“Quiet diplomacy is a common tool to promote human rights but because it happens behind closed doors, we usually know very little about it. Of course it can be useful, yet that is not always the case,” explains SPP Visiting Professor Katrin Kinzelbach. Her book, The EU's Human Rights Dialogue with China: Quiet Diplomacy and its Limits was just published by Routledge.
“When I started researching the EU-China human rights dialogue, I really wanted to know whether quiet diplomacy could work towards the rising China. But I was also interested in assessing how the EU fares as a promoter of human rights and democracy. My findings are sobering. We need to think hard about how the EU could become a more effective force for democracy and human rights around the world, which is a noble ambition but in reality a very complex task. We also need new ideas on how to engage and support domestic Chinese change-makers, and change-makers in other authoritarian countries for that matter.”
Kinzelbach says she is looking forward to discussing innovative ideas for human rights and democracy promotion with SPP colleagues and students when she returns to Budapest in the spring. Her focus now though is on promoting her book. She will be appearing in Washington, DC next week at Human Rights Watch. Kinzelbach says she has also been approached by European officials and government representatives and is optimistic that her book will find its way into the policy-making world.