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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