The 2016 Defence Seminar, a provenance of the Sri Lanka Army, was devised with the aim of setting up a platform of rich intellectual interaction on intricacies of national, regional and international interest.
Focusing on the theme, ‘Soft Power and its Influence on Global Issues’, Colombo Defence Seminar 2016 will be conducted as a two-day programme on September 1 and 2.
Aspiring to muster wider identification, the previous Defence Seminar was renamed ‘Colombo Defence Seminar’, with effect from 2016 in line with a proposal by Lieutenant General Crishantha de Silva, Commander of the Army.
Colombo Defence Seminar 2016 Aims To Create An Analytical Dialogue On The Vital Need For Stretching The Influence Of A Country Through The Projection Of Its Soft Power Operations.
The seminar aims to provide a platform to identify and discuss means of achieving foreign policy of nation states. It has been designed with sequenced sessions, comprising of presentations, panel discussions, and participant-oriented group discussions to enhance knowledge on Soft Power, its elements such as the sources of soft power, the development, application and its influence on global issues.
The seminar specifically focuses on public, cultural and economic diplomacy as tools to creating Soft Power, the roles and activities of emerging powers and the use of military soft power through public diplomacy in disaster management and peacekeeping operations.
The Colombo Defence Seminar is organised not only to share the valued experiences gained by the military, but also to seek avenues of contribution cum exposure to the international community on matters related to preserving national security. This pursuance has followed a trajectory of intellectual connectivity amongst those who seek strategic, sub-regional, regional, and global partnerships by inviting prominent national and international scholars and diplomats around this particular theme.
Colombo Defence Seminar 2016 aims to create an analytical dialogue on the vital need for stretching the influence of a country through the projection of its Soft Power especially in the age of return to geopolitics, and create a distinct mode of legitimacy and acceptance that may not be possible otherwise.
The seminar will develop awareness of learning strategies on how to improve the soft elements of power in resolving critical issues at a time when ‘Hard Power’ seems increasingly a less effective means of statecraft.
