What are the political and diplomatic uses of cultural productions and practices within the vast territory and era ranging from the Egypt of Mehemet Ali to contemporary Morocco? Based on specific examples that touch on different fields (fine arts, music, cinema, school curricula, archaeological practices, etc.) and different spaces (Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia), a question of returning to the realities and issues of national (with particular attention to France) and international cultural actions generally was presented as forms of soft power or diplomacy of influence.
Luc Chantre is a lecturer in contemporary history at Rennes 2 University (Tempora Research Unit), an associate researcher at the French Research Center of the Arabian Peninsula (CEFREPA, USR 3141) and at the Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Africa and the Middle East (CIRAM, Laval University). He works on the Muslim policy of European colonial empires and on the religious and cultural diplomacy of France in the Middle East. Among the works published recently: Pilgrimage of empire. A European History of the Pilgrimage to Mecca (2018), The Pilgrimage to Mecca. A French affair (2021), and Actions and cultural diplomacies in North Africa and the Middle East. 19th-21st century (2024).
