The Slow Reunification of Development Assistance and Public Diplomacy: Exchange and Collaboration Activities Through the Swedish Institute 1973–2012

Abstract

International academic exchange is regarded an excellent way to transfer knowledge and values and has therefore been a central activity for public diplomacy and development assistance alike. This is an area where PD and ODA often overlap, with potential for both collaboration and conflicts. This historical analysis of the Swedish Institute shows that Swedish PD and ODA were organizationally divided in the 1960s. From 1973 however an increase in ODA-funded activities within the SI can be noted, especially within academic exchange. This development accelerated after 1990 as higher education became more important within Swedish ODA in general and within the aid and collaboration activities directed at post-communist Eastern Europe in particular. As a result the SI PD activities were increasingly determined by assistance policy, whereas the limits between PD and ODA were blurred, as academic exchange was said to complete the tasks of both fields.