• What is the problem/issue being addressed
The project addressed the lack of scholarly attention to the role of culture and the arts in the making of European cultural diplomacy, especially in the period before the Cold War. While historians of the post Second World War period have employed the concept of soft power to examine international relations, there has been fewer studies about the earlier period. And yet, at a time when important processes occurred, including the unification of Germany and the consolidation of the French Republic; the development of higher education; the growth of emigrant German, French and to a lesser extent British communities; the development of ‘new imperialism’, Western European empires invested a lot of time and money in the promotion of their reputation abroad. Culture was a central element in support of this strategy, in imperial policies such as the civilising mission but also in policies targeting non-imperial spaces. The project aimed at addressing these processes while thinking about forms of collaboration and competition that contributed to the making of European cultural diplomacy. It also reflected on the actors of this strand of international relations and aimed to examine the role of civil society in the making of cultural diplomacy.
• Why is it important for society?
This project is timely and important given the geopolitical context in which it was conducted. Journalists and diplomats have highlighted the significance of soft power and countering fake news in the Ukranian and Russian conflict for example.
My work reassesses patterns of cooperation and competition among European powers over the longue durée and also examines the making of a shared European cultural diplomacy. For example it explores the origins of projects which have fed into the idea of Europe, such as the League of Nations’ International Committee for Intellectual Cooperation. As some countries such as France are redefining and reforming what it means to be a diplomat, the project’s attention to the role of civil society in diplomacy also echoes contemporary questions.
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• What are the overall objectives?
The objective of project was to study the invention of a new field of foreign affairs, called cultural diplomacy, in a transnational and comparative perspective at a time when it became increasingly important for states and citizens to project a benevolent image of their nations abroad. The central question of the project is, 'how and when did cultural diplomacy emerge in Europe, and how can integrating this aspect of diplomacy help us rethink our definition of foreign affairs?’
• Conclusions of the action
The project suggests that French cultural diplomacy was less state-centrered than what the scholarship usually assumes. Certainly the cultural diplomatic office in the ministry of foreign affairs was important but it was really the groups operating on the group who shaped the policy making process. This means that historians of French cultural diplomacy ought to adapt their methodology and broaden their studies in order to be able to grasp all the dynamics at the heart of cultural diplomacy.
Franco-German relations were central to the making of European diplomacy – but there is still room to assess how much of this was based on competition or collaboration and how this changes overtime.
Before the early 1930s the national specificities of cultural diplomacy were minimal between France, Britain and Germany. The countries all based their soft power on language (Germany primarily targeted its emigrant population, whereas France and Britain reached out to foreign nationals abroad); the arts (with some disparities on which art forms countries relied on) ; higher education.
The cultural diplomacy of Britain relied heavily on civil society and its academies before 1934 (opening of the British Council). Groups such as the Royal Society for Literature and the British Academy were important actors and champion of cultural diplomacy.
