In the hushed corridors of diplomacy, influence is rarely declared. It is evoked, through tone, gesture, presence… and procurement. Cultural diplomacy, once seen as a gentle accompaniment to statecraft, is increasingly recognised as a calculated exercise in soft power. But behind every poetic pavilion, embassy exhibition, or curated banquet lies something decidedly less romantic: a tender.
Governments don’t merely express culture abroad; they buy it.
The Procurement of Culture as Strategy
Cultural diplomacy, using the arts, food, language, and design to build international goodwill, is not a passive affair. It is orchestrated, budgeted, and often competitively sourced. Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and Trade increasingly embed procurement officers or cultural attachés with procurement training to manage these efforts with surgical precision.
Tenders are issued for everything from curating national pavilions at World Expos to sourcing local materials for embassy renovations that reflect national identity. The aim? To build a projection of national elegance, modernity, or heritage, whatever narrative best suits the strategic climate.
And in this context, procurement becomes the conduit for soft power, a state’s attempt to attract and persuade rather than coerce.
Soft Power by Design: Pavilions and Prestige
Perhaps no domain embodies this better than World Expositions. Consider the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, a poetic structure inspired by a project of the late Stephen Hawking. Designed by Es Devlin, the installation invited visitors to donate words to a collective message. But behind the concept lay a procurement tender from the Department for International Trade, seeking not just architecture, but storytelling with geopolitical nuance.
A similar case is China’s pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai, which cost an estimated $220 million and stood as a permanent monument to Chinese soft power. The procurement process prioritised sustainable materials, traditional aesthetics, and cutting-edge technology, a deliberate fusion of past and future. Here, tendering was not only about design, but symbolism.
The Food of Friendship: Culinary Contracts
Food diplomacy is another arena where procurement decisions have geopolitical resonance. When South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched its “K-Food Globalisation Project,” it didn’t just promote kimchi for its flavour, it was tendered as an ambassador of culture.
More recently, the Italian Trade Agency has funded temporary Italian food pavilions in cities like Tokyo and São Paulo. Contracts go to event organisers, chefs, and designers who can align culinary experience with national branding. Tender documents for such initiatives often include references to soft power KPIs, such as audience engagement, media impressions, and influencer outreach.
Architecture as Influence: Embassies and Identity
Embassy design is no longer an afterthought. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example, issued a tender for a new embassy building in Kathmandu in 2023, specifically requesting a structure that could “subtly reflect Norwegian design values: simplicity, sustainability, and democracy.” In doing so, procurement becomes an architectural act of persuasion.
Similarly, the United States’ embassy in London, opened in 2018, was tendered and built with environmental design at its core. Its shimmering glass cube, surrounded by a moat-like pond, was not just a fortress, it was a message: openness, strength, and security wrapped in transparency.
Real-Life Tenders, Real Consequences
Procurement decisions in cultural diplomacy are not without controversy. The France-Rwanda cultural cooperation programme, following the re-establishment of diplomatic ties in 2009, included competitive calls for Franco-Rwandan artistic collaborations. The tenders were small in budget but huge in significance, helping reframe years of post-genocide silence through art and dialogue.
Likewise, the tendering of an art installation by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the UN Headquarters in New York sparked debate when the selected piece—a minimalist abstract sculpture—was criticised by some Finnish politicians for being “too obscure” to represent national identity. But diplomats countered: its ambiguity was the message.
Influence by Invoice
In cultural diplomacy, the procurement process is the invisible hand behind every act of artistic outreach. It’s not merely about cost efficiency; it’s about strategic elegance. Governments aren’t just funding culture, they’re curating identity. And in doing so, they reveal a fascinating truth: prestige, like anything else, can be tendered.
Sources:
UK Department for International Trade
