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International Communication and International Relations

                     A Teaching Manual 

                            by

                 Bih-jaw Lin, Professor Emeritus

                    bjawlin2@nccu.edu.tw 

Part I: Teaching Outlines

 

l. Introduction

     

International communication and international relations are closely related.  This interdisciplinary linkage applies to global politics and global communication as well. Therefore, this course is designed to introduce the linkage between the two disciplines and professions, so as to provide our dear students with opportunities to study more during their stay in National Chengchi University. This manual only serves as a reference to those who want to study international communication and international relations with a global perspective and enhance their knowledge of international affairs in due course.  I will explain the concepts, answer the questions and, then, elaborate further for the class. My special thanks to the Department of Diplomacy, for their support and arrangements. The introduction to this class is based on the book jointly written by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher and the texts by Marshall MuLuhan and Denis McQuail. The Oxford Hndbook of Digital Diplomacy jointly edited by Corneliu Bjola and IIan Manor will come out soon.

 

Concepts: The Age of AI, Anarchical Society, Information Society, Knowledge, Information, Data, Order, Transportation and Communication

 

Questions: What is a globalized anarchical and information society?

         How much do you know about “international rules based 

order”,digital diplomacy and global politics and global communication?

 

2. The Study of International Relations

     

The study of international relations has been under a close scrutiny since the end of the cold war in 1990.  Why did we fail to predict climate change , the war in Ukraine and the tension in the Taiwan Strait, for instance?  The academic community is divided on this issue.  The first school of thought argues that this is a painful reality in international politics and the only remedy is to expand the scope of research and try our best to make this study “scientifically sound and socially relevant”.  The second school of thought indicates that the subject of international relations has been over-stretched for too long and we should bring it back to the very basic, that is, to limit our focus on diplomacy and no more.  After all, diplomatic history, system, ideas, thought and law still await us to do deep and serious study. In short, power counts.

 

     For this reason alone, the study of international politics has dominated the study of diplomacy, world politics, global politics, transnational politics and international relations.  Among all these titles and names, international relations is the most popular, but the Department of International Politics, not the Department of International Relations, in a university just celebrated its centennial.  The international system, however, is believed to begin its functions since 1648 right after the signing of the peace, or treaty of Westphalia.  This indicates that the academic history of international relations is young, but the political history of international relations has a longer time span.  This also applies to the study of journalism and communication.  The impacts of the WWI on both disciplines are identical.  After so many years, the discipline has transformed from international politics to international relations, world politics, global politics and, now, global international relations as Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan have argued. 

 

Concepts: Balance of Power, Balance of Interest, Balance of Perception, Power Politics, Soft Power, Hard Power, Smart Power and Sharp Power

Questions: What is global international relations?

        What do “the Quad”, “the AUKUS”, “Belt and Road”, ”Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” and “21^st Century U.S.-Taiwan Trade Initiatives” mean to us?

 

3. The Study of International Communication

 

     Is there a subject called international communication?  The simple answer is “yes”, because political communication has been unraveled and developed for so long.  It is very common in almost all democracies.  Communication is politics and vice versa.  Everett Rogers in his book: ”A History of Communication: A Biographical Approach” has explained the relations between the study of communication and other subjects of social sciences well.

 

In fact, the works of Harold Lasswell, Paul Lazarfeld, Kurt Levin, Carl Hovland, Norbert Wiener,Claude Shannon and, particularly, Wilbur Schramm have laid the foundation for the study of international communication. Everett Rogers even regards Wilbur Schramm as the founding father of the study of communication. Like international political economy, there is a subject called international communication as a subject for higher education. Wilbur Schramm started teaching this subject in l956 in Stanford.  The book entitled “the Hype Machine” by Sinan Aral is very popular. My course is thus designed to combine international communication and international relations and provide our dear students with a new perspective of learning in international and public affairs. The conceptual framework of “Man, the State and War” in international relations has been integrated with “Man, the State and Media” in international communication. In this way, international relations begin with inter-personal communication.  We are going to learn how international communication and international relations interact and become a new area of academic and practical training. Similarly, the discipline has transformed from mass communication to media studies, communication research, propaganda studies and, now, global communication or global international communication.

