurlantzick shows how China has wooed the world with a 'charm offensive' that has largely escaped the world's attention.

In his persuasively argued conclusion, he considers a future in which China may be the first nation since the Soviet Union to rival the United States in international influence.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Courting the World
2 Changes on the Homefront
3 A Charm Stretegy
4 The Tools of Culture
5 The Tools of Business
6 Mr Popular
7 Goal Oriented
8 Wielding the Charm
9 America’s Soft Power Goes Soft
10 What’s Next?
11 Responding to the Charm Offensive
Notes
Index

About the Author

Joshua Kurlantzick is special correspondent for the New Republic and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has covered Southeast Asia and China as a correspondent for U.S. News and World Report and The Economist, and his writings on Asia have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times Magazine and many other publications.

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978-0-522-85417-6