Non-resident Long-term Fellow for Programmes on Modern History and International Relations, SCAS.
Professor and Deputy Director, Tokyo College, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo

Hybrid event.
Zoom Webinar: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/65802739142 External link.

ABSTRACT:
In our everyday understanding of diplomacy, we are accustomed to seeing images of diplomatic events. In many instances, such images might consist of one statesman visiting another, looking stiff as they shake hands in front of the few selected diplomatic photographers, to enable the taking of the stock diplomatic images. These images are so cliched that not many observers would think twice about the potential power of the choreographed meanings embedded in such public displays of diplomatic relationships. Nevertheless, such images can embody powerful symbolic meanings and demonstrably so in Cold War Asia. Visual sources can offer new insights into understanding global diplomacy as illustrated from case studies in my recently published edited volume, Cold War Asia: A Visual History of Global Diplomacy (edited with Matthew Phillips, Cambridge University Press 2025).