 

Concepts: Propaganda, Communication, Journalism, Dialogue, Persuasion, Image-building and Negotiation

 

Questions: What are global communication and advocates beyond border? The art of communication is to know and to be known, can you comment? 

 

4. Culture

 

Culture and civilization together with technology and weapons have moved international communication and international relations forward. Propaganda and journalism have performed their due functions, so as diplomacy and negotiation.  Culture and civilization have shaped the institution-building, the nation-building and the state-building.  Both the mass media and the social media have played their roles accordingly. Andrew Pettegree’s ”the Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself” and Fernand Braudel’s “Civilization and Capitalism, 15^th-18^th Century explain well. Braudel’s book is widely recognized as a good introduction.

 

Concepts: Culture Studies, Political Culture, Strategic Culture, Diplomatic Culture, Culture Diplomacy, Entrepreneurship, Geoculture and Culture Imperialism

 

Questions: ”The culture in which we grew up has a profound impact on how we see the world”, do you agree? Why do culture and civilization matter in international communication and international relations?

 

5. Technology

 

Klaus Schwab in his”Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” indicates that we should pay special attention to ”Systems, not technologies”, ”Empowering, not determing”, “By design, not by default” and “Values as a feature, not a bug”.  We should do our best to make sure that the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution are distributed fairly and the future is human-led and human-center.  They include digital technologies, the artificial intelligence and robotics, biotechnologies, neurotechnologies, energy, geoengineering and space technologies. The U.S.,Russia and China are now competing in all these areas, particularly the artificial intelligence and the space programs.

 

Concepts: Gutenberg Galasxy(the Printing Technology and its Impact), the Industrial Revolution, the Mass Production, Technology of Communication and Transportation and the Production Chain

 

Questions: Does the digital or virtual diplomacy mean anything new to you? How much do you know about the supply chain, the production chain and the block chain or “de-coupling” and “de-risking”?

 

6. Political Man and the Rest

 

The concept of “political man” was introduced in the western academic community for the purpose of learning.  Political man can be rational and irrational, depending on issues, interest and motivation.  The state and war were added to become a conceptual framework or the three levels of analysis.  The state and media were included in the study of international communication.  For political communication, the media and market are normally used to explain the process of communication in a democratic country.  For this class, the study of international communication will use the levels of ”Man, the State and Media” and “Man, the Media and Market” interchangeably.  Harold Lasswell’s five variables are particularly useful for us, namely, who, what, which channel, to whom and what effects.  Lasswell has the best of the two worlds, that is, political science and the study of communication.  Even though Wilbur Schramm was regarded as the founding father of the study of communication and he actually started teaching international communication in l956 in Stanford, Lasswell’s work on ”Propaganda Techniques in World WarI” makes him the natural link between international communication and international relations. Marshall McLuhan’s book on ”Understanding Media” carries a sub-title: ”The Extensions of Man”.  All of these explain the importance of “Political Man” as a basic concept for study.

 

Concepts: Diplomat, Journalist, Public Opinion Leaders, Foreign Policy Elite, the Masses and the Attentive Public

 

Questions: Why cognitive dissonance is so common in this age of information? Media is politics, do you agree?

 

7. Agenda-setting

 

It is still useful and relevant to study “agenda-setting” in order to understand how international communication and international relations interact.  It is related to the research of humanities and social sciences, but the actual policy-making process in a democratic and open society.  In early days, we studied most of public policy issues and, now, cover foreign and economic policies as well.  The American foreign policy is a good case in point.  This also applies to most of the industrial democracies.

