Reimagining Cultural Statecraft : Canadian Diplomacy for the Knowledge Age

As alliances shift and geopolitical rivalries heighten, countries must fundamentally reshape the ways they project influence. Canada’s global relevance will hinge not only on traditional diplomacy or military capability but, as Evan H. Potter argues, on a reconceptualization of soft power for the knowledge age, fusing culture, education, and science into a coherent and powerful framework of cultural statecraft.

Reimagining Cultural Statecraft provides a practical account of how such influence is constituted. It advances a model that places Canada’s substantial knowledge and cultural capital at the centre of its global strategy, positioning universities, researchers, and artists as knowledge and cultural diplomats. The book also examines international research partnerships and education mobility, highlighting the role of Indigenous knowledge systems in Arctic cooperation. Integrating cultural diplomacy with knowledge internationalization, Potter shows that influence flows through collaboration, transnational networks, and shared problem-solving to address issues from climate change to rising social and economic inequality.

A timely, indispensable guide, Reimagining Cultural Statecraft challenges conventional understandings of how diplomacy works, offering a new way to think about the role of a middle power in a world that’s simultaneously competitive and interconnected.