By: Arif Al-Saadi Advisor to the Prime Minister on Cultural Affairs
Cultural diplomacy serves as a unique bridge to forge special ties between diverse cultures and peoples. At its core, it utilizes knowledge, music, sculpture, and folk heritage, as well as the arts in all their manifestations, to become a civilizational facade presented by different countries as influential paths beyond borders and the nation.
Cultural diplomacy has often been a real bridge for crossing civilizations and customs. People themselves also cross from one country to another with great ease through cultural diplomacy. By cultural diplomacy, we mean the investment of the state and people in art, literature, music, painting, poetry, and everything related to soft power, to be the facade of the country when it dialogues with other friendly or unfriendly countries, because this soft power is the key to closed doors and a common denominator for all peoples, as no civilization, old or modern, is devoid of these arts. Therefore, when culture is the way of life and dialogue for those sent by countries as their representatives or ambassadors, this matter will positively reflect on the government and the state in their respect for culture and its consideration as a window for diplomatic relations.
The twentieth century witnessed many diplomats who were poets, philosophers, thinkers, and plastic artists who were able to be a link between their governments and other governments and thus between their civilizations and the civilization of the countries in which they worked. The most important ambassador is the artist, writer, musician, etc., because this class of cultural producers are real ambassadors without order or assignment, because their main work is beauty and its manufacture, and this work does not need a government or official order, because it introduces a message of peace and love. I recall in this regard that Iraq went through tense relations with most of its neighbors for many years, but one of the ways that loosened these stagnant relations is soft power, which was used as high-level diplomacy. For example, in 2004, the first delegation to reach the State of Kuwait was an Iraqi cultural delegation at the invitation of the poet Abdulaziz Al-Babtain. We were in a complete break with the Kuwaiti brothers, but the first semi-official Iraqi delegation of 40 cultural and literary figures was from writers. When they became guests of the Kuwaitis, a series of dialogues, discussions, and joint poetry readings began. Then the ice began to melt between the two countries. In my opinion, art and literature were a fundamental factor in bridging the gap and gaps.
Also between Iraq and Iran, during the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Baghdad in 2007, his first public meeting was with Iraqi intellectuals, where he invited them to hold a cultural week in Tehran, and indeed this happened, where nearly 200 cultural, artistic, literary, and plastic figures went to Tehran. Iraqi intellectuals also went on rounds and rounds with Iranian intellectuals and politicians, which brought many viewpoints closer despite the eight years of the grueling war between the two countries.
What happened in 2021 between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, where Iraq was the guest of honor at the Riyadh Book Fair, and about seventy prominent cultural figures went by private plane to Riyadh, the first delegation of this size and influence to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I was following the views of the Iraqis, which were cautious at first, due to the long break, but once the activities began and the intellectuals from Iraqi and Saudi writers, thinkers, and artists approached each other, the imaginary ice melted in a critical and historical moment of cultural harmony.
The examples are numerous, different, and diverse in that cultural diplomacy can be a key to solutions between peoples. For example, countries strive to convey their culture and customs and lose a lot of money on this matter without a clear result, but through a series or a song that spreads or a general cultural figure, you will find what you want clearly and effectively without cost because cultural diplomacy has multiple arms between singing, music, poetry, literature, novels, and dramas, everything related to the manufacture of beauty and its export as a respected facade for countries that appreciate their civilization, history, and symbols.
Mahmoud Darwish said it best:
“You were defeated by all the arts, death You were defeated by the songs of the land of the two rivers, death You were defeated by the inscriptions on the stones of a temple, death You were defeated and immortality triumphed So make with us And make with yourself what you want”