The role of culture in EU Foreign Policy: Between International Cultural Relations and Cultural Diplomacy

This article offers an analysis of the role of culture in the European Union's external relations. Firstly, it traces the institutional evolution of the cultural policies implemented by the EU in its external relations. It picks up on the distinction between cultural diplomacy and international cultural relations. Secondly, the limits of the EU's strategic approach to culture in external relations are illustrated, with particular attention given to the consequences of changes in the international system and the organisational and legal limits of supranational action in cultural relations. The paper demonstrates how the current global context is not conducive to the deployment of culture in international relations as envisioned in the EU strategic approach. We argue that without a strengthening of its normative spirit and traditional liberal-cum-internationalist approach, the EU has little chance of achieving international cultural relations based on a participatory and argumentative approach aimed at achieving global solidarity. More likely is a cultural diplomacy understood as a form of public diplomacy and characterised by strategic communication supportive of the EU’s increasingly geo-political agenda.