It is intended that this blog should provide a platform for the discussion of issues relating to Cultural Diplomacy as well as other cross cultural topics relating the EU and its constituent countries to the rest of the world. 

Considering a re-evaluation of the role of Cultural Diplomacy: a tool or a weapon? With the demise of the traditional power blocks that conditioned global relations for much of the 20c and the focus of international politics defined by markets and military intervention has the traditional role of cultural diplomacy been reduced to exchanging exhibitions of national treasures and the occasional performance?   Or has another form taken its place, artists taking an initiative in working across countries and cultures, often taking risks, in creating collaborative work that exploits commonalities rather than difference? While governments officially maintain a guarded position with each other are the arts being used as the conduit for ‘negotiation’. 
Growing access to the web means that direct person to person communication across cultures is now possible in a way it was not even five years ago, will the future of cultural exchange now be conducted in an entirely different way through networks of trust and cooperation based on common interest rather than national agendas?

Should Cultural Diplomacy be a cross disciplinary  subject taught in universities? – where should  cultural diplomats get trained?