 

Concepts: Policy Agenda, Agenda Setting, Diffusion of News, Civil Society, Groupthink, Public Interest

 

Questions: Can we apply the conceptual framework of “agenda-setting” to explain the foreign policy making of the Republic of China? Why the American politics is so closely connected with the agenda-setting?

 

8.Media, Information and Power

 

Marshall McLuhan’s books have provided us with insights to understand “the global village” and ‘the digitalized anarchical society”. Joseph Nye’s “soft power” and “smart power” plus Christopher Walker’s “sharp power” enable us to analyze public diplomacy, coercive diplomacy and culture diplomacy in the 21^st century.  The concept of “cognitive warfare” has been added to the list of ideas and concepts in studying international communication and international relations.

 

Concepts: Soft Power, Smart Power, Sharp Power, Cognitive Warfare, Public Diplomacy, Economic Diplomacy, Coercive Diplomacy, Culture Diplomacy

Questions: How much do you know about “sharp power” and coercive diplomacy? Why does the foreign policy community argue that “information umbrella” is equally effective as “nuclear umbrella”? 

 

9.Peace and War 

 

Diplomacy is a political process in the anarchical society to achieve policy objective.  The system reflects western political culture and legal tradition. Therefore, western countries often collided with eastern countries in diplomacy.  However, both the west and the east share a common dominion, that is, diplomacy and war are closely intertwined.  Western countries have long believed that generals need to have a correct grasp of diplomacy in order to win a war and Eastern  countries do the same thing.  In this age of information, this linkage has become more and more obvious.  The previous two world wars and other regional or local war witnessed this.  Anti-terrorism and the information warfare together with the increasing importance of cyber-security make it impossible for us to separate international communication from international relations.  In fact, we often study the two subjects as a common field of knowledge.

 

Concepts: The War in Ukraine, the Taiwan Strait Crisis, Pax Americana, Pax Romana, Pax Britannica, Pax Consortia, Nuclear Deterrence, Conventional Deterrence, Insecurity and Polarization and Information Warfare

 

Questions: How much do you know about ‘the Sleepwalkers”? Social media and the cognitive warfare grow with global international communication, can you elaborate?

 

10. International and the Virtual System

 

Order exists in this anarchical society and it is the obligation of every state to maintain and protect.  As the major powers tend to protect their national interest only and, consequently, nationalism and imperialism become inevitable.  These are the main areas for our study in international relations.  The information order also exists, but words carry power to form this order.  The right of ownership, the freedom of speech and the information technology shape this order for the media to operate and function.  Like the new world order, we are debating about the new information order or the new media as we are so digitalized and connected through the internet.  However, it is probably more equal, free and transparent than the world order where sovereignty, interest and security are so deeply ingrained in the system.

 

Concepts: Westphalia System, Virtual System, Global Village, Human Development Crisis and Information Umbrella

 

Questions: The virtual or cyber system is only a conceptual tool for us to study international or global communication and international or global politics, not a common system, do you agree? How do you see the state and the media in international communication and foreign policy?   

 

11. Social Media and International Relations

 

Social media is the order of today’s world and it affects international relations always every day.  We study social media in order to understand public opinion and adjust our foreign policy accordingly.   The Twitter diplomacy similarly has become so popular and expanded the new information order.  We wonder whether the new world order can exist without all these inventions in information technology?  Aral’s “the Hype Machine” is useful together with Brad Smith’s “Tools and Weapons: the Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age”.

 

Concepts: Mass Media, Social Media, The New Media, The Gatekeepers, The Audience and Public Diplomacy

 

Questions: Can you differentiate mass and social media, public and digital diplomacy?  How do you think of Aral’s “the Hype Machine” as you study international communication and international relations, or global politics and global communication?

 

12.Market

 

The concept of market is instrumental for this class.  Political market refers to election campaigns, the approval ratings, the results of good governance and the rest. Media market refers to the public acceptance of newspapers, books, different broadcasting and television programs, the videos and movies and the rest. Jill Abramson”s “Merchants of Truth” explains some of these developments. The two markets have served different functions in countries under different systems.

