Page 4 - Zenith2024

Zenith 2024

Cultural Diplomacy: its current progress

How it has been

Diplomacy these days is unlike what we have seen throughout the decades — it is now based on
a variety of activities done by the government and the citizens themselves. The traditional way of
handling diplomacy involved only bureaucrats between nations. However, after the World War I,
using cultural ways to promote the nations’ impressions has been utilized as a tool for diplomacy.
For example, during the cold war, the USA used cultural diplomacy as a way to fight against the
Soviet Union and their communist ideas. They spread their culture and idea of liberal democracy,
while continuing their cultural exchange with the Soviet Union. This suggests that they conceived
cultural diplomacy as a tool more efficient than
those related to economy and military power.
Milton Cummmings, once analyzed that cultural
exchange programs used from 1930 relieved
tension in international diplomatic relationships.
Nowadays, public diplomacy seeks to attract
the public’s sympathy. They have developed
a diplomacy to view religious, cultural, terror,
refugee, and poverty problems as a problem of
the whole. In other words, instead of focusing
on the aspects related to military and economy,
the current public diplomacy seeks soft power,
freedom, and democracy which will in turn lead
to ‘sympathy and hope’.

Why Soft Power?

Then the question arises — how did soft power get this much attention?
To begin with, it is because new forms of phenomenon started to appear. These new forms of
phenomenon could not be explained in original terms of international politics. In the current
international order, which focuses on ‘agreement’, nations like USA acted more in the basis of
soft power. In an attempt to influence international politics more efficiently, soft power grew in
importance.
Moreover, the growing importance in knowledge and collective intelligence contributed to the
growth of soft power. Due to globalization, the imbalance of wealth worsened and segregationist
tendencies appeared. This made it difficult to unite people in a society and gave rise to the
argument that the problems be solved through
unity, solidarity, cooperation, justice, and
democracy. In addition, with the advent of
Industry 4.0 and with it the development of
tecnhologies, connection between nations,
and their people became stronger. With the
emphasis on global communication and
cooperation, working on projects with those
abroad became possible.

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