Berkley Center

On a recent bus ride from Granada to Madrid, I witnessed the power of Superman. A squirmy young Spanish boy was seated next to his mother, who was trying to have a conversation in fractured English and Spanish with a young American man seated next to her. The young American looked over at the Spanish boy and seemed to get an idea. Pretty soon, they were seated next to each other, sharing a laptop, watching a Justice League animated movie—a 20-year-old American man and a 5-year-old Spanish child. Though small, this interaction will mean more to this boy than any trade deal, political alliance, or arms agreement. It was a simple act of kindness through a shared interest. It was cultural diplomacy, the most important and least used weapon in the United States arsenal.

Especially in London, I have learned to handle the surprise of my dual characteristics of being a human being, and also an American.

“Wow,” people say, “You’re an American? You don’t look/sound/act like one!”

Their confusion is understandable.  Within the past 20 years, funding for official United States cultural diplomacy has been almost entirely cut by Congress. There is very little emphasis on cultural outreach in U.S. embassies around the world. When someone’s impression of the country comes almost exclusively from news reports of Donald Trump and gun control debates, Hollywood stereotypes, and exasperation at American global dominance, people are bound to have preconceived notions of the American people. American international relations could have so much more political punch if cultural understanding was there to “soften the blow."

Throughout my time in London, it has been clear that people in England and around the world care about America—they care about who the next president is, they care about the mass shootings that seem to occur every month—but it doesn’t seem like America cares about them. England and other countries in the Anglosphere are our greatest political allies, but we do little to foster cultural connections with their people in order to gain their support. The United States takes these countries for granted, and they clearly should not. China is the rising power in the global sphere, and last October, the president of China was hosted at a state dinner at Buckingham Palace. America’s mistake of not taking its special relationship with Britain (and other Anglosphere nations) or cultural diplomacy seriously could unseat its position as the top power in world politics.

Though America’s global dominance has always been threatened—by Russia during the Cold War, by Japan during the 1980s—this is the only time in which we have not had government-sponsored cultural support to back up any political, military, or economic initiatives. Largely, cultural initiatives have been left up to “laymen”—non-government sponsored Americans traveling abroad for charity, tourism, or education. While I have great faith in the American people, this job is just too large and too important to trust to an unorganized, uncoordinated group of average citizens. America needs to train its best and brightest to foster cultural relations with other countries. If we continue to fail to address this matter in an organized, committed, and concerted effort, it could turn into a problem for America that not even the power of Superman can solve.