It is possible to define cultural diplomacy as “a domain of diplomacy concerned with establishing, developing and sustaining relations with foreign states by way of culture. It is also a proactive process of external projection in which a nation’s institutions, value system and unique cultural personality are promoted at a bilateral and multilateral level.” So, from a general perspective cultural diplomacy is promotion of values. It is possible to claim that cultural diplomacy gained momentum with the Cold War in United States because United States fought with Soviet Union at every level. And it was important for her to promote her culture against communist culture. So it will be wrong to think the states will adopt conventional methods in order to spread culture to the world. There are several examples for evaluating this claim, Hollywood cinema used to be a proxy for American Cold War propaganda, using sports as a diplomacy tool or making propaganda by celebrities. So it seems that there are many tools to be obtained and if they are adopted they have high chance of being successful. For instance, someone cannot deny the success of Hollywood for making anti-communist propaganda, or Angelina Jolie as “UN Goodwill Ambassador”. But today United States has an image of being an oil hunter so none of the tools to be working compared to earlier times. We may blame technology for showing us the truth!
See definition of cultural diplomacy retrieved from Ivey, B. and Cleggett, P. “Cultural Diplomacy and the National Interest: In a Search of 21st Century Perspective”. The Curb Center For Art. http://textus.diplomacy.edu/textusBin/BViewers/oview/culturaldiplomacy/oview.asp?FilterTopic=%2F38139
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