Science diplomacy
(2021)
Science diplomacy has made great strides in recent decades as the risks and interconnectedness that accompany globalisation have made joint scientific progress more vital. However, science diplomacy often follows unequal global power dynamics and inter-state scientific competition is making a comeback.
Only a select group of countries has fully realised the strategic potential of overseas primary and secondary education. With non-Western countries, like Turkey and Russia, making the most rapid strides in seeing its power, countries interested in projecting global cultural influence would do well to mind its importance.
Media
(2021)
Competition in global media has increased substantially in the last two decades. Foreign media not only want to reach countries as well as politically and economically important target groups, but also see themselves as competitors in a quest for international sovereignty. As countries experiment with different foreign media strategies, an increase in the range of approaches is to be expected in the coming years.
Language
(2021)
The promotion of a national language is seen as a core part of promoting a country's image abroad. Therefore, there is a complex relation with the rest of external cultural policy. This leads to different strategies and many of the world's great powers are likely to fuse language with foreign policy in the coming years.
Higher education
(2021)
International higher education (IHE) has grown rapidly in recent years and became the central component of countries' external cultural policy strategies. Despite growth in the Global South, IHE is dominated by Western and former colonial powers. With the proliferation of internationalisation strategies, rise in branch campuses, and expansion of educational hubs, countries need to have a strategic approach.
Digital tools represent a huge opportunity for external cultural policy (ECP), allowing culture to be spread around the world and for new actors to join the global conversation. However, digital ECP practitioners face the questions of how to deal with fragmented public spheres in social media while promoting local projects.
Arts and culture institutes
(2021)
International cultural institutes (ICI) are often the most visible manifestation of a country's efforts to share its culture with an international audience. There is a shift of some country's external cultural policy toward a more commercialised stance, which has increased the cultural trade. Will this this trend shift back to a more power-based rule of ICIs?
Turkey: at a glance
(2021)
Turkey describes foreign cultural and educational policy as a key factor in its “2023 Vision” to mark the centenary of the Turkish Republic. In a 2017 speech, President Erdoğan remarked that Turkey must “exert strenuous efforts, study hard and sweat blood to obtain cultural power” (Presidency of The Republic of Turkey, 2017). In practice this has meant a greater focus on Islam in ECP, shifting focus away from Europe and toward the Middle East and Central Asia, and increasing state control over ECP as Turkey has become more authoritarian.
The concept of “soft power” entered public debates after the color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine and what was perceived as Western tactics aimed at destabilizing Russia. As a counter-reaction, Russia pursued a much more active cultural, educational, and information policy abroad. Two trends are evident here. The promotion of Russian language and high culture aims to strengthen Russia’s image abroad and maintain its influence in post-Soviet countries. On the other hand, a more aggressive information policy seeks to undermine the West and discredit its values and thus present Russia as a potential antithesis. Overall, the Russian ECP approach is characterized by pragmatism and awareness of its geographic limitations. Without the need for further investments, Moscow is working to consolidate its digital & media presence and become a ‘virtual power’.
