Public Opinion and Foreign Policy:
Crosscutting Euro-Asian Perspectives
A Joint Sciences Po, Fudan University, London School of Economics Conference
Friday 6 and Saturday 7 October 2006
Venue: Sciences Po
27, rue Saint-Guillaume
75007 Paris
Amphithéâtre Leroy Beaulieu
Pas de réservations: entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles
Contact:
The role played by public opinion in politics has seemingly been fully explored and the various responses have often led some authors not only to minimize its role, but even, as in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, to call into question the very existence of public opinion. It is often claimed that issues of public opinion are overwhelmingly related to domestic affairs, thus leading a pioneering author such as Tocqueville to conclude that foreign policy is not democratic. In addition, foreign policy, even in democracies, is often unencumbered by parliamentary scrutiny.
The first session of the conference will thus be devoted to reassessing these various debates. For however small is the impact of public opinion on foreign policy, public opinion is first and foremost a form of representation and is socially constructed. Therefore, the following three sessions of the conference will be devoted to assessing these representations, or the lack thereof, in relation to specific issue areas and cases.
Friday 6 October 2006
9:30
Welcoming Remarks: Gérard Grunberg and Francis Vérillaud (Deputy Directors,
Sciences Po)
Introduction: Françoise Mengin (CERI-Sciences Po), Chen Zhimin (Fudan), and
Christopher R. Hughes (LSE)
Morning Session
Public Opinion and International Relations: Current Debates
Chair and Discussant: Christopher R. Hughes (Senior Research Fellow, LSE)
10:00 to 11:00
Does an International Public Opinion Exists?
Natalie La Balme (Program Officer, The German Marshall Fund of the US, Associate Professor, Sciences Po)
Habermas in China: Public Power, State Power, and the Transformation of the Chinese Lifeworld
David Kerr (Lecturer, Durham University)
Does Media Matter? Media and Chinese Foreign Policy Making
Jiang Changjian (Associate Professor, Fudan University)
Coffee break
11:30 to 13:00: Discussion
Afternoon Session
Perspectives and Perceptions: Complementarities and Contradictions
Chair and Discussant: David Camroux (Senior Research Associate, CERI-Sciences Po)
14:30 to 15:30
Through African Eyes: China as Development Partner, Foreign Competitor or Emergent Hegemon
Christopher Alden (Senior Lecturer, London School of Economics)
Public Opinion and the Rapprochement between New Delhi and Washington
Christophe Jaffrelot (Senior Research Fellow, CNRS-CERI, Sciences Po)
Popular Culture and Foreign Policy: A Study of Four Manga Bestsellers of the 1990s Jean-Marie Bouissou (Senior Research Fellow, CERI-Sciences Po)
Coffee break
16:00 to 17:30: Discussion
Saturday 7 October 2006
Morning Session
China and its Borders
Chair and Discussant: Françoise Mengin (Senior Research Fellow, CERI-Sciences Po)
9:30 to 10:30
Where is China? The Role of Popular Opinion in Border Disputes
William A. Callahan (Professor, University of Manchester)
Public Opinion and Sino-Japanese Relations
Guo Dingping (Professor, Fudan University)
Opinion Polls and the Making of Taipei’s Mainland and Foreign Policies
Jean-Pierre Cabestan (Senior Research Fellow, CNRS-Paris I)
Coffee break
11:00 to 12:30: Discussion
Afternoon Session
The US Factor
Chair and Discussant: Chen Zhimin (Professor, Fudan University)
14:00 to 15:00
American Public Opinion under the Bush Administration and the China Issue: Confronting or Accommodating China?
Wang Jianwei (Professor, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point)
American Sources of the China Threat
Michael Cox (Professor, London School of Economics)
The US “Muslim Policy” and Anti-Americanism in Southeast Asia
Romain Bertrand (Senior Research Fellow, CERI-Sciences Po)
Coffee break
15:30 to 17:00: Discussion
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