Cultural Diplomacy By Hwajung Kim

The importance of public diplomacy has been emerging since soft power has growing out of culture,
out of domestic values and policies, and out of foreign policy.1 It draws the significant role of cultural
diplomacy as linchpin of public diplomacy.
In the meantime, it provides a positive agenda for cooperation in spite of policy differences,
creates a neutral platform for people-to-people contact, and serves as a flexible, universally accepted
vehicle for approach with countries where diplomatic relations have been strained or are absent.
Under the given accent of globalization, however, the focus cannot be set solely on the interest
of nation states any more. Conversely, international cultural exchange cannot be separated fromnational
interests either. Therefore, the influence of public, private and regional actors in the realization of
concrete cultural exchange programs is doubtlessly rising. Also the need for an enhanced engagement in
people-to-people diplomacy along with adeep understanding of international cultural exchange, has
never been more significant.
Cultural diplomacy in the information age to gain soft power can be defined as the ability to
attract ones culture and ideology or the agenda of political choices with sharing intelligence and
capabilities with others through information technology.
If cultural diplomacy uses the Internet with specific purpose to shape culture, it would
strengthen the soft power effectively.
Cultural policy makers should consider policy frameworks cross government including cultural
regulations such as media policy, education, copyright and censorship law, tax etc. Also they should
facilitate Research and Development Centers to investigate and build up local knowledge and to
effectively interact with local people.
Cultural policy makers should abandon biased opinions when dividing high art and popular art.
Art and culture of all different genres and types can be popular or unpopular. Cultural policy should not
be based on preconceptions about which art-forms are worthy of public support, but on cultural values
that can manifest themselves in many ways, across many forms and genres. The cultural interchange
projects should not be overemphasizing to specific regions and/ or countries, and should cultivate
cultural interchange programs with cultural characters of each region and country.
Cultural policy needs to develop the synthesized management system for colligation and
conciliation of all international cultural interchange, expand financial support, export various cultural
contents and push ahead with multifarious programs for reciprocal cultural interchange out of unilateral
cultural interchange.
Therefore, it is important for cultural policy makers to maintain a cultural identity by keeping
cultural values, social group, and national identity constant.
Cultural identity can be considereda soft power asset because it projects its values, culture and
perspectives into cyberspace. Emerging technologies will make it easier to blend cultural activities with
traditional diplomatic work by multiplying the opportunities for connections between peoples. Thus
cultural policy makers should consider human resource and operating procedures to develop cultural
identity through technological improvement and innovation.
En effet, l'Etat se sert de la culture comme moyen de satisfaire certains de ses besoins de
communication, d'image et de relations l'international. Grce la circulation des ides et au
pouvoir d'expansion des grands styles, la culture parvient indiquer gographiquement les aires

internes et externes de civilisations. Vritable instrument des politiques des Etats, elle attnue
souvent les tensions qui se manifestent dans les rapports intertatiques. (diplomatie culturelle
IEP Toulouse)
une prsence culturelle forte dans des pays tiers permet un Etat d'y amliorer positivement son
image, de se faire des amis, des allis, des clients, de partager des ides, des modles, des
valeurs et des idologies. En somme, vendre sa culture l'extrieur aide mieux assurer sa
scurit, faire des affaires et exercer une plus grande influence dans le monde. Le recours
l'instrumentalisation de la culture au sein des politiques trangres des pays a pris place dans le
rglement classique des affaires internationales qui auparavant se faisait souvent par voie
militaire. (diplomatie culturelle IEP Toulouse)
les missions des diplomates et consuls sont officiellement tendues au domaine de la culture.
L'ambassadeur moderne doit donc se charger galement de favoriser l'coulement des produits
nationaux et de promouvoir l'image de son pays l'extrieur. Il doit mettre profit les
dimensions culturelles et artistiques de son pays pour parvenir des objectifs intellectuels ou
matriels, tout en tant un homme de relations publiques. (diplomatie culturelle IEP Toulouse)
French universalism beamed outward, like the metaphor of the Sun King. The verb rayonner, to
radiate or shine out in rays, persists in the history of French cultural diplomacy, through
Bonaparte, De Gaulle, and their successors in our times. (The first ressort)
The soft power of a country rests primarily on three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its
political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate
and having moral authority.) (SOFT POWER)
Some analysts treat soft power simply as popular cultural power. They make the mistake of equating soft power
behavior with the cultural resources that sometimes help produce it. They confuse the cultural resources with the
behavior of attraction. For example, the historian Niall Ferguson describes soft power as "nontraditional forces such as
cultural and commercial goods" and then dismisses it on the grounds "that it's, well, soft."18 Of course, Coke and Big
Macs do not necessarily attract people in the Islamic world to love the United States. The North Korean dictator
KimJong 11 is alleged to like pizza and American videos, but that does not affect his nuclear programs. Excellent wines
and cheeses do not guarantee attraction to France, nor does the popularity of Pokemon games assure that Japan will get
the policy outcomes it wishes. This is not to deny that popular culture is often a resource that produces soft power, but
as we saw earlier, the effectiveness of any power resource depends on the context.(SOFT POWER)

Avant donc que ltat nen devienne le vritable concepteur, partir de la Premire Guerre
mondiale, puis de la cration, en 1920, du service des oeuvres franaises ltranger
(SOFE), le pilotage de lexpansion intellectuelle jusquaux annes 1910 fut assur
quasiment par lassociation du boulevard Raspail, son sige social est Paris ; elle joua le
rle dun organisme diplomatique officieux qui, de manire certes empirique, identifia tout
aussi bien le principe qui devait guider tout au long du XXe sicle laction culturelle de la
France ltranger (dvelopper la diffusion de la langue pour constituer des publics
captifs en faveur de la culture franaise) quelle parvint forger quelques-uns de ses
principaux vecteurs, de laide aux coles la politique du livre, en passant par la formation
des tudiants trangers et par les tournes de confrenciers dans le monde.(Diplomatie
de la langue)