Cultural Diplomacy and Design in the Late Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Rhetoric or Reality?

Abstract

ABSTRACTConceptions of cultural diplomacy and the increasing profile of ambassadors of design have featured in the design media of the last two decades. Two principal lines of enquiry underpin this article: one that emerges from the direct experience of influencing design policies and formally becoming a design ambassador; the other from a design historical perspective that suggests that links between design policy, practice, and diplomacy have been in place for many years. The roles of design, cultural diplomacy, and soft power are considered in the light of national presence and profiles in world’s fairs and expos. Also discussed is the shift in outlook of international design associations away from their original campaigning concerns about recognition of the professional status of industrial and graphic designers towards their desire to play a “global” ambassadorial role in promoting the power of design as a major instrument of change across industrialized and emerging world powers.