 

Concepts: Political Market, The Best Sellers, News Agents, The European Song Contest, The Oscar, Netflix and Merchants of Truth

 

Questions: Can we really see politics and the media as a market? Do you watch the CNN, the BBC, the NHK, the DW, the ChannelNews Asia, France 24,Aljazerra, Euronews or read the New York Time, the Washington Post or TIME and the Economist or various news agents?

 

13. Theories

 

In National Chengchi Univeristy, we study theories and models.  In your future professional field, you need practical experiences.  Academic theories and relevant models serve as the guide for us to search for knowledge and lessons of success and failure.  Realism, liberalism and social constructivism, the rational model, the bureaucratic model and the organizational models are popular in international relations.  Denis McQuail has introduced 4 models and 7 theories in his book-“Mass Communication Theory”. Marshall McLuhan’s publications are impressive indeed.  Other books, particularly those written by our colleagues in Taiwan and the mainland, are useful and relevant. 

 

Concepts: Concept, Model, Theory, Model-building, Theory-building, Professional Code and Practical Experiences

 

Questions: Do you see yourself as a realist, a liberal or a social constructivist?  How do you see McLuhan’s and McQuail’s theories and models?

 

14.Globalization

 

Hardly can we study humanities and social science without considering globalization.  It is an ongoing process, but also a result of international and national development. Marshall McLuhan firstly introduced the concept as a basis for studying communication and the media.  International relations, international political economy and international business, then, use this concept as an introduction to their study.  Distancelessness and borderlessness are the two common dominators, but the concept itself has far more implications for our study of international communication and international relations.

 

Concepts: Internationalization, The World Market, Communication, Transportation, Co-interdependence, New Arms Race, Food Security and Globalism

 

Questions: Is the world flat, curve or bumpy as we have experienced the pandemic, climate change, tension in Indo-Pacific and the war in Ukraine? Does globalization slow down or speed up during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine?

 

15. The New World Order 

 

     The COVID-19 came so suddenly to our world and we are still fighting this pandemic.  The media has a very effective and special role to play, that is, to provide correct and sufficient information to the audience, professionals and policy-makers.  This job has become so delicate and complicated is largely because the science, policy and business communities are divided.  The World Health Organization(WHO) has been severely criticized and, yet, it continues to function and coordinate.  In addition to the COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, climate change, semiconductors, the energy supply, the world economy and the U.S.-China competition all affect Taiwan, Indo-Pacific and the rest of the world.  The study of international communication and international relations covers this area of the new world order and we are still uncertain about the scope and scale of this learning.

 

Concepts: Modern Plagues, The Pandemic Nationalism, The New Normal, Health Regime and New Globalism, Digital Disorder, The Century of Uncertainty

 

Questions: What does the U.S.-China competition mean to international relations? Is there a global revitalization for international organizations or security and health architecture?

 

16. Ethics Prevail

 

     We have studied and emphasized ethics in international relations for too long.  Even international law has been treated as a weak law and some scholars have gone further to describe sovereignty as an organized hypocrisy, ethics still prevail.  It is even more commonly shared in the information community.  Ethics bring trust and accountability to buttress our system, value and way of life.  International relations work hand in hand with international communication in this study of ethics.  This is a controversial area of study.  Edward Herman’s and Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” is recommended for reference.

 

Concepts: Freedom of Speech, Social Responsibility, The Right to Know, Fake News, The Big Tech and Public Interest

 

Questions: How do you see Facebook and Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon?  Why do we so concern about ethics in international communication and diplomacy?

