[Bilimsel Haber] Geopolitics, ‘Soft Power’ and Popular Culture in the Middle East

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*Geopolitics, ‘Soft Power’ and Popular Culture in the Middle East
Special issue of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication *

	

	

	

Papers are solicited for a special issue of the Middle East Journal of
Culture and Communication on geopolitics, ‘soft power; and popular
culture in the Middle East. The purpose of this special issue is to
tease out the implications of American-led public diplomacy in the
Middle East that is often characterized as ‘soft power’, while at the
same time exploring how media professionals, artists and journalists
inside the Middle East have co-opted, dissented, and/or resisted such
projections of diplomacy. The issue also aims to understand the position
of audiences in the Middle East and their readings of public diplomacy.

In light of the ongoing ‘War on Terror’ and the occupation of Iraq,
attention has turned again to how countries such as the United States
and Britain can use ‘soft power’ to influence not only domestic
communities but also countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Inevitably, the role of media, whether in the form of radio, television,
the internet or film, looms large in such debates. The United States,
for example, has funded new radio stations such as Radio Farda and Radio
Sawa in an attempt to influence Farsi- and Arabic-speaking audiences in
Iran and the Arab world. The Middle East has, as a consequence of
American geopolitical fears of both Islamist militancy and Iranian power
projection, emerged as the critical space for such popular cultural
expressions. Geopolitics, in this context, refers to the representation
of the geographies of global politics, and in the context of the Middle
East, such representations are rarely politically innocent.

Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines including geography,
international relations, media and communication studies have begun to
consider how and with what consequences ‘soft power’ is deployed.
However, a great deal of this work, especially by Anglophone scholars,
has concentrated on the activities of larger corporations such as the
BBC, Voice of America and al-Jazeera, rather than other forms of media
and visual expression produced inside the Middle East. For the purpose
of this special issue we wish to consider, where possible, the role of
cartoonists, bloggers, public artists, television stations, video games
and film.

We are eager to solicit contributions which engage with but are not
limited to the following questions:

1. What role do American-led public diplomacy and ‘soft power’ play in
the contemporary Middle East?

2. What is the relationship between ‘soft power’ and ‘hard power’in
this context and how is this relationship strategized and mediated?

3. What is the relationship between Middle Eastern popular cultures and
American public diplomacy efforts? Can the latter be characterized as
creating a ‘pseudo-popular culture’?

4. How are discourses of public diplomacy and ‘soft power’ discussed in
media in the Middle East?

5. How can we study the impact of public diplomacy amongst audiences in
the Middle East? What do we know about the audiences of media outlets
like Radio Sawa and al-Hurra television? What are the rituals of
resistance that accompany the consumption of their programs?

6. How can we understand the position of ‘soft power’ within popular
culture in the Middle East? For example, can Radio Sawa be considered
part of the fabric of Arab popular culture?

7. How important are different forms of media in the Middle East in
terms of shaping public understandings of the region and extra-regional
powers?

*Deadline for submission of proposals: 1 November 2007*.
Notification of acceptance of proposals: 15 November 2007.
Deadline for submission of manuscripts for accepted proposals: 1 June 2008.
Expected publication date of accepted articles: April 2009.

Proposals should be about 500-600 in length. They must clearly describe
the proposed approach, and explain the contribution that would be made
to the special issue.

Articles should be 6000-7000 words long and include an abstract of not
more than 150 words that clearly defines the nature of the article. Up
to five keywords should be included to identify the article.

Please email the proposal to Dr Lina Khatib, co-editor of Middle East
Journal of Culture and Communication: lina.khatib at rhul.ac.uk.

Please note that all articles will be subject to our peer review process
and that the Editors retain the discretion at all stages of the
publication process to accept or reject an article. Guest Editors: Lina
Khatib and Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway, University of London)

MEJCC is a peer-reviewed journal published by Brill; the first issue is
coming out in June 2008.

	Dr. Lina Khatib
Department of Media Arts
Royal Holloway, University of London
Email: lina.khatib at rhul.ac.uk <mailto:lina.khatib at rhul.ac.uk>
Visit the website at http://www.brill.nl/mjcc