Abstract
The geopolitical context of what would later come to be called the “global village” made governments pay more attention to their external image and the public opinion of third-world countries. The previous emphasis on the development of military or economic alliances (hard power) was complemented with alternative views, other ways of connecting with different global societies (soft power). Relations between the United States and Spain did not escape this general dynamic. Here, we evaluate the extent to which this connection affected women’s access to higher education in Spain. With the Residencia de Señoritas, there was a narrowing of the educational and cultural exchange relations between the two countries. After the abrupt cessation of the civil war, the establishment of the Fulbright program in the 1959-60 academic year allowed Spain to recover and to intensify the exchanges that had taken place since the beginning of the century. We will see what the fields of study in this prestigious exchange program were, and analyze to what extent the training received on the other side of the Atlantic facilitated the professional careers of the Spanish Fulbrigthers upon their return.
Highlights
RESUMEN: ¿Brecha atlántica o red de oportunidades? Mujer, diplomacia y relaciones culturales hispano-estadounidenses.- El contexto geopolítico de lo que más tarde se llamaría la “aldea global” ha hecho que los gobiernos presten más atención a su imagen externa y a la opinión pública de los países del tercer mundo
Among the many changes that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century, this article will focus on those that occurred in the field of international relations and diplomacy, those related to the emergence of “mass society.”
This pedagogical project was developed in Spain for half a century (1876-1936), inspired by the Krausist philosophy introduced at the Central University of Madrid by Julián Sanz del Río, and had a significant impact on Spanish intellectual life (Cacho Viu 1997).Four institutions emerged from the modernizing drive and pedagogical renewal of the Instituto de Libre Enseñanza (ILE): the Museo Pedagógico Nacional, the Junta para Ampliación de Estu dios, the Residencia de Estudiantes, and the Instituto-Escuela
Summary
Among the many changes that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century, this article will focus on those that occurred in the field of international relations and diplomacy, those related to the emergence of “mass society.” This was a profound transformation that conditioned the way governments acted (Thompson, 1998: 4749). Political leaders started to recognize the need for substantial change in how they transmitted their ideas, both to the citizens of their countries and to other societies Within this general framework, cultural policies designed to project a specific message abroad in an attempt to affect public opinion in third-world countries emerged. Though aware that several debates about the concept are still open, we will assume that public diplomacy is generally understood to mean “a strategy of information and persuasion aimed at an audience in order to get a favorable opinion for the foreign policy of a country or organization” (La Porte, 2007: 26) Another analytical challenge arises when one tries to establish the boundary between public diplomacy and propaganda. Can the processes of incorporation and stabilization affecting students in the later Spanish educational sphere be seen more broadly, as well as the extent to which this transformation was influenced by the connection with the United States
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