ifa Repositorium zur Auswärtigen Kultur- und Bildungspolitik (AKBP)
Not a member yet
1264 research outputs found
Sort by
Switzerland: at a glance
Get PDFSwitzerland’s domestic and foreign policies are closely interlinked. The constitutional objectives on promoting democracy and humanitarian principles are echoed in its ECP as well. An important aspect is the promotion of a positive perception abroad through strategic communication. This should safeguard Swiss interests and support economic growth. One of the overarching goals is to position Switzerland as one of the world’s leading countries in research and innovation
A Future for the Chinese Diaspora and Australia
Get PDFChinese in Australia have grown into a variegated diaspora with a mainland-born majority. Diasporas are channels of cultural, economic and political influence; and seen as such by sending and receiving countries. They interact in international cultural relations between sending and receiving countries, as expressions of civic virtue oriented to either or both. Cooperative interactions between the respective countries can bring prosperity to all; but when security considerations cast clouds over relations between countries, the concerned countries and communities have careful paths to tread. This input visits the Chinese diaspora past and present. It emphasises the rules of friendship and hospitality as guiding principles for healthy international cultural relations
Implementing the EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations – Toward a New Paradigm
Get PDFDespite the generalized recognition that culture can support diplomatic efforts, authors are divided as to whether all forms of cultural action in this context are compatible with public diplomacy. Specifically, some authors propose that cultural relations (CR) can be understood as an example of “new public diplomacy” (Melissen 2005: 21-22). Other authors disagree with this assessment. They suggest that the practice of cultural relations opposes the self-interested
aims of public diplomacy and is, therefore, in tension with it (Ang, Isar and Mar 2015). We see this divide as an interesting tension that is sidestepped—but only seemingly so—by the European Union’s own approach to cultural relations, which is articulated in the Strategy for International Cultural Relations (European Commission 2016, henceforth referred to as ICR). The document advocates for the integration of cultural action within the EU’s foreign policy instruments and has been gradually taking over European public diplomacy. Although it is growing, the academic literature dedicated
to cultural relations and the EU’s ICR is limited. Additionally, the practicalities surrounding the implementation of this
transnational model remain mostly unexamined (Rose 2017). This report addresses this gap by joining an emerging body of international relations scholarship that is aligned with practice theory (Lechner and Frost 2018), following the foundational work of Alessandro G. Lamonica for Isernia and Lamonica’s forthcoming publication. This allows us to focus on the practice of the EU’s approach to CR.
This report asks the following questions: What are the main fields of knowledge, skills and competencies that ICR managers must hold? To what extent does the management of ICR projects differ from that of public diplomacy and cultural management programs? What should be the main learning outcomes of continuing professional development programs aimed at training ICR managers? Having answers to these questions will help practitioners respond to the challenges that are likely to emerge during the implementation of ICR in third countries. In the future, it may also help experts develop effective training programs to strengthen the design and implementation of cultural relations programs beyond the context of the EU’s foreign action. Based on interviews with fifteen ICR experts as well as cultural actors, members of EU delegations, and staff of cultural institutes involved in six European Spaces of Culture pilot projects in Benin, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and the U.S. (2019–2021), whose findings were triangulated with academic research and gray literature, the report concludes that the successful delivery of the EU’s approach to cultural relations requires a combination of knowledge, skills and competencies that cannot be provided by either diplomatic or cultural management training alone. This leads us to identify what we name the International Cultural Relations Management paradigm
Language
Get PDFThe promotion of a national language is seen as a core part of promoting a country's image abroad. Therefore, there is a complex relation with the rest of external cultural policy. This leads to different strategies and many of the world's great powers are likely to fuse language with foreign policy in the coming years