Leonidas Donskis Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
CULTURAL DIPLOMACY OF FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES AND ITS PRACTICAL CONDUCT IN LITHUANIA
The United States of America has always been a major player in the sphere of cultural diplomacy. The global spread of American culture continues to stimulate the minds and imagination of political scientists and leaders since the practical implementation of cultural diplomacy has always been essential to the American political elite during important periods of political uncertainty. Each of those periods has obviously been regarded as being provoked by complex and specific challenges of epochal proportion: long-lasting tensions of the Cold War period due to a political and military competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union; unilateral ambitions of the Bush administration to wage a global war against terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, and ambitious aspirations of the Obama administration to get rid of the negative image of the U.S. as an aggressive superpower.
Before World War II, many Lithuanian diplomats were writers, too. They include Oskaras Milašius (1877–1939) who worked in Paris, Jurgis Baltrušaitis (1873–1944) in Moscow, Ignas Šeinius (1889–1959) in Stockholm and Copenhagen, Jurgis Savickis (1890–1952) in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Helsinki. They all were men of more than one culture: a strong commitment to their own country in no way precluded an European openness to other cultures. Thus, Oskaras Milašius, a French poet of Polish descent not only related to the great Lithuanian-born poet Czesław Miłosz but also a scholar who at the College de France lectured inspiredly about Lithuania which he had consciously chosen as the primary object of his loyalty, belongs to three different cultures at once. Jurgis Baltrušaitis is not only a Lithuanian but also a Russian poet who played an important role in the Russian symbolist movement. Yet cultural diplomacy has its deepest roots in France. It is deeply embedded in the USA as well. These two powers were and continue to be quite successful translating their cultural capital and soft power into foreign policies. No matter how much aware of her own past and how strongly motivated to move forward on her way to becoming fully-fledged and inescapable part of the West, Lithuania has yet to adopt some crucially important practices and models of cultural diplomacy. This is why Giedrė Pranaitytė’s book, Cultural Diplomacy of France and the United States and its Practical Conduct in Lithuania, is a timely and valuable study which will undoubtedly strengthen the analysis and research in the areas of public and cultural diplomacy.
Giedrė Pranaitytė
France has traditionally been regarded as a country that possesses enough potential to propose effective strategies for the successful implementation of cultural diplomacy. Such a positive reputation stems from active endeavors of French diplomats and officials to showcase the best examples of their national culture abroad, encourage the promotion and development of French art, cinema as well as music, finance timely translations of important pieces of French literature into foreign languages, support the widespread teaching and usage of the French language, increase its popularity among foreigners via the global movement known as la Francophonie and develop a network of institutions which would encourage strong partnerships among French intellectuals as well as artists and their colleagues working in other states. Each of the above-mentioned spheres of activity often augments the political weight of France on the international stage. In addition, a deep awareness of its subtle cultural particularities sometimes serves as an impulse for a fruitful exchange of ideas which might be of vital importance when one aspires to reach important compromises and work out acceptable political solutions.
G i e d r ė
P r a n a i t y t ė
CULTURAL DIPLOMACY OF FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES AND ITS PRACTICAL CONDUCT IN LITHUANIA
Giedrė Pranaitytė (b. 1979) entered Vytautas Magnus University and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English Philology in 2001. Later, she earned her Master’s degree in the same field in 2003. Upon completion of her studies in English Philology, she worked as a linguistadministrator for the Committee of the Regions of the European Union (Brussels, Belgium) from 2005 to 2007. At that period of her life, Giedrė Pranaitytė became very much interested in international politics. Finally, she decided to return to Vytautas Magnus University and study international relations and diplomacy at a Master’s level. Due to high academic results, Giedrė Pranaitytė was offered a chance to spend five months as an Erasmus student at the University of Bergen (Norway) in 2008. She earned a Master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Relations in 2009. As a consequence, she also started writing a PhD thesis “Cultural Diplomacy of the United States and France” at Vytautas Magnus University. Being awarded a special scholarship by the French government in 2011, Giedrė Pranaitytė has also made active steps in order to collect necessary data about French and American cultural diplomacy during a research visit to the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris (France). In addition to that, she was officially invited and took part in the international conference of female political leaders “Women Enhancing Democracy: Best Practices” organized at the Lithuanian President’s Office in Vilnius in 2011. The doctoral dissertation “Cultural Diplomacy of the United States and France” was prepared by Giedrė Pranaitytė during the period from 2009 to 2014 and successfully defended at the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. She read public lectures in collaboration with the Centre Robert Schuman operating in Kaunas and other institutions as well. Giedrė Pranaitytė has been working as a translator for more than ten years. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
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