 

17. Diplomacy and Communication in the Virtual World

 

     How much international relations and diplomacy have changed in this virtual world?  Obviously, the world has become more transparent,

interdependent and technological.  In short, everything has become smarter, quicker and shorter.  However, diplomacy is about statecraft and communication seeks to know and to be known by any individual. We also add culture to the study of communication. It refers to people’s cultivation, enhancement, value, norm, inspiration and belief in any country.  The academic community of international relations prefers the concepts of political, legal, strategic and business cultures. These academic disciplines and professional trainings have been in existence over a millennium.  The task of seeking an interdisciplinary integration is long over-due.  “Life is a negotiation”, as Scott Walker has argued in his book-“Order Out of Chaos”.  Every single day, we are dealing with negotiation, communication and information.

 

Concepts: Mutual Learning, Demonstration Effects, National Image, Sustainable Development, Social Innovation and The Wisdom Advocate

 

Questions: What roles do the media play in social innovation and the wisdom advocacy? Can we learn from other countries’ development experiences?

 

18. The Big Tech

 

The multinational companies(MNC) have always been a major focus point of our study of international relations.  Now, the Big Tech is very different because of its influence and expertise.  Facebook and Meta have had daily relationships with at least 1.5 billion population of the world.  Amazon is regarded as the biggest store globally.  Google is seen as “a modern man’s god”, because it provides knowledge and information.  Apple is “the global badge of wealth, education and western values”.  There are other descriptions and their special roles in international relations today are so obvious.  

 

Concepts: Facebook and Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google, the Multinationals and Artificial Intelligence

 

Questions: How much do you know about the Big Tech? How do we use and regulate their instrumental power and expertise?

 

Part II: Suggested Bibliography 

 

1. Introduction

(A)Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher, The Age of AI and Our Human Future(New York: Back Bay Books,2022)

Corneliu Bjola and Marcus Holmes,eds.,Digital Diplomacy:Theory and Practice(New York:Oxford University Press,2015).

李金銓,「國際傳播」國際化 (台北:聯經,2022)

Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan,The Making of Global International Relations:Origins and Evolution of International Relations at Its Centenary(Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2021).

Charles Kegley, World Politics(New York:Pearsons,2018).

Sinan Aral,The Hype Machine(New York: Random House,2020).

Marshall McLuhan,Understanding Media(1964), The Mechanical Bride(1951),The Gutenberg Galaxy(1962),Theories of Communication,Laws of Media(1988),The Global Village(1989).

 

(B)Brian Porter,ed.,The Aberystwyth Papers:International Politics 1919-1969(London:Oxford University Press,l972).

Everett Rogers,A History of Communication Study:A Biographical Approach(New York:1997)

 

(C)Hans Morgenthau,Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace(New York:Knopf,l948)

Harold Lasswell,Propaganda Technique in the World War I(New York:Knopf,l927)

Walter Lippmann,Public Opinion(New York:Harcourt Brace,1922)

Karl Deutsch,The Nerves of Government:Models of Political Communication and Control(New York:Free Press,l963)

 

2. Communication

   Scott Walker,Order Out of Chaos(London:Piatkus,2023)

Denis McQuail,McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory(London:Sage,2010)

Everett Rogers, op.cit.

Marshall McLuhan,Understanding Media(New York:McGraw-Hill,l964) 

Thomas Mcphail and Steven Phipps,Global Communication(London:Wiley-Blackwell,2019)

Kal Hafez, Alex Skinner and Anne Grune,Foundation of Global Communication(London: Routledge,2022)

 

3. Culture

Niall Ferguson, Civilization: The West and the Rest(London:Allen Lane,2011)

Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilization(London:Penguin,l993) and Civilization and Capitalism,15^th-18^th Century, 3 Volumes(Berkeley, California: University of California Press,l992).

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America(New York: Doubleday,l969)

Erin Meyer, The Culture Map(New York: Public Affaurs,2014).

 

4. Media, Information and Power

Joseph Nye,Soft Power:The Means to Success in World Politics(New York:Public Affaurs,2004).

Idem,The Future of Power(New York:Public Affairs,2010).

G.Cowan & N.J. Cull.eds., “Public Diplomacy in a Changing World,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,616(March 2008).

Christopher Walker, Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner, Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy(Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press,2016).

