Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence

We invite you to the “Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence” conference to take place on February 26, 2018 at 3 pm in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

The discussion elaborates on the ways in which China and Russia influence the media, academic and cultural spheres, and think tanks in democratic countries, and how they shape public opinion. Do these interferences into the internal spheres of sovereign countries still fall under the category of “soft power,” the catch-all term for non-violent forms of developing and spreading influence? Or do the rising pace and traction justify the creation of a brand new “sharp power“ category, in the sense that they try to penetrate the political environment and subvert it?

The attendees of the conference include the Spanish journalist Juan Pablo Cardenal, the Slovak political scientist Grigory Mesežnikov, the distinguished Polish analyst Jacek Kucharczyk, and the Czech sinologist Martin Hála.

The keynote speech will be delivered by the Director of the Forum 2000 Foundation, Jakub Klepal, Senator Tomáš Czernin, and the Vice President of the National Endowment for Democracy, Christopher Walker. The discussion will be moderated by Shanthi Kalathil, the Director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies.

For more information, please visit our Facebook event page. If you are interested in attending the discussion, please register HERE before February 24, 2018.

For inquiries, please contact Ms. Dominika Vondráčková at dominika.vondrackova@forum2000.cz, for accreditation of the journalists, please contact Ms. Lenka Řehořová at lenka.rehorova@forum2000.cz.