Our objective is to advance new scholarship and research that provides greater understanding of how CD functions to connect North America globally; not merely as part of the “soft power” tool-kit of nation states, but as a multi-directional and potentially activist practice that encompasses a broad range of non-state actors, including cultural institutions, managers, producers, consumers, and communities seeking to imagine counter-hegemonic possibilities and inclusive futures. By establishing a strategic network of networks, we aim to establish CD as a critical practice and to raise cultural diplomacy’s profile as a valuable tool to foster global and intercultural relations – that is, to mobilize it to inform public policy development and implementation. Our interest lies in vitalizing the fullest range of core values and benefits of culture – not only culture as aesthetic pleasure and in its economic impact – to include social cohesion and resilience, education and self-development, democratic citizenship, collective expression and identity building for what a “new cultural diplomacy” at the intersection of the local/global could be.

We are developing a vibrant research community that advances CD as a critical practice, generates new research, trains (graduate) students and practitioners to create effective initiatives and linkages, and engages in outreach through activities accessible to diverse constituencies and broader publics. Bringing the diverse and complementary resources of cultural practitioners and students of culture together with those of diplomats, policy makers and scholars on the other side of the culture:diplomacy divide and by establishing linkages with adjacent organizations, NACDI leverages the knowledge and expertise of its partners, raises the profile of its research and scholarship, and creates a unique and dynamic forum through which to advance CD.

As the initial focus of NACDI’s activities, “North America” serves as a vital geo-political imaginary. In this capacity, it intersects with and links to other geo-political regions and imaginaries (including but not limited to the global Indigenous community, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Anglosphere, and the French-speaking world), and thus provides a means to engage with their CD Networks and organizations.