Bücher von Tobias Hoenger

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: 100 (highest possible grade), , course: Workshop, language: English, abstract: It is the aim of this paper to explore Switzerland¿s public diplomacy efforts in the light of the ¿Minaret debate¿ (from 2007-2009). This case study could be seen as an example of Switzerland¿s public diplomacy effort to protect (maintain) the image of the country abroad. On the basis of the Minaret initiative, it is possible to extract and analyse the different parts of a public diplomacy theory by asking, inter alia, the following questions: Who was the actor? What was the foreign policy aim? Who was the target audience and what was the message used? What tools and channels did the actor use?The case analysis will further help to determine the status quo of Switzerland¿s communication abroad (and in this sense the public diplomacy).The ¿status quö is thereby the situation in which the actor, ¿Presence Switzerland¿, operates nowadays (2013). In order to speak about the ¿status quö, and to draw some conclusions at the end, it is helpful to define the ¿status quo ante¿. In this sense, the author defines the ¿status quo ante¿ as the time before 2007 and the ¿status quö as the time after 2007 until the present day. The reason for this clear cut is a change in the public diplomacy model; ¿Presence Switzerland¿ (the official public diplomacy agency in Switzerland) went through a changing process in the years from 2007 to 2009. The former PRS (Presence Switzerland) was an agency assigned from the government, with the task to conduct image branding abroad. It compromised members from the federal administration, members from partly state-run organizations and as well members from private organizations. Oppose to that, the later Presence Switzerland (from 2009) was a sub-agency of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which means a complete government institution.Not least because of this differentiation, this paper will eventually provide an example of how a state actor conducts public diplomacy and therefore has the chance to contribute to the relatively young academic field of public diplomacy.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Theology - Miscellaneous, University of Bern (Theological Institute), course: Modern Trends in Islam , language: English, abstract: I. Introduction¿My story is simply the story of a European¿s discovery of Islam and of his integration within the Muslim community.¿ This is one of the first sentences of the book, The Road to Mecca written by Muhammad Asad and published in 1955. It is surely true, he just wanted to live the Islam way and be a part of the Muslim community. Asad was an Austrian Jew from Lemberg who converted to Islam and became one of the most meaningful Muslim thinkers of the 20 century. He was a visionary, a diplomat and he searched for adventures. As an author and Koran translator he had a big influence in the modern theologian thinking of Islam and became a great pioneer and cultural mediator between the Western world and Islam. He had a controversial life, but also had (and still has) a number of critics and on the other hand he has a lot of sympathizer.The Road to Mecca is a great adventure story with a warm-hearted picture of the religion of Islam, (unlike the stories we hear about Islam in the media today). In the present paper two interesting points in relation to Muhammad Asad will be dealt with. Many reports draw a picture of a very controversial Asad relating to Islam. Some of his critics accuse him of not being strict in his beliefs; who would often changes his views. For example, at first he turned his back to Western civilization and then suddenly came back to live in New York. In relation to this point, the following questions are of interest:1. What is Muhammad Asad¿s comprehension of Islam? As has been noted before, Asad tried to build bridges between the abyss of the Muslim world and the West. It would be an exercise to list some important points of his life and his thinking to show how he contributed to the interreligious dialogue.2. How did Asad mediate between the Western world and Islam?Before dealing with these questions it is important to give some background information about Muhammad Asad¿s life.