Exercising Cultural Diplomacy as a Form of Smart Power in the Military Operating Environment

Abstract Cultural diplomacy also manifests itself in the military context, where military activity and behavior in the strategic space approaches actions in the diplomatic domain. This article provides an overview of the current debates in this evolving field, exploring different diplomatic perspectives in the military’s management of international relations in different military missions. Based on the most recent literature on cultural diplomacy in the military operational environment, in order to understand how the military interacts with the local population in a society where it conducts peacekeeping or peace-enforcement operations, it is useful to analyze the strategies employed and to assess the consistency of these activities with the classic definitions of public diplomacy. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, a careful analysis of the definition of the concept of diplomacy is carried out through the understanding of its two forms: cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy. In order to minimize risks and increase the efficiency of operations, the idea of integrating cultural diplomacy as a smart power in the military operational environment is developed.