AGS Ph.D. Candidate Presents her Doctoral Research at International Conferences in France, Poland, Ghana, Singapore

AGS Ph.D. Candidate Fatimaah Menefee will present her doctoral research on soft power and international relations of Asian and African countries at four academic conferences in the coming months: in France, Poland, Ghana, and Singapore.

Fatimaah joined the American Graduate School in Paris in September 2018 after engaging in an already very international career that spanned the US and South Korea. She first worked for ten years with the US Department of Health and Human Services, with the State of Texas, City of Houston and Municipality of Anchorage, where her missions focused on community engagement, public health education, and child abuse and neglect investigations. She then founded ESE & SEGYE, a start up consulting firm based in Seoul, which focuses on the cultural diplomacy and branding of African countries in Asia.

Fatimaah joined AGS with the ambition to make ESE & SEGYE the bridge that connects Africa and Asia through what she calls ‘Cassava Diplomacy’. Her graduate research at AGS concentrates on Non-Western Middle Power States and Soft Power. Her dissertation explores Soft Power Foreign Policies of South Korea and South Africa, and the lessons that South Africa can learn from South Korea.

“One of the great things that I appreciate with attending AGS is the diversity in thought and perceptions in the way the faculty and students understand international relations and diplomacy. It challenges me as a student and as a professional that wants to contribute to non-Western international relations.”

Fatimaah was encouraged by Professor Ruchi Anand to submit papers to international relations conferences focusing on themes to which her research would be relevant. All of her submissions were met with interest, so she will be “on tour” all Spring and summer!

On March 15th, Fatimaah will travel to Le Havre, Normandy to present her paper entitled “Ubuntu Diplomacy Meet Kimchi Diplomacy: Soft Power Lessons from South Korea to South Africa” at the conference “The Rise of Asia in Global History and Perspective” (Paris and Le Havre, March 13-15). This international multidisciplinary conference is co-organized by Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Le Havre, and research centers CHAC (Centre d’Histoire de l’Asie Contemporaine) and GRIC (Groupe de Recherches Identités et Cultures). Fatimaah will be part of a panel on Asia and Africa, which will also feature presenters from George Washington University and Frostburg University in the US. Her paper explores how economic reform, technology transformation and cultural assets (soft power) transformed South Korea into a successful influential middle power state, and questions the possibility of the South Korean model to work for South Africa.

Fatimaah will present this paper at two other conferences with the International Studies Association (ISA), of which she became a member : in July, at the ISA Asia-Pacific Conference, on the theme: “Asia-Pacific and World Order: Security, Economics, Identity and Beyond.”, which will be held at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (July 4-6, 2019); and in August, at the ISA International Conference, which will take place at the University of Ghana’s Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy, in Accra, Ghana.

Additionally, in June, Fatimaah will present her paper “Is the State as Actor Losing Its Primacy in International System?” at the Twelfth Global Studies Conference, at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (June 27-28). The 2019 edition’s special focus on “The ‘End of History’ 30 Years On: Globalization Then and Now” will cover themes ranging from political to economic to societal, cultural and environmental. Fatimaah’s paper looks at the withering of the State as a chief social actor in the international system. It is unable to provide for its own best interest, so it must share custody with non-state actors, technology and mass communications (read Fatimaah Menefee’s paper abstract).

“While completing my dissertation and working on these various papers, I am able to receive feedback from my classmates that have real-life experience in international relations,” says Fatimaah Menefee. “One of my classmates is an active US military officer who works in global health. Having the opportunity to confront my view with her, who has a different take on the appeal and application of soft power, makes me sharper in my argument. With my dissertation research, I hope to be able to start a conversation on what international relations theory looks like for non-Western States and how they understand the importance of soft tools in diplomacy.”