Aspen Institute's Cultural Diplomacy Forum

Apologies for the lack in articles over the last two weeks, as I have been on international travel, most of which was to attend and speak at the Aspen Institute’s Cultural Diplomacy Forum in Avilies, Spain. The theme of the conference was: Culture and Security. The Forum featured a combination of keynote addresses, plenary panels, and in-depth open discussions in small groups. Attendees and speakers came from a diverse range of disciplines, all to bring their experiences to the table to look at various information, networks, and case studies, and look for actionable solutions to increase cultural diplomacy. The theme of Culture and Security was focused around two sub-themes.

I. Cultural Dimensions of Human and global Security
Under this sub-theme, the Forum will focus on the culture of peace and address the mainstreaming of culture as a political priority for sustainable security. Participants will discuss not only the general failure to recognize the important part culture can play in ensuring human security for stability on all levels, but will also revisit the myths and realities of culture wars and modern taboos as they relate to political, ideological, religious, generational, and socioeconomic tensions that fuel a wide range of conflicts – including armed ones – within and across societies.

II. Security of Arts and Culture
This sub-theme will focus on the protection and promotion of cultural assets for sustainable livelihoods and on peace building. Participants will tackle a set of urgent issues, including the relationship between culture and economy, which will be illustrated by looking at the role of cultural and social entrepreneurs, the state of arts markets and their impact on income generation and financial security. A further emphasis will be on how cultural property continues to be threatened with destruction in arenas of armed conflict or falls prey to looting and illicit traffic, and how technological prowess and globalization both accentuate these threats and simultaneously build global awareness and a shared determination to combat them.

You can see the opening session here, featuring World renowned Musician, Youssou N’Dour; Manolo Díaz, Composer, Former President of Grammy Latino, CBS Records, and EMI Music. Sadly presenter Quincy Jones, Music Composer and Producer, was unable to attend at the last moment due health restrictions. The session was moderated by Cynthia Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Brookings Institution, and Former US Ambassador to the Netherlands. See they discussed; Culture of Peace: Economic Crisis, Modern Taboos, and Emotional Tensions.  Sadly the question for which I addressed the panel on the negative uses of music in culture and society are used and how they foresaw best to address the violence, especially of women, and increase the positivity and empowerment in music to promote peace, social inclusion, awareness.

I will bring you more on the conference panels, including my lecture on Socio-Cultural Barriers to Countering Human Trafficking, to follow later this week.  During my session I used the example of our global, but focused primarily on the United States, over sexualization of society and how it fuels human trafficking.  In the lecture I touched on child prostitution, child porn and the influences of Hip Hop and the increasing Pimp culture.

For more information on the session and topics discussed you can download the 2009 Aspen Cultural Diplomacy Forum Program Book, featuring presenter bios and program information.

The conference ended with the 2009 Aspen Cultural Diplomacy Award, which was awarded to both Quincy Jones and Youssou N’Dour.