WhirledView on the Lack of U.S. Cultural Institutes Abroad

SPAIN DOES IT, CHINA DOES IT. WHY DON'T WE DO IT ANYMORE?


Patricia Kushlis, formerly of the old U.S. Information Agency, writes in WhirledView about the current lack of U.S. cultural centers overseas and what this means for U.S. soft power.

Since her days as a cultural attaché in Manila and elsewhere, the U.S. has de-funded the network of libraries, theaters and classrooms that used to serve as friendly entry points for foreigners interested in American ideas, language and entertainment. Why were they de-funded—because they didn't work? Hardly. Kushlis rightly blames bean-counter stinginess and adds that Spain's Cervantes Institutes and China's new Confucius Institutes are successfully replicating the U.S. cultural center model.

There's an Instituto Cervantes in Albuquerque, New Mexico and a Confucius Insitute at the University of Maryland, College Park if you want to see what the U.S. might be doing right overseas—again.