French Cultural Diplomacy, Nature and Means

In this paper, cultural diplomacy has evaluated as a series of efforts in order to understand, inform, engage and impact on the people of the other nations that ensures preservation and promotion of national interests by using cultural means  as efficient and flexible elements in the foreign policy. These cultural means provide opportunities to promote the international relations between the governments followed by increased understanding between nations and establishment of international peace and stability by denying necessarily power-oriented procedures in solving international challenges and disputes and establishing international security. Following explanation of the nature of cultural diplomacy, nature and means of French cultural diplomacy has specifically reviewed, a country with Western civilization, and its values and norms were examined as a its cultural diplomacy background. Values and norms include cultural elements and means such as international position of French language, advanced and long-record universities, a strong relation with the governments that had been previously the colonies of France, rich, old and at the same time modern and famous museums such as the Louvre Museum with 35,000 valuable artworks that includes art and architecture, and record of democracy and liberalism of cultural diplomacy of France that plays a key role in determining behaviors, decisions and policies of French government. The main aim of this research is to examine the details of cultural diplomacy as axis of general policies that authorizes the governments to communicate with foreign nations and affect public thoughts, by emphasizing the French cultural diplomacy and its cultural means.