Summer Institute Explores Cultural Diplomacy

(Photo: Participants of USC Center on Public Diplomacy's 2010 Summer Institute discuss their specific group assignments during the Cultural Diplomacy class.)

LOS ANGELES – Thirty public diplomacy practitioners from around the globe gathered at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism as part of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's annual Summer Institute and shared their thoughts and experiences on cultural diplomacy July 20.

Led by Nicholas Cull, Director of the USC Masters Program in Public Diplomacy, the class discussion centered on the concept and history of cultural diplomacy, a component of public diplomacy involving the exchange of a culture's ideas, traditions, language, information, and more.

Examples of cultural diplomacy include China presenting pandas as cultural gifts to other nations, musicians from different countries performing together, and teaching languages to promote understanding.

After speaking to the Summer Institute participants on cultural diplomacy, Cull and César Villanueva, professor from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City with whom Cull co-taught the class, challenged the group to create a cultural diplomacy campaign to subsidize an artist, tour or exhibit representing the Colombian Embassy in South Africa. Forty-five minutes later, the participants presented their proposals to the professors; they included enlisting the help of celebrity figures and collaborating with local organizations and governments to promote and sponsor cultural events.

"The participants were highly engaged with the subject of cultural diplomacy as a whole and participated enthusiastically in the break-out sessions," Cull said. "I was especially delighted to see how many students shared fascinating cases from their personal experience and revealed the universality of the questions we face and the best practices to counter them."

"I enjoyed the exercise very much," said Hyangjoo Park, Summer Institute participant from The Korea Foundation. "My team succeeded in making an excellent case for the exercise using Professor Cull's tips, information and knowledge.

"I was very satisfied with the Cultural Diplomacy seminar, especially defining the terminology and looking over the history of cultural diplomacy," she said. "I would like to present the terminology of cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy to my colleagues at The Korea Foundation and discuss The Korea Foundation's identity and vision."

Jing Chu, public diplomacy officer for the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beijing, also found the group exercise valuable. “Professor Nick Cull presented us with different approaches to cultural diplomacy, including cultural information (sharing an unknown dimension of your culture to correct an image) and cultural dialogue (cooperation in the cultural field for mutual knowledge)," Chu said. "I think mutual understanding of cultures plays an important role, especially when practitioners deal with a specific foreign public and this understanding can contribute to effective cultural diplomacy strategy."

"I hope they take home a sense that cultural diplomacy is a highly effective activity which works especially well in the long term and when fire-walled from a policy agenda," Cull said. "I also hope they were impressed by one another's experiences and the potential of cultural diplomacy to not merely promote a narrow national agenda but to bring people together as cosmopolitan citizens of the world."

The 30 public diplomacy practitioners are here attending the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's annual Summer Institute, an intensive two-week course that equips practitioners to engage foreign audiences and improve the image and impact of their country or organization in the world.