Guest Lecture | Godzilla, One Piece and the Yuanmingyuan - Diplomacy, Order and Security in East Asia (Akos Kopper)
GODZILLA, ONE PIECE AND THE YUANMINGYUAN- DIPLOMACY, ORDER AND SECURITY IN EAST ASIA
Sketches of doing research on culture and international relations
In my talk I will discuss three topics I have been working on at the intersection of international relations and culture. I will briefly introduce these, but I will do it with a twist. I will try to discuss not only the outcome of the research – which is what we usually get to see - but also the process and also dilemmas I faced during my work. The three topics I will touch upon: Yuanmingyuan and the ‘outsourcing ‘of diplomacy; the anime One Piece and global order; and Godzilla and security dilemmas in East Asia. I hope to have a lively discussion after my talk on the challenges of doing research and getting it published.
The lecture is hosted by the Institute of Chinese Studies, supported by GEAS Akos Kopper is Associate Professor at ELTE University, Budapest. He is working on topics of foreign policy, populism, citizens’ (in)action, diplomacy, and the use of visuals in politics and East Asia. His ongoing major research project focuses on the role of humor and vulgarity in politics and diplomacy, particularly the way these are used and exploited by populist actors. During the past few years, he worked at the University of Oxford, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and the CEU in Vienna. He was also Fernand Braudel Senior Research Fellow at the EUI, JSPS Fellow in Tokyo and prior to that Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research fellow at the ZOIS in Berlin. Since 2023 he is one of the chief editors of PARISS (Political Anthropology Research on International Social Sciences (Brill) a new multidisciplinary journal focusing on the international, while previously he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Relations and Development (Springer-Palgrave).
Time & Location
Apr 22, 2026 | 10:00 AM c.t. - 12:00 PM
K23/27, Habelschwerdter Allee
Freie Universität Berlin
14195 Berlin (Dahlem)