WHO: Wiebke Denecke (MIT), Kimiko Kōno (Waseda University), Johann Noh (MIT/Korea University), Kyungho Sim (Korea University), Wonseok Yang (Korea University)
WHAT: The Challenge
Today’s hegemonic system of global diplomacy is rooted in the Treaty of Westphalia, the peace treaty that ended the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). In the Westphalian system the sovereignty of states and the balance of powers are key concepts that still underpin today’s international law.
In contrast, large tribute-system-based empires like China often relied on social rituals and political symbolism that projected strict hierarchies into the diplomatic communication with their neighbors. Older forms of this “mission diplomacy,” “friendship diplomacy,” often called derogatively “goodwill missions,” required the laborious and costly preparation of lavish, often even dangerous tribute missions, typically accompanied by dozens of envoys—a brain trust of poetry, music, medicine, philosophy specialists—and hundreds of sailors. Although considered less “modern” and advanced than the Westphalian system, we find that the intense human interaction, on deeper intellectual, literary, and cognitive levels, brought a depth to diplomatic relations that any contractual practice of diplomacy lacks. The formal document that enshrined diplomatic documents from missions between early modern Japan and Korea as UN Memory of the World artifacts even claims that the official tribute system led to unprecedented peace between Japan and Korea from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
In the East Asian Kanji-Kanbun cultural sphere, the diplomatic culture (diplomacy of literacy) was mainly based on the written word. If we compare this with, for example, the oral oaths (horkoi) of pre-Hellenistic ancient Greece, or the culture of treaties and law in ancient Rome, which has influenced the modern era, what characteristics and significance can we find? What are the characteristics and significance of the ‘mission diplomacy’ and ‘friendship diplomacy’ (‘goodwill missions’) of hundreds of court literati in the Chinese and Han literature cultures? Can we give a fresh assessment of ‘knowledge diplomacy’, in which the exchange of knowledge provided opportunities for nation branding, in terms of fairness, peace and global social justice in diplomacy? What about the ‘knowledge diplomacy’ of the Chinese language in the early modern period? Furthermore, how can we make sense of the diversification of diplomacy in the Kanji-Chinese cultural sphere, especially in the early modern period, i.e. diplomacy and diplomatic techniques with countries outside the Kanji-Chinese cultural sphere, such as the Ryukyu Islands and the Netherlands?
In this project, we will examine the following topics from a variety of fields and angles, and intertwine them with each other in order to discuss ‘the art of diplomacy and global order in the cultural sphere of Chinese characters and Chinese literature’. Each chapter will begin with a general historical overview (the image of an exhibition catalogue), followed by a narrative of specific cases to illustrate the role and significance of the circulation and dissemination of knowledge (literature and culture), in other words, diplomacy and the art of diplomacy.
WHY: Motivations & Intentions
In East Asia’s Sinitic, Sino-centric world, diplomacy was conducted primarily through the written word: in short, satisfying the needs of the Chinese diplomatic system required peripheral states to acquire literacy and, themselves, to build centralized bureaucracies that required high levels of literacy. Our deeper goal is to explore the characteristics and significance of diplomacy in the Sinitic tribute sphere. And to ask: what higher wisdom, and effective strategies can we learn from three millennia of diplomatic interaction and state-building in East Asia, in and for the current period of diplomatic crisis and the failure of “soft” forms of diplomacy on the world stage?
HOW CAN I JOIN? Activities & Events in 2025
- Two International workshops held at Waseda University (Tokyo)
- Two edited volumes entitled Three Millennia of Diplomatic Craft in East Asia: Perspectives for Today’s Global Order and Human Flourishing (planned for winter 2025 and summer 2026)
For further details, contact the project leaders.