By Nils Arne Sørensen
In the study of Americanization, the United States Government is a key actor as it actively worked to influence foreign countries by the means of public or cultural diplomacy. In these efforts, the government often got important assistance from private foundations such as Ford Foundation or the Rockefeller Foundation. In Denmark, a few aspects of American public diplomacy have been analysed so far by historians. But with the exception of analyses of ERP exhibitions and of The Congress for Cultural Freedom, research has been sporadic. Central issues such as education and exchange programmes have not been addressed at all.
The ambition of this project is to establish a systematic overview of American initiatives in relation to Denmark. The project will also analyse Danish reactions to these initiatives and try to access the impact of American public diplomacy. A special focus will be the various exchange programmes the impact of which can be followed by analysing career patterns and making use of interviews. The project will be framed comparatively as this topic is better researched in several other European countries.