The Cultural Diplomacy In The Study

Since the end of Cold War, the world has witnessed tremendous changes in the face of politics. Universal interest has also been moving from military and economic strength (hard power) to cultural strength (soft power). In recent years, studying the influence of culture on international relations has become an emerging trend among academic and political elites. Vietnam and China are Asian neighbors sharing unique ties in terms of history and culture with lots of interfering and similar spheres. Although, during certain periods of modern history, there are divergences in the relation between two countries, thanks to endeavors of the two governments and their people, this relation has been normalized and well developed so far. Among the factors that have positive effects on Vietnam-China relation, cultural diplomat activities play a growing important role. These activities help governments and people of Vietnam and China enhance their mutual trust and understanding, placing foundation for co-operations in various fields.Within the limitation of this dissertation, the author will just drive attention to the role of cultural diplomat in Vietnam-China relation since1949and the aspects studied are politics-diplomat, culture-society, and economy-education-science and technology. The paper focuses on analyzing important cultural diplomat activities between the two countries since1949and each side’s cultural diplomat strategies. Basing on the result of the above analysis, we try to point out features of Vietnam-China’s culture diplomat relation and its part in their general relation. In terms of politics-diplomat, cultural diplomat is a very important aspect of co-operation between two governments and non-government organizations helping strengthen friendship, mutual confidence of their people, improve and uphold national image in each country. In terms of culture-society, cultural diplomat contributes to preserving and enhancing values of their traditional culture aiming to maintain social stability, mobilize collective strength in the cause of nation development and defense. In the fields of economy, education and science and technology, cultural diplomat helps the countries to hasten co-operation and development then exploit and impulse their potentials. Besides, the dissertation also analyses some shortcomings in Vietnam-China’s cultural diplomat and gives out some suggestions for the development scenario of this sphere.In the paper, we study basing on theories about soft power and geopolitics with qualitative, quantitative and comparative methods combining with history reviewing. The ambition of this dissertation is to help scholars have a good understanding on Vietnam-China modern relation as well as the role of their cultural diplomat then orient the development of this relation and foster each country’s cultural values. The paper has also tried to use factual statistics in order to prove the theory of soft power and cultural strength in international relations.