September 11 and the Middle East Failure of US Soft Power: Globalisation contra Americanisation in the New US Century
Aysha, Emad El-Din; International Relations June 2005, Vol. 19 Issue 2 An analysis of globalization in the context of September 11 and the reality of United States’ capability to disseminate cultural values through global information flows. A critical analysis of the US’s response to 9/11 and the backlash which emerged with its neglect of larger issues at play such as the presence of consequential poverty. It further looks at the post-attack global split between territories perceived as peaceful and those of conflict and terror and the lack of cultural diplomacy.
Redefining Cultural Diplomacy: Cultural Security and Foreign Policy in Canada
Belanger, Louis; Political Psychology 2-Dec-03 A close analysis of Canada’s foreign policy between 1994 and 1995 and the level of importance that culture constitutes as the 3rd tenet of the country’s foreign policy. It looks at different levels of support for such cultural dedication by those who are skeptical and those who see it as a relevant component of foreign policy.
Educational Exchange and Cultural Diplomacy in the Cold War
Bu, Liping; Journal of American Studies; Dec 1999 Vol 33 Issue 3 Post WWII and in the midst of the Cold War, the US increased its focus on cultural exchange with the Soviet and rest of the world, fueled by a fear of the opposing world power. Cultural diplomacy was implemented via educational exchange, which eventually led to complete diplomatic exchange through politics and economics. It also highlights the importance and significance of private institutions in organizing and designing cultural exchange programs.
The artist as cultural diplomat
Channick, Joan; American Theatre 1-May-05 This article focuses on U.S. government involvement in the educational, scientific and cultural organizations of the United Nations and the role of those responsible for conducting cultural diplomacy. It also highlights the decline in cultural exchange in recent years as well as the challenges and obstacles in the way of the government’s full commitment to cultural diplomacy.
The Perry Centennial Celebration: A Case Study in U.S.-Japanese Cultural Diplomacy
Chizuru, Saeki; International Social Science Review; 2005, Vol. 80 Issue 3/4 A study of US-Japanese relations which highlight the presence of cultural diplomacy amid pre-existing relation in the field of global politics and the military. It looks at how the US used various private institutions as well as the government to disseminate and promote the American culture, practices and ideas in an attempt to maintain cross-oceanic influence.
Cummings, Milton C.; Cultural Diplomacy Research Series, Center for Arts and Culture;
A look at cultural diplomacy as a cultural exchange against the background of cultural diplomacy as a one way exchange, which then could be considered cultural propaganda. The paper looks at some of the major cultural policy initiatives by the United States from the 1930s onwards, including its general trends in the cultural relations with other countries.
The Case for Cultural Diplomacy: Engaging Foreign Audiences
Finn, Helena K.; Foreign Affairs 1-Nov-03 This article discusses cultural diplomacy and foreign relation in light of the past and present methods of cultural exchange employed by the United States. Cultural diplomacy, which was once a major focal point for the U.S. in achieving mutual understanding, has been replaced by hard power and use of military force in response to conflict. This trend has also led to a decrease in resources available for public diplomacy or cultural exchange.
The Logic of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy
Gould-Davies, N.; Diplomatic History; April 2003 Vol 27 Issue 2 A critical look at the historical lack of academic analysis into the cultural aspect of diplomacy during the Cold War. The article acknowledges that some cultural diplomacy existed but that it took a back seat after political and economic interaction between the US and the Soviet Union, and that it is only in the last few years that the two sphere of cooperation and conflict have been addressed jointly, leading to more extensive studies on cultural diplomacy.
Art as Cultural Diplomacy: Back to the Drawing Board
Hoffie, Pat; Artlink; Vol 17 No 3 This article analyzes how treatment of Australia’s treatment of its Aboriginal population will determine both our own cultural development and how we are perceived by other cultures.
