US cold war culture

Culture as a soft Power during the cold war

A7EF001-2024

Méline Monnerat

INDEX

1- Introduction

2- Thesis statement

3- The promotion of US culture

4- An anti-communism campaign

5- Conclusion

Introduction

• Cold war : The hostility between the USA and USSR expressed through political pressure and threats.
• Soft power : "a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence" (Oxford language)

• Cultural diplomacy : ""Cultural diplomacy" describes a host of things associated with international relations, diplomacy and trans-border connections" (Gienow-Hecht, 2019)

How did the US use culture as a soft power during the Cold War ?

The Cold war was the moment where the US invested the most in culture

The promotion of US culture

• "Teens" (Nowaki)
• Global celebrities (Nowaki)
• Marketing of ideas
• "American way of life" and organizations (Gienow-Hecht)
• Nowadays ?

The CFF is the Congress for cultural freedom, it was funded by the CIA

An anti-communism campaign

• Use of culture for anti-communism purposes
• “Partisan Review”, CIA, CCF (Chakravarti; Nowaki)
• Exchange between Government officials and Hollywood representatives (Frost)
• Cultural erasure ? (Gienow-Hecht)

Movies example

Bibliography

• Nowaki, Rochelle. "American Idol : American Pop Culture and Soft Power in Cold War Europe". University of Hawai’i, 2015, hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/AmericanIdol-AmericanPopCultureandSoftPowerinColdWarEuropeRochelleNowaki.pdf.
• Gienow-Hecht, Jessica. “US Cultural Diplomacy.” Transatlantic Cultures, 2019, www.transatlantic-cultures.org/fr/catalog/us-cultural-diplomacy.
• González Chiaramonte Claudio . "The Evolution of U. S. Cultural Diplomacy in the Cold War." México y la Cuenca del Pacífico, vol. 10, no. 28, 2007, pp.19-42. Redalyc, https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=433747604003
• Chakravarti, Sudeshna. Soft Power: The Culture Weapon in the Cold War and South Asia.

• “Movies | a Visual Guide to the Cold War.” Coldwar.unc.edu, coldwar.unc.edu/film/.
• “Get Smart.” Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2022, www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/get-smart.
• Shaw, Tony, and Sergei Kudryashov. “The Cold War on Film: Then and Now.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 36, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2016, pp. 1–4, https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1134105.
• Frost, Jennifer. "Cinema as Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War: U.S. Participation in International Film Festivals behind the Iron Curtain, 1959–1971." Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 25 no. 1, 2023, p. 75-100. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/883689.
• Nye, Joseph S. “Soft Power.” Foreign Policy, no. 80, 1990, pp. 153–71. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1148580. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

Thank you for your attention

Any questions ?