Cultural Diplomacy as a Tool of the External Relations Between the UE and the USA

Abstract

The paper will analyse political strategies deployed for promoting European culture in America. It will compare ‘theoretical’ goals with ‘actual’ actions, that is, cultural activities undertaken by the cultural operators in Washington DC, focusing on spreading the achievements of European art in the US. Finally, it will evaluate the activities undertaken within of cultural diplomacy conducted by the EU and its partners. The paper focuses on how policy/policies is/are performed, discursively negotiated and constructed in different political and cultural environment abroad. Effectiveness of various type of actions such as European Month of Culture, European Days, or European Houses, in propagating knowledge about European history of the nations, its culture. The paper investigates strong/weak points of the current state of affairs in implementing the external cultural relations between the EU in the USA, as well as the issue of implementation of the EU’s soft power in America. The paper aims to verify the following research hypothesis: The European Union interacts with the US audiences through culture. In line with the EU’s capacity and institutional limitations within the sphere of external relations, the EU’s cultural diplomacy in the USA is formal, hierarchical and proper, which in effect builds a stable but not deepened intercultural bond. Additionally, a research question was formulated: What kind of intercultural dialogue is being formally conducted between the European Union and the USA through the cultural actions of the EU Delegation?