Roger Cobb and Charles D. Elder, Participation in American Politics: The Dymanics of Agenda-setting(Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press,l983).

 

5.Technology

Paul Levinson, Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium(London:Routledge,2001)

Klaus Schwab, Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution(London:Penguin,2018).

Eric Schmidt,”Innovation Power:Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics,”Foreign Affairs,102,2(March-April2023),38-52.

Chris Miller,Chip War(New York:Public Affairs,2022).

Michael Casey and Paul Vigna,The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine.

Brad Smith,Tool and Weapons:The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age(London:Penguin,2019).

 

6. Peace and War

Graham Allison,Destined For War:Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap(London:Scribe,2017)

Thucydides,History of the Peloponnesian War(New York:Free Press,l996)

Kishore Mahbubani,Has China Won?(New York Public Affairs,2020).

 

7. International and Cyber System

Richard Haass,A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order(London:Penguin,2017)

Yuval Noah Harari,21 Lessons for the 21^st Century(London:Jonathan Cape,2018)

Lucas Kello,The Virtual Weapon and International Order(New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press,2017)

Scott Galloway,The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google(New York:Penguin,2017).

 

8. Market

Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World(London:Penguin,2008)

Frank Trentmann, Empire of Things(London:Penguin,2017)

McLuhan and McQuail,op.cit.

Herbert Schiller,Mass Communications and American Empie(New York:Kelly,l969)

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism(New York:Profile Books,2019).

 

9. Globalization

Friedman,op.cit & idem., The World Is Flat(2005),Hot, Flat and Crowded(2008), Thank you for Being Late(2016).

McQuail,op.cit.

Peter Singer,One World Now:The Ethics of Globalization(New Haven,Connecticut:Yale University Press,2002).

Jaron Lanier,Who Owns the Future?(New York: Simon and Schuster,2013)

 

10. Media

McLuhan and McQuail,op.cit.

John Markoff,Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots(New York:Harper Collins,2016).

Percival Verena,The Ultimate Guide to ChatGPT(New York:Apple Books,2023).

Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics(Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,l998)

 

11. Diplomacy 

Christer Jonsson &Richard Langhorne eds.,Diplomacy, 3 Volumes(London:Sage,2004)

Halvard Leira & Benjaminde Carvalho, eds.,Historical International Relations, 4 Volumes(London:Sage,2015)

Paul Sharp,Diplomatic Theory of International Relations(Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2009)

B.J.C. Mckercher,Routledge Handbook of Diplomacy and Statecraft(London:Routledge,2011)

Nancy Snow & Philip Taylor,eds.,Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy(London:Routledge,2009)

Corneliu Bjola and IIan Manor.eds., The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy(New York:Oxford University Press,Forthcoming).

 

12. The Information Society

McLuhan & McQuail,op.cit.

Adam Watson, Evolution of International Society(London:Routledge,l992)

Richard Little and John Williams,eds.,The Anarchical Society in a Globalized World(London:Palgrave-Mcmillian,2006)

M. Castells, The Information Age. Volume I: The Rise of the Network Society(Oxford:Blackwell,l996)

 

13. The New World Order

   Marshall McLuhan and Eric McLuhan, Laws of Media:The New Science(Toronto: University of Toronto Press,1988)

Marshall McLuhan and B.R. Powers, The Global Village: Transformation in World Life and Media in the Twenty-first Century(New York: Oxford University Press,1989)

Henry Kissinger et al.,op.cit.

Ray Dalio, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order(New York:Simon &Schuster,2021)

   

    

   

It is not necessary to read all what I have suggested above.  Students are free to make their own choice, of course. For those who prefer a quick reading, I suggest:

    Henry Kissinger et al.,The Age of AI and Our Human Future.

  Acharya and Barry Buzan,The Making of Global International Relations

Marshall McLuhan,Understanding Media.

  Sinan Aral, The Hype Machine & Scott Walker,Order Out of Chaos.