When I first heard this term I was intrigued as to what exactly it means and how it is looked at in real context. Upon first hearing the term, it sound as such a lofty idea and now I find it funny that talk of this idea has become politicized. Personally, I would summarize cultural diplomacy as appreciating another country's culture and expressing interest in it, while also recognizing certain actions as a direct effect of their cultural norms. Furthermore, I found it very interesting to hear ambassadors and figures of authority discussing how we can improve cultural diplomacy and develop programs to enhance it.
The panel surprised me with everyone's concern for this issue and input on the situation. Who even knew there was a situation? I figured if people want to learn about a culture they will go out and learn about it themselves.I never thought culture would be brought into a political context as jsut another tool for winning the other side over, gaining an ally. Instead to me it is about appreciating for it's value and influence on you, not what you can get out of the relationship by "appreciating it". The talk about developing programs makes it sound forced, as if these other cultures are so boring, no one would be interested in them unless told to do so.
And for the United States, maybe if they want to increase cultural diplomacy they should let ambassadors stay in a country for more than two years if they so desire. And we should make it easier for people to visit our own country so that they are not only influenced by the mass products that make it across the media connections, like Mcdonald's or reality shows. I feel as if the term cultural diplomacy is unncessary and a redundant term, because globalization in itself, heigtens the sharing and knowledge of cultures among nations, so we create another term that is jsut a broad? If only to make governmental figures feel more secure in their efforts, when they say we have attained a high level of cultural diplomacy, while to a normal individual, the idea escapes them because we do not use that phrase.
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I also think it's interesting that culture is used a persuasion tool across countries. It's weird to look at culture as something packable and transportable. Like, "Oh hey, when I go to Japan, I'll bring a little box of culture with me to share with everyone." Of course, in reality culture is a much less tangible thing. Appreciating the enigma of culture may be the key to successfully sharing it abroad. Instead of just "watch this movie and appreciate our values", cultural diplomacy should move towards a more collaborating viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that we should not approach spreading culture as a political maneuver. Cultural diplomacy has turned into our government, as allison said, putting our culture and other cultures into a box. We should accept the fact that we may not always be able to understand other cultures in the same way that we understand our own culture, but that doesn't mean that we can't appreciate them.
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