Cultural diplomacy of Canada

In current era of globalization when cultural diplomacy became one of the inherent tools of "soft power" of a foreign policy, it is relevant to research on the place of cultural diplomacy in foreign policy portfolio of nation-states. The focus of this thesis is to evaluate the attitudes of the Canadian government towards cultural diplomacy from 1990s until today. In 1995, Canadian values and culture became one of the three pillars of Canadian foreign policy. The author therefore attempted to map whether cultural diplomacy became a coherent and strategic tool of the Canadian foreign policy during this era. By analyzing the tools of the Canadian cultural diplomacy of the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and the present Conservative government of Stephen Harper, the author seeks to answer whether we are witnessing a gradual eclipse of cultural diplomacy as a means of soft power under the Harper administration. The research of government documents and cultural diplomacy programs along with the analysis of interviews with important government officials suggest that the cultural diplomacy was not practiced as a strategic tool in foreign policy management until the third election term of Jean Chretien in the year of 2000. Since then we can track fulfilling the Third Pillar as an..