La diplomatie culturelle de la France dans le Royaume des Serbes, Croates et Slovènes/Yougoslavie, 1918–1939

This study deals with the French cultural diplomacy in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians/Yugoslavia, country created after the World War I on the basis of Franco-Serbian military alliance during the war and the French diplomatic support to victorious Serbia at the Paris peace conference in 1919/20. Cultural diplomacy is seen as a part of broader French political and economical action in Eastern Europe in order to organise the small newly created countries into the French field of interest in the anti-German perspective. The role of Italy, French ally and rival in Eastern Europe during the all period between the two World Wars is also taken into account. The French cultural diplomacy in the Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia had two aspects: the symbolical and the concrete aspect. Its aim was to spread the positive feelings towards France in the ex-Austro-Hungarian regions of the Kingdom, where France was unknown or seen as an enemy and to maintain the pro-French attitude of the majority of Serbs. The aim was to contribute to the “interior equitation and strengthening” of the new ethnically and religiously heterogeneous country by the means of culture used as a “soft power”. The French cultural diplomacy in the Kingdom SCS/Yugoslavia is analysed in its local, regional and European context and in its short and long term perspective.