French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) called such relationships and exchange of ideas “culture,” a word he used interchangeably with “civilization.”

Furthermore, the French thinker considered social stratification and communication systems as features of civilization. 

Voltaire's life nearly spanned the 18th century; his writings have filled 70 volumes; and his influence is not yet exhausted. He once wrote: "They wanted to bury me. But I outwitted them”. 

In the mid-19th century, “culture" denoted a significant means by which nations shared their national heritage and arts with other countries. These became powerful tools with the development of tourism and the rise of a new spirit of openness to the outside world.

Later, governments started to create agencies worldwide to share their art and culture, establishing a dialogue with the Other and bonds between populations.

By the end of the 19th century, cultural agencies and art academies rose in the East and the West, including the Alliance Francaise (1883), the British Council (1934), the Goethe-Institut (1951), and the Fine Art Academies in Italy that brought together the three major arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture and hosted foreign artists to enhance art exchange.

In the second part of the 20th century, amid the Cold War between the USA and Soviet Russia, the term “culture diplomacy” appeared for the first time in a New York Times piece written in 1954 by the art critic Aline B. Louchheim. 

This glamorous term was later defined in 1959 by the US Department of State as « the direct and enduring contact between people of different nations [. . .] to help create a better climate of international trust and understanding in which official relations can operate ».  

Cold War and « culture heritage » back door 
 

In the 1950s, one can see clearly that military conflicts ( such as the Korean War) and geopolitical tensions (such as those between the United States and the Soviet Union) ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual distrust.

However, not all was doom and gloom. Schneider and McNamara issued the first “credit card.” The new Rock ‘n’ Roll music swept the entire world. Televisions became something the average family could afford, and the opening of Disneyland served as a cheerful distraction from the politically unpleasant atmosphere. 

Moreover, this period in history saw no direct military engagement between the United States and the Soviet Union whereby the period acquired its name of «Cold War».

During this Cold War, US diplomacy was focused on halting the spread of communism and limiting its influence where it already existed. American politicians believed that promoting culture would expand tolerance and understanding between people everywhere.

On the shores of the Nile, several excavations to rediscover Egypt’s ancient history were undertaken by Egyptian archaeologists such as Selim Hassan, Sami Gabra, Mustafa Amer, and others. 

With the rise of nationalism that followed the change of the political regime in 1952, the country underwent profound political, economic, and societal changes. President Nasser decided to build the High Dam to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation, and generate hydroelectricity, all of which were seen as pivotal for the industrialization of Egypt. 

Nasser fought his first battle against Western powers in 1955. His decision to buy weapons from the Soviet Union had angered the US. In response, the US decided in early July 1956 to withdraw its offer to finance the High Dam project, a key objective of his mandate. Across the difficult political time in 1956 and the tension of the Cold War, the Aswan High Dam (or Al-Sad al-Aali) became the centrepiece of Gamal Abdel-Nasser's Egyptian revolution.

Under the leadership of UNESCO together with the governments of both Egypt and Sudan, international expertise and funds were mobilized to dismantle and reassemble six groups of monuments in new locations. The scale of the 20-year project and the immense technological challenge it generated were unprecedented in the world’s history. A total of 22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated with the assistance of 40 technical missions from five continents.

The success of the International Campaign for the Salvage of Nubian Monuments inspired the development and adoption in 1972 of UNESCO's World Heritage Convention. The Nubian monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae sites were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1979.

As a control panel for these activities, the Executive Committee of the International Campaign was created in 1960 and a Trust Fund was established. As a follow-up to the successful campaign, the International Campaign for Establishing the Nubia Museum in Aswan and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo were launched in 1982.

Branding and trending the heritage 
 

Within the International Campaign for the Salvage of Nubian Monuments, UNESCO acted as coordinator and intermediary between the donor states and the Egyptian and Sudanese governments

UNESCO also facilitated efforts to save the cultural heritage in danger by surveying the affected sites and in some cases, removing entire structures to safe zones. 

Despite Britain’s initial reluctance—four years after the Suez crisis—to participate in a program that would benefit an avowedly hostile regime, British scientific expertise and private fundraising soon came to play an important role in UNESCO’s ‘Campaign for Nubia’.

British participation in the UNESCO archaeological program was a crucial avenue for Anglo-Egyptian rapprochement during the 1960s and 1970s.

By the 1970s, culture diplomacy had become an academic discipline from the era of the Cold War. Since then the discipline enjoyed a special interest and acquired a place in scholarship.

Some understand culture diplomacy as just a sub-field of public diplomacy, alongside other elements of international engagements such as listening, advocacy, exchange, and international broadcasting. 

After the world came together to salvage the Nubian temples, culture diplomacy became broadly recognized as a strategic tool in foreign affairs and gained international recognition among nation-states and intergovernmental organizations.

Nevertheless, it only entered the common parlance in the 1990s when some scholars used it interchangeably with ‘soft power.’ 

The term ‘soft power,’ coined by Joseph Nay in 1991, spread more widely than ‘culture diplomacy,’ resonating with more people worldwide.

This could be attributed to the lack of consensus on what constitutes culture diplomacy, how it works, or what it entails.  

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* Gihane Zaki is a member of the Egyptian House of Representatives- Foreign Relations Committee and a researcher at the French National Centre CNRS-Sorbonne University.