Remembering September 11: Photography as Cultural Diplomacy
Kennedy, Liam; International Affairs; 2-Mar-07 The significance to cultural diplomacy has received renewed attention and focus on its promotion after the September 11 attacks. Once such project is a world touring photographic exhibition which captured images from Ground Zero after the attacks. One of the purposes of such an artistic project is said to be to maintain public awareness and memory of the terrorist attacks, which in turn raises the question of the ideology behind the actual role the arts play in foreign policy.
The importance of international cultural exchange: some normative considerations
Khademi, Mona; Journal of Arts and Management, Law and Society; 22-Mar-99 This article discusses the survival of culture and cultural diversity within the context of globalization and one of its byproducts - a multicultural society. It highlights the benefits and challenges of cultural diversity, and provides a realistic look at how to make it a socially acceptable certainty.
Exhibiting Art at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, 1959: Domestic Politics and Cultural Diplomacy
Kushner, Marilyn S.; Journal of Cold War Studies; Winter 2002, Vol. 4 Issue 1 During the Cold War, art was used as means of cultural exchange and the selling of American ideas and dreams to those living in the ‘depraved’ Soviet Union. The article discusses art and its historical potential and ability to serve as an instrument of either cultural diplomacy or cultural propaganda. It looks specifically at the year 1959 and art projects such as the American National Exhibition which was sent to Moscow.
Books and Libraries as Instruments of Cultural Diplomacy in Francophone Africa during the Cold War
Mack, Mary Niles; Libraries and Culture; Winter 2001 Vol. 36 Issue 1 A look into the strategies that Britain, France and the United States used to introduce their local cultures into the Francophone Africa during the Cold War period. All mentioned countries had different activities depending on their national ideologies, but the approach was similar in that they all set up cultural centers and libraries combined with language instruction, which all contributed in building the foundations for cultural diplomacy.
Public-private partnerships and the American exchange programs: a view from the field
Journal of Arts and Management, Law and Society; 22-Mar-99 The article focuses on public-private partnerships and exchange programs in the United States and the role of its Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 in authorizing exchange programs. It also looks are the contributions of US citizens to foreign policy goals.
Cultural Relations between China and the Member States of the European Union
Meissner, Werner; China Quarterly 2-Mar-06 This article differentiates between the processes of cultural relations, foreign cultural policy and cultural diplomacy, and looks closely at the foreign cultural policy and cultural diplomacy of the EU and China since the 1980s as a means of cultural relations.
Cultural Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World
Mulcahy, Kevin; Journal of Arts Management; 2-Apr-03 A study of the reasons why cultural diplomacy is under-appreciated and not used often enough as a method of reaching global understanding and resolution. Generally policy makers base their decisions on the premise that they can predict results, while cultural diplomacy in the form of cultural exchange through education and arts has a more long-term and gradual focus which makes the prediction of policy success even more challenging. The article focuses furthermore on various administrative organizations including the United States Information Agency (USIA).
Cultural Diplomacy and the exchange programs: 1938-1978
Mulcahy, Kevin; Journal of Arts and Management, Law and Society; 22-Mar-99 The focus of this article is on cultural exchange programs from 1938 to 1978 in the United States. It begins with the premise that this has been one of the neglected areas of US relations abroad and raises questions concerned with the objectives of overseas educational and cultural exchange programs which have often been linked to political promotion. The article also highlights the distinction between cultural and informational diplomacy in the context of theory and practice, and with that the need to distinguish cultural exchanges from propaganda. The discussion examines cultural diplomacy and American cultural exchanges by looking specifically at various administrative agencies involved in the promotion and organization of these programs.
Vultures and philistines': British attitudes to culture and cultural diplomacy
Parsons, Anthony; International Affairs; Winter 84/85 Vol. 61 Issue 1 An examination of British attitude towards cultural diplomacy and acceptance of other cultures, through a close look at the British culture and its characteristics. In combination with this cultural peculiarity and awareness the article particularly focuses on the notion of philistinism and the impact that the developments of the industrial revolution have had on it, in relation to cultural diplomacy.
