Yara Moualla (Cultural Heritage Expert. ICD PhD Candidate)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you, Dr. Domfried, for a wonderful introduction and presentation. What would I like to talk about today is the importance of cultural heritage and its links to cultural diplomacy. So what is cultural diplomacy? Sorry, what's cultural heritage? Is it tangible and cultural? Or is it intangible and natural? Do we live it or do we visit it from time to time in museums and heritage excursions? What values does cultural heritage provide us with? And to which problems or solutions can it contribute? Is it an object or is it a resource? Is it our goal to preserve cultural heritage or our goal is something else, to preserve our societies, to preserve ourselves and our values and our identities? Why do we care about cultural heritage? And why is it so relevant to our realities? One of the definitions of cultural heritage, to bring it to a definition now, is the Faro Convention in 2010 that defines cultural heritage as a group of resources inherited from the past and that people identify independently of ownership as a reflection and expression of their constantly evolving values, beliefs, knowledge, and traditions. So for us, it's cultural heritage. It's not only stones and buildings. It's more about identities and belongings. And here we look at the concept of scale when we look at identities and belongings. When we look at cultural heritage as an expression or representation of cultural identity for society in a specific period, we also need to look at the concept of time. And when we believe that cultural heritage is an agent of change, an agent of change that contributes to communities, cultural and social capital, then we look at it as a power to change. And that's how this concept of resources maybe reflects in the definition. And as much as we have a role in changing what we consider cultural heritage now, and we all know that the concept of cultural heritage has changed from being a group of monuments to being now identities and ownership and belongings and realities, also, cultural heritage managed to change us through time and will keep changing us now and in the future. Talking about that, I go back to the concept of a resource. Why in this convention and this definition they talked about it as resources? Somehow it shows that it give us something and provide us with values, maybe, or with things. So what are these things? To start, there are many, but to give you just a hint, it can provide us with identities, a web of meaning, cultural significance, a link to a place, and a sense of belonging. Not only, it also can provide us with options, with diversity, with respect, with understanding, and with equality. Also, it can provide us with education, with jobs, with investments, and with economic development. And if this is not enough, I can also say that cultural heritage can provide a platform to include everyone, even those who lived in the past, and it creates a common ground for inclusion. And through cultural heritage, then we can learn more about ourselves and about the other to build this understanding. And therefore, it provides a place free of fear, and that's what we hope. That's too close. So it provides a place free of fear and hopefully falling, where people can meet, connect, get to know each other, build the trust and respect, participate in cultural experiences, and hopefully build partnership in the future. And this process, this process of building that can pave the way for a sustainable integration. This means cultural heritage has the power to change the societies from within, as well as can provide us with opportunities and for people and for societies to build their social and cultural capital. This concept of power and the power to change takes us to Joseph Tai's definition of soft power. As simply he said that soft power is the ability to attract people to our side without pressure. And according to him, the soft power of a nation or of a country belongs in three resources, its culture, its political values, and the foreign policies. Now let's imagine the accumulated European soft power coming from the rich and long-lasting cultural heritage. And the best way to understand the link between culture as well and power is to examine the theory of cultural diplomacy. Cultural diplomacy in its basic terms, it's said that it facilitates cultural transmissions across international boundaries. However, it's not a government-to-government communication. It's rather a government-to-people, and more importantly and more effectively, people-to-people communication. And that brings us to the concept of people. And the science of cultural diplomacy describes the exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, and beliefs in all aspects of our societies, such as art, cultural heritage, science, literature, and music, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding. So people and mutual understanding is all about cultural diplomacy. And cultural diplomacy in that sense is about building the trustworthy connections between people. And since people paradigm allows the creation and the ability to influence broad trends and behaviors, that reflects what we have today as cultural heritage, protecting cultural heritage and its diversity, as well as communicating its values, meanings, and what it represents is also another way to protect people's values, beliefs, views, and abilities to live together. Thank you.