Cultural relations

Cultural relations are reciprocal, non-coercive transnational interactions between two or more cultures, encompassing a range of activities that are conducted both by state and non-state actors within the space of cultural and civil society. The overall outcomes of cultural relations are greater connectivity, better mutual understanding, more and deeper relationships, mutually beneficial transactions and enhanced sustainable dialogue between states, peoples, non-state actors and cultures.

Through public policy tools such as public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy (state to people relations), strategic communication and conditionality (including policies of mass persuasion and propaganda), countries and state sponsored institutions rely on non-state actors and culture with the aim of promoting and strengthening their foreign policy interests and influencing perceptions and preferences.

Cultural relations can be distinguished from state led activities such as public diplomacy; cultural diplomacy and nation branding, in that they do not originate only from policies of state actors; through the range of institutions and non-state actors involved pursuing their own goals as transnational actors and by their reciprocity. They are, however, a tangible component of International Relations in the sense that they encompass the space in which a wide range of non-state actors engage in the fostering of intercultural dialogue which can be either in favour of, or against, the national interests of state actors.