Reinvention, reorganization, retreat: American cultural diplomacy at century's end, 1978-1998
Sablosky, Juliet; Journal of Arts and Management, Law and Society; 22-Mar-99 An examination of some of the underlying perceptions that have created the American approach to cultural diplomacy since the 1920s. A close look at the notion of cultural propaganda and cultural diplomacy and how this has taken shape in the relationship between the US national and foreign relations and the world in the post Cold War era.
What others do and why: the cases of Germany and the United Kingdom (Cultural Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World)
Sablosky, Juliet; Journal of Arts and Management, Law and Society; 22-Mar-99 Besides the United States, other countries around the world are reexamining their approach to cultural diplomacy, depending on their individual expectations of the role culture and the arts should play in diplomacy and foreign relations. This particular article looks at the case of cultural diplomacy in Germany and Great Britain.
Diplomacy That Works: 'Best Practices' in Cultural Diplomacy
Schneider, Cynthia; Cultural Diplomacy Research Series, Center for Arts and Culture; 2003 Through a review of American cultural diplomacy initiatives throughout the Cold War, ranging from the jazz tours of the 1950s and 1960s and the Fulbright exchange programmes, Ambassador Schneider attempts to identify some ‘best practices’ that define successful American cultural diplomacy. Initiatives should:
• communicate some aspect of America’s values, i.e. diversity, opportunity, individual expression, freedom of speech and thought, merit-based society;
• cater to the interests of the host country or region, i.e., music in Russia,
design/architecture in Denmark;
• offer pleasure, information or expertise in the spirit of exchange and mutual respect;
• open doors between American diplomats and their host country;
• provide another dimension or alternative to the official presence of America in the
country;
• form part of a long-term relationship and the cultivation of ties; and
• be creative, flexible, and opportunistic.
Schneider illustrates these points with a wide range of examples of recent successful American cultural diplomacy initiatives. Drawing on her own experience as Ambassador to the Netherlands, Schneider shows the effectiveness of honest, far-reaching, self-critical cultural diplomacy initiatives, though she calls for better leadership in order for the potential to be realized. The full article can be accessed here
‘A Certain Idea of Britain’: British Cultural Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1945-57
Vaughan, James R.; Contemporary British History; Summer 2005, Vol 19 Issue 2 During the formative years of the Cold War, cultural diplomacy and 'national projection' came to occupy an important place in British policy towards the Middle East. The British Council and the official overseas information services sought to mobilise pro-democracy committees, education and exchange programmes, commercial magazine publishing and book distribution as well as the British film industry in a bid to bolster British prestige and facilitate the wider policymaking process. This article argues that many of these initiatives enjoyed significant success and that, rather than weak propaganda policy per se, it was ultimately a flawed conceptualisation of Arab nationalism and the nature of the Cold War in the Middle East that led to British failure in the 1950s.
The New Public Diplomacy: Britain and Canada Compared
Vickers, Rhiannon; British Journal of Politics and International Relations; May 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 2 In Vickers’ article, she identifies the rise of a ‘new public diplomacy’, characterized by a blurring of traditional distinctions between international and domestic information activities, between public and traditional diplomacy and between cultural diplomacy, marketing and news management. This new phenomenon has been created by the new pressures and opportunities of the information age through increased technological and communicative capability. In focusing on Britain and Canada, Vickers identifies a distinction between the new public diplomacy in these countries. In Britain, the new public diplomacy features a ‘repackaging’ of diplomacy to project a particular image to an overseas audience, whereas in Canada, the new diplomacy is more inclusive, allowing NGOs and citizen groups to assume a more prominent role in international relations.
Transmission Impossible: American Journalism as Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany 1945-1955
American Historical Review; Oct 2003 Vol. 108 Issue 4 The author conducts a careful analysis of the nationally distributed “Neue Zeitung”, its history and role as “cultural transmitters” between the United States and Germany. One of the reasons the author attributes to the newspaper’s success, which was founded by the American Office of Military Government in Germany, is that it was the only nationally distributed licensed newspaper during the WWII occupation. She also looks further into other reasons behind the success of the newspaper and it cultural function.
