This is the second in the Journal’s dedicated series of annual special issues that focus on questions of cultural diplomacy and international cultural relations. The distinguishing feature of the articles published in this series is that they consider culture-shaping policies that target populations lying beyond the national and/or cultural ‘frontiers’ or ‘base’ of the agents devising them. Such policies may be explicit, in that their objectives are openly described as cultural, or implicit, in that their cultural objectives are concealed or described in other terms.
Drawing on a broad range of disciplinary perspectives, this issue throws new light on the function and operation of such policies across diverse geocultural contexts. The specific policies explored relate to recognition-seeking within international regimes of recognition (France); to the projection of various forms of soft power (Australia, Australian diaspora, Korea, BRICS countries); to the practices of nation branding (Korea, Finland); to museum diplomacy and the repatriation of cultural heritage (China, Germany); to the role of international organisations in the promotion of transnational memory frames (EU, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and UNESCO); to cultural nativism in the European far right (France, Netherlands, UK) and its relation to the EU’s Work Plan for Culture; and to collaborative cultural diplomacy (Philippines, EU).
Contributions are now invited for the next issue in this series. Responses to articles published in this issue are welcome.