Cultural Diplomacy Initiative

Since September 11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has become acutely aware of international distrust or misunderstanding of American values, ideas and intentions. Beyond formal diplomatic channels, the avenues of cultural diplomacy offer constructive ways for countries to represent their ideas, culture, and beliefs through artistic and educational programs. Cultural diplomacy - the representation of culture through the “soft diplomacy” of artistic and cultural exchange - could add an important and persuasive plank to U.S. gestures on the world stage. Congress, the U.S. Department of State and the non-governmental community are turning renewed attention to the opportunities of cultural diplomacy, and the Center for Arts and Culture has initiated several steps to underscore the urgency for renewed cultural exchange.

The goal of the Center for Arts and Culture's cultural diplomacy initiative has been (1) to raise awareness of the importance of cultural diplomacy, (2) to commission much needed research on the subject, and (3) to directly influence the programs and budget of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

To address the diminished role of the arts and culture in American foreign policy, the Center has joined with COLEAD, the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad, to bring the foreign policy and cultural communities together to revitalize the State Department's international programs. The Center, COLEAD, members of the Foreign Service community, and the arts community, have come together to create a collaborative group named "Americans for International Arts and Cultural Exchange." Over the past year, this group has made progress in developing new research and program definition for U.S. cultural diplomacy. The goal of the coalition is to renew a more effective program of cultural diplomacy within the U.S. Department of State and to increase funding for existing and new cultural exchange programs.

To achieve these goals, since Fall 2002, the Center has been active in the areas of research and public education, including:

• NEW -- Letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Powell
On July 15, 2005, Americans for International Arts and Cultural Exchange (AIACE), an initiative sponsored by COLEAD and the Center for Arts and Culture, delivered letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Powell on the subject of cultural exchange. The letters applaud the State Department's work to-date in cultural diplomacy and offer the AIACE coalition's help in boosting cultural diplomacy efforts, including lobbying Congress for additional funding. Click one the links below to download PDF copies of each letter.

Letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
http://www.culturalpolicy.org/pdf/RiceLetter.pdf

Letter to Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Powell:
http://www.culturalpolicy.org/pdf/DinaPowellLetter.pdf

• Art as Diplomacy: 21st Century Challenges
On May 17, 2004, over 400 individuals representing the worlds of art, culture and public policy assembled at the Department of State in Washington, DC, to recognize the 40th anniversary of one of the U.S. government’s most established and successful public diplomacy efforts: the State Department’s ART in Embassies Program. As part of this celebration, the ART in Embassies Program and the Center for Arts & Culture organized a panel discussion, Art as Diplomacy: 21st Century Challenges, which addressed the impacts of cultural exchange and how to
effectively incorporate the arts and culture in current U.S. government public diplomacy efforts.

Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, past president of the Center for Arts and Culture, moderated discussion between

• Charles Cowles, Director of the Charles Cowles Gallery (New York City)
• Karl Hofmann, Special Assistant to the Secretary and Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Washington, DC)
• Michael Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC)
• Adair Margo, Chairman of the President's Council for the Arts and the Humanities (El Paso)
• Therman Statom, an independent artist (San Diego)

Click here to download a summary of the discussion in PDF format.

• "Cultural Diplomacy: Recommendations and Research"
Cultural Diplomacy: Recommendations and Research summarizes two years of work at the Center and with our partners in mutual efforts to heighten awareness about the power and importance of cultural diplomacy in our contemporary world. Following an introduction that sets the stage of cultural diplomacy's role in a foreign policy portfolio, this booklet summarizes five research papers that the Center commissioned in 2003 to complement our two-part conference series on cultural diplomacy. Resulting from these meetings and research findings, we have drawn conclusions that you will find in a separate section on "Recommendations." Finally, we have prepared a timeline of highlights in U.S. cultural diplomacy. Click here to download a PDF version of the document.

• Commission five research pieces.
In the Fall of 2002, the Center convened meetings to outline what a reinvigorated program would look like if more funding were available and to identify research that would be useful for the initiative's efforts. These gatherings informed five commissioned research pieces:

U.S. Cultural Diplomacy: Where Are We Now?
an executive summary by the Center for Arts and Culture

Cultural Diplomacy and the United States Government: A Survey
by Milton Cummings, Ph.D.

Recent Trends In Department of State Support for Cultural Diplomacy: 1993-2002
by Juliet Antunes Sablosky, Ph.D.

International Cultural Relations: A Multi-Country Comparison
by Margaret Wyszomirski, Ph.D.

Diplomacy that Works: 'Best Practices' in Cultural Diplomacy
by Cynthia Schneider, Ph.D.

A New Mandate for Philanthropy? U.S. Foundation Support for International Arts Exchanges
by András Szántó, Ph.D.

• Co-production of a public talk radio series on culture and diplomacy.
In January 2003, The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU public radio and the Center for Arts and Culture collaborated on a series of discussions on culture and diplomacy. Three hour-long segments focused on the deterioration of foreign attitudes toward the United States, the role of mass culture in shaping those attitudes, and the importance of cultural exchange in improving mutual understanding. The Center worked actively with the Kojo Nnamdi staff on the content and inviting guest participants.

How U.S. Culture is Exported - 01/08/03
What effect do U.S. cultural exports have on global perceptions of American life and values?

• Cynthia Schneider, Associate Professor, Art History, Georgetown University; former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands
  
• Mark Hertsgaard, Author, "The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World"
  
• Andrew Kohut, Director, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Cultural Diplomacy - 01/15/03
Just what is cultural diplomacy? Does it work?

• Kenton Keith, Chair, Alliance for International Education and Cultural Exchange; Senior Vice President, Meridian International Center; former Ambassador to Qatar
  
• Stephen Hart, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Educational and
  Cultural Affairs, Department of State
  
• Benjamin Ladner, President, American University

The View from Abroad - 01/23/03
What can Americans learn about our own culture by speaking with journalists and scholars in other countries?

• Ellen Lovell, President, Center for Arts and Culture
  
• Samer Shehata, Assistant Professor of Arab Politics, and Acting Director of Arab Studies Programs, Georgetown University
  
• Jimmy Matthews, Head of Television News, South African Broadcasting Corporation
  
• Paula Leighton, Editor of the "Trends"
  section of "La Tercera" Newspaper, Santiago, Chile
  

Internet audio files and cassette tapes of all segments are available through the WAMU Web site. Funding for this radio series was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

• Co-production of two conferences.
The Center partnered with organizations to co-sponsor and co-developed two conferences on cultural diplomacy. The first conference, "Arts and Minds: A Conference on Cultural Diplomacy Amid Global Tensions" (April 14-15, 2003), was co-sponsored by the Center for Arts and Culture, Arts International, and the National Arts Journalism Program of Columbia University (NAJP). Over 300 participants attended the two-day conference, which explored the history, practice and future prospects of cultural diplomacy. For a transcript or more information, see http://www.culturalpolicy.org/issuepages/Arts&Minds.cfm.

The second conference explored the history, practice and future prospects of cultural diplomacy. The second conference, "Communicating with the World: Diplomacy that Works," (April 30, 2003) co-sponsored by Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the Center for Arts and Culture, explored the use of public diplomacy to more effectively communicate American culture and values and to better understand other parts of the world, particularly the Arab/Muslim world. With over 60 selected participants, the conference was designed to generate specific recommendations to be presented to the U.S. Department of State, the Executive Office, and members of Congress.