BEACON SOFT POWER AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY SERIES:DAY 7

Today, the last and final segment of the Soft Power/Public Diplomacy series, Paul Kretkowski’s Beacon features….me ! Paul was kind enough to let me add some Zenpundit style to the Beacon substance on the subject of soft power.

I decided, as most of the other contributors were likely to focus on the modern era, to reach back a bit into history. An excerpt:

“As Japan entered the 16th century, it was torn between the warring armies of feudal lords and Buddhist monasteries. The Emperor in Kyoto was a mere figurehead and three remarkable military men, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Ieyasu Tokugawa would spend the better part of sixty years forcibly unifying Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was at this time, in 1549, that Francis Xavier, the Spanish Jesuit missionary, arrived at Satsuma. Xavier’s mission as Apostolic Nuncio would meet, in the words of historian Edwin O. Reischauer, “with considerable success.”

Read my Beacon guest post in full here:

Much thanks to Paul Kretkowski for putting together an excellent series and for inviting me to participate .

Blogging Note:

Going offline for a bit. Should be back later tonight.