ABSTRACT
Gastrodiplomacy, how countries conduct cultural diplomacy through promotion of their cuisine, is an increasing popular strategy for public diplomacy, nation branding, and soft-power promotion. It is a subject that exists at the nexus of food, foreign policy, and international strategic communication. This chapter revisits theoretical distinctions of gastrodiplomacy and analyzes salient trends in the field. The chapter gives a synthesized overview of the field of gastrodiplomacy, reviewing academic theory, strategies of gastrodiplomacy, and best practices derived from the relevant case studies that have helped enrich the field. The chapter looks further into the role that gastrodiplomacy can play in people-to-people connections, especially in direct relevance to issues like refugees and migration, growing extremism, and the modern political reality.
