The EU is facing several severe crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the subsequent socio-economic crisis, the refugee crisis, and tensions between some of its Member States and third countries.
To successfully deal with any crisis, ultimate victory is proof that Europe can successfully overcome any cultural or other differences between its people to become socially cohesive and resilient to meet current and new threats and challenges. Cultural diplomacy can be the vehicle leading to this victory, as it has the unique advantage of helping people to adapt more quickly to the demands of rapid change and the increased speed of change. Cultural diplomacy entails a type of public diplomacy and soft power that refers to the exchange of ideas, information, art, language, and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding and cooperation. The goal of cultural diplomacy is for people coming from a foreign nation to develop a rich understanding of one nation’s ideals and institutions so as to build broad support for social, economic, and political goals. Cultural diplomacy is a course of action based on the exchange of ideas, values, traditions, and other aspects of culture or identity, to strengthen relationships and socio-cultural cooperation, to promote national interests and beyond.
The first goal of the project is to enable children to become cultural diplomats so as to act as agents of change in order to build a socially cohesive and resilient Europe capable of meeting new threats and challenges. The achievement of the goal is based on the approach of cultural diplomacy, and the use of new technologies and innovative and creative methodologies, such as collaborative art-making, collaborative storytelling and poetry, and digital-cultural pedagogies. Another important goal of this project is to promote children’s and teachers’ training to improve their skills to become agents of the cultural diplomacy approach, in order to achieve the first goal of the project.
