Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

With the new political configurations, various new forms of diplomacy have emerged to project countries abroad. Food, a classic tool in human interactions, is considered an important and special vehicle for carrying out public and cultural diplomatic activities. The term gastrodiplomacy was coined in 2002 in an article of The Economist and later, around 2010, the academic world began to pay attention to this new practice of diplomacy. Starting with posts on online forums, over two decades, extensive research, spanning disciplines like Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, and Intercultural Studies, has enriched the field with case studies from countries like Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. While this diversification is positive as it enriches the field of gastrodiplomacy, there’s a need to consolidate its academic foundations in order to affirm the position of this concept in the academic field. This study carries out a systematic literature review of gastrodiplomacy in an attempt to find a definition of the term, summarize its theoretical basis, explore related themes and methodologies, analyse the challenges posed to the field of gastrodiplomacy and, finally, make suggestions for future research.