Cultural Diplomacy: We're All Diplomats Now

MENTORS Project representatives participated in the event Cultural Diplomacy: We're All Diplomats Now (Feb. 28) that took place in the spectacular Raphael Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This event marked the launch of a new Demos report, in partnership with the British Council, the British Library, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Royal Opera House and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The report argues that culture plays an important role in building and sustaining relationships between different countries – in both good times and bad. But, too often, these types of activities are under-valued, under-resourced and are not integrated into the work of the government, especially the Foreign Office and its public diplomacy partners.

Culture helps to explain who we are, to assert our power and to build lasting relationships. But the dominance of realpolitik in foreign policy means that culture and cultural exchange are often seen as desirable rather than essential.

Cultural contact provides an arena for unofficial political relationship-building: it maintains negotiating channels with countries when political connections are in jeopardy. In the future, alliances are just as likely to be forged along lines of cultural understanding as they are on geographic ones.

The report also argues that culture is more important than ever before and sets out a series of practical policy recommendations for the Foreign Office, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, cultural institutions and others.

Cultural Diplomacy is the result of a 12 month research project which has included fieldwork in China, India, US, Norway, Ethiopia and France and intensive research into Iran to provide a comparative perspective on how different countries use culture to project their image overseas.

Speakers:
Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Karen Brown, Chair of ActionAid
Sir Richard Dalton, Former Ambassador to Iran
Mark Jones, Director, V&A
Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum
Baroness Lola Young, Cultural Broker
John Holden, Head of Culture, Demos

Chair:
Zeinab Badawi, BBC

Attendance to this event was by Invitation Only.