Special issue on cultural diplomacy and international cultural relations (3)

This is the third 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 explore 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.

The volume falls into two parts. The first brings together a collection of articles that in various ways offer new insights into how foreign or international agencies have involved themselves in the protection, conservation or reconstruction of cultural heritage. Christina Luke & Lynn Meskell trace the cultural missions and salvage archaeology programmes along the Euphrates around Raqqa from the 1950s onwards. They suggest that these foreign interventions around imperilled heritage in Syria have an important, untold history that is relevant to recent developments and conflicts. Alessandro Russo and Serena Giusti focus in their article on a process they describe as the securitisation of cultural heritage. With particular reference to recent attacks on archaeological sites and historical artefacts in Syria and Iraq, they map the narrative threads that the main international actors have constructed in response to these attacks.

Malin Stengård & Mattias Legnér investigate the relationship between the Swedish development agency SIDA and Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), an NGO funded by SIDA and set up in the aftermath of the Bosnian War to restore damaged historic monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They explore how CHwB gradually changed from being an organisation focused on the preservation of an ethnically diverse cultural heritage with the aim of promoting reconciliation to one mainly focused on economic development.

Roha W. Khalaf calls in his article for a re-examination of the status of heritage reconstruction within the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Khalaf argues that the ‘exceptional circumstances’ condition for reconstruction, as set out in the Guidelines, should be superseded by a clear set of principles, which can be used to differentiate acceptable forms of reconstruction from the unacceptable. Herdis Hølleland & Jessica Phelps also focus on the World Heritage Convention, but in their article it is from the perspective of Norway’s ratification process in the 1970s through to its first committee tenure in the 1980s. In their analysis, they show how, on the one hand, international relations impact on intrastate actions and negotiations and, on the other, how intrastate relations and bureaucratic traditions inform how a State Party acts internationally.

The second part of the volume brings together three articles that throw new light on the practices of soft power projection, nation branding and cultural diplomacy within different national contexts. Weiying Peng & Michael Keane investigate China’s soft power strategy in relation to the film industry, with particular reference to international co-productions and investments that have opened up since the early 2000s. The article highlights the soft power potential of such co-productions but suggests that the realisation of this potential is inhibited by the tension between artistic freedom and censorship in China that impacts on all co-production projects.

Highlighting the challenges faced by small-sized states in strengthening their visibility abroad, Georgia Spanou explores the cultural diplomacy initiatives undertaken by the newly independent Republic of Cyprus under the Makarios presidency (1960–1977). The article focuses on attempts to promote a nation brand based mainly on the Hellenocentric aspects of Greek-Cypriot cultural identity, analysing the ways in which these initiatives were shaped by both the internal and external political landscape.

Moving to more recent times, Boris Pavlosky sets out to explore how the ideas, beliefs and preferences that dominate EU cultural policy-making have changed the nature of Austrian state-led foreign cultural policy, particularly in the light of Austria’s assumption of the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2018. He infers that for Austrian stakeholders Europeanization is primarily seen as a means of promoting Austrian national interests on the international stage.

The special issue concludes with Melissa Nisbett’s review of Michael L. Krenn’s book, ‘The history of United States cultural diplomacy: 1770 to the present day’.

Contributions are now invited for the next issue in this series. Responses to articles published in this issue are, as always, welcome.