Event
Public Diplomacy in Culture and Ethics - Workshop at Chungnam University

With the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the socialist block, there seemed to be a triumphal procession of democracy and market economy, a process once called “the end of history”. Thirty years later, it became clear that this was a misleading impression. Indeed, democracy and the values underpinning democracy, where in decline, even in some of the core democratic countries. Partisanship, the dwindling of moral values, the canceling of unwanted opinions at university campuses originally thought to be the core units defending free speech under the banner of “critical race theory”, all point to the decline and precariousness of democracy.

This was the reason for the National Strategy Institute of  Chungnam National University to invite experts in related fields to discuss how to repair democracy in crisis and to re-establish a desirable value system that can be shared by members of the country. The conference was convened by Prof. Shin Jin of Chungnam National University. Experts in the field of public diplomacy from the United States, Germany, Japan, and Korea gathered for this seminar, which was supported by the Korea Foundation. Among the purposes of the Korea Foundation are the promotion of proper awareness and understanding of Korea and enhancing goodwill and friendship throughout the international community through a diverse array of international exchange activities. Dr. Bernhard Seliger of Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea introduced the development of German public diplomacy and pointed out challenges for preserving the strong foundations laid by the founding fathers of the Federal Republic of Germany as a democracy and social market economy. Other presentations included those by Dr. Choi Kyung-Ai of Mokwon University and Dr. Young Deuk Park  of Chungnam National University, Melvin Haft, David Caprara and John Hancock Dickson of the USA and Shibata Yoko of Japan.