During the interwar period, the traditional concept of propaganda was changed with the idea of the national projection as an approach representing the state in the international arena in the context of public diplomacy. The lessons of World War I made nations revise their way of looking at cultural propaganda and the role of the national and international image of the state to influence its position in the world.
In this context, it is essential to compare and contrast the approaches of Britain and the United States toward developing their state-funded cultural propaganda or national projection. In spite of the fact that both Britain and the United States revised the approach to propaganda during the interwar period, these countries followed different strategies related to the national projection, and Britain focused more on democratic tools when the United States paid attention to a particular type of isolationism and internal communications.
After World War I, the British authorities concentrated on the idea that the political propaganda had negative consequences, as this practice was rather manipulative in its nature. This opinion was developed during almost two decades. However, in this period, Britain admitted the necessity of creating an international image while allowing foreign nations to know the truth about Britain.
Thus, the national projection as a way to make other countries learn about the nation and its cultural background was rather democratic in its nature because the British authorities rejected the need for using aggressive and manipulative techniques. From this point, the image of Britain should have been based on truth and facts broadcasted with the help of the BBC as the main channel of information.
The use of democratic tools for the state-funded projection meant that the authorities did not use unreasonable or unfair approaches to creating the image of the state during the interwar period. Focuses on the accurate content of the news and on broadcasting, as well as the slight shift in the public policy in contrast to the secret policy, were typical for the early stage of the interwar period.
That was the period of using such democratic tools as the English language teaching and the active cultural propaganda. The goal of the British authorities was to demonstrate advantages of the democratic institutions and principles developing in the state. However, in 1938, the international understanding of Britain was not enough to state the world position and to unite the forces of allies against the developing fascism and its principles.
Thus, politicians and diplomats saw that the used democratic measures typical for Britain in the field of public diplomacy and foreign policy were rather ineffective, and they needed to be strengthened with the focus on promotion of activities of such agencies as the Tourist Association and the British Council. The Tourist Association was one of the essential organizations to promote propaganda as the element of the national projection.
The British Council was used as the useful tool for addressing the problem of fascism in Europe and for developing the cultural propaganda appropriate for the democratic course of the British authorities. The way made by the United States to the development of the pattern of national projection was rather different from the way chosen by the British authorities.
The US leaders had the experience of following a rather aggressive policy of propaganda during World War I, but this pattern was changed during the interwar period. The focus was on more slight measures in order to promote cultural values with the help of such mass-produced goods as broadcasting channels and films.
This strategy was selected as an alternative to the previous aggressive scenario followed by the Committee on Public Information in the country. The United States also began to focus on expanding channels for internal communications while following the strategy of isolationism rather than concentrating on the national projection overseas.
As a result, the scenario of using traditional aggressive ways of propaganda in the international arena was changed with the policy of the cultural propaganda that was oriented to creating particular opinions in Americans, rather than about Americans in other nations. The emphasis was made on strengthening the American’s opinion regarding their power and values.
Still, the patterns of the aggressive and rather hostile propaganda remained influential for the development of the US new approach to the national projection. In order to support the image of the United States, it was necessary to focus more on improving the information policy and on expanding the private agencies for cultural propaganda. As a result, only the most effective instruments of propaganda were selected for the cultural projection.
It is possible to state that the methods used in the United States regarding the propaganda differed significantly from tools used by the British authorities. The reason is states’ orientations. When Britain was discussed as oriented to the national projection and to the creation of the country’s positive image, the United States paid attention to strengthening the internal propaganda while ignoring the oversea propaganda.
On the one hand, both Britain and the United States aimed to respond to the threat of fascism with the help of cultural and political propaganda tools. On the other hand, the followed approaches were different, and they reflected the currents moods of politicians in terms of development of public diplomacy principles.
Although the courses of Britain and the United States towards the national projection were different, both states understood the critical role of the media for the effective propaganda. Broadcasting was used as one of the critical tools to inform and persuade the public according to the needs of the concrete nation’s information policy.
During the period of 1935-1938, the media of both Britain and the United States began to present the more aggressive propaganda as the part of the national policies on projection and response to the threats of fascism and totalitarianism. This period was the time when nations began to refer to rearmament ideas and to the extensive black propaganda in spite of patterns and strategies followed previously.
It is important to note that the national projection played the critical role in developing the images of countries in the international arena during the interwar period. However, such states as Britain and the United States followed two different courses while developing their principles of public policy.
If Britain aimed to proclaim the democratic patterns and rules with the focus on the active cultural propaganda, the United States discussed the elements of the political propaganda and internal communications as more effective means. Moreover, the United States realized the principles of the national projection in a less direct way, while ignoring formal propaganda, but proposing mass products as the elements of cultural propaganda widely.