(Un)successful years: EU countries’ cultural diplomacy with Russian Federation

Abstract

This paper offers an insight into the early stage of the author’s research about Years and Seasons of Culture, which are performed by governments and seen as tools of their cultural diplomacy. In the study, Years and Seasons are called “holidays of cultural diplomacy” in line with Dayan and Katz concept of media events. The main goal of research, which began due to an observation of the efforts of European countries to implement cultural diplomacy with the Russian Federation, is not only a conceptualisation of Years and Seasons but also a search for the rationale for organising them. In the paper, the author peruses a framework to analyse Years and Seasons of Culture and verifies the hypotheses therein, while presenting the pilot research’s results about the Dutch–Russian Bilateral Year in 2013. Thus, the paper presents the effects of the first stage of the project, focused on the Dutch–Russian Bilateral Year 2013.

Full text

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
(Un)successful years: EU countries’ cultural diplomacy
with Russian Federation
Beata Ociepka
1
Revised: 1 May 2018 / Published online: 11 December 2018
ÓSpringer Nature Limited 2018
Abstract This paper offers an insight into the early stage
of the author’s research about Years and Seasons of Cul-
ture, which are performed by governments and seen as
tools of their cultural diplomacy. In the study, Years and
Seasons are called ‘‘holidays of cultural diplomacy’’ in line
with Dayan and Katz concept of media events. The main
goal of research, which began due to an observation of the
efforts of European countries to implement cultural diplo-
macy with the Russian Federation, is not only a concep-
tualisation of Years and Seasons but also a search for the
rationale for organising them. In the paper, the author
peruses a framework to analyse Years and Seasons of
Culture and verifies the hypotheses therein, while pre-
senting the pilot research’s results about the Dutch–Russian
Bilateral Year in 2013. Thus, the paper presents the effects
of the first stage of the project, focused on the Dutch–
Russian Bilateral Year 2013.
Keywords Years and seasons of culture Cultural
diplomacy Public diplomacy Media events
Introduction
Trommler observed in 2015 that, after the Cold War, cul-
tural diplomacy had lost its urgency (2014, p. 2), an
urgency that was however seemingly regained in Europe in
2014. In that year, domestic audiences in Germany and
Great Britain realised the paradoxes of simultaneously
performing cultural events and economic sanctions with
the Russian Federation. In Poland, the debate about the
planned 2015 Polish–Russian Year of Culture started at the
turn of 2013/2014, before the downing of the Malaysian
plane in June 2014 in Ukraine became a direct reason for
its cancellation.
The Russian Federation is a strategic partner for EU
politics and economic cooperation, even more so for the
separate member countries. It provides the EU with energy
sources; gas and oil being the most important among them.
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the western
community built its relations with Russia upon the expec-
ted democratisation and modernisation of its former
enemy. These expectations were not fulfilled as the Russian
Federation went its own way, building a kind of a neo-
authoritarian state and promoting the concept of sovereign
democracy in the Russian ‘‘near abroad’’. The war in
Ukraine in 2014 contributed to a check on the EU strategies
in relations with Russia. The multilateral economic sanc-
tions stirred controversy in the EU, but they did not put a
stop to celebrations of cultural events.
This paper is focused on the so-called Years and Sea-
sons of Culture (henceforth YSoC), framed by cultural
diplomacy as a tool of foreign policy, serving for under-
standing among actors of international relations, while
involving them in interactions focused upon culture. In
cultural diplomacy, the former hierarchical flows are
replaced nowadays by multidirectional flows; interpersonal
encounters seem to be important in opening possible
channels of communication between nations. Cultural
&Beata Ociepka
beata.ociepka@uwr.edu.pl
1
Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies,
University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
Place Brand Public Dipl (2019) 15:50–59
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-018-00113-3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.