Evaluation of UK and US Cultural Centers in Korea

The rise of Hallyu, the Korean Wave, and the increasing power of Korea in the world has increased the salience of Korean efforts to introduce and promote its culture throughout the world. This study examined and compared the British Council and the US State Department Bureau of Public Affairs, which operates the American Cultural Center in Korea. The study compared the background and history, core tasks, organization and structure, finance and funding, personnel, and level of autonomy of the two organizations following in-depth interviews with their directors in Korea. The British Council is a non-departmental quango, whereas Public Affairs is part of the State Department and works out of the US Embassy and the two present extreme contrasts in many other areas, including diplomatic status, arm’s length relationship, and funding systems. At the same time, both organizations share quite a bit in common, engage in public diplomacy, are dedicated to building trust and strengthening mutual relationships, view Korea as an equal partner, provide scholarships, do educational and arts and cultural programming, both prefer to play a facilitating role where possible and both are managed by a relatively small core of civil servants supported by a much larger number of local contract employees. The study found that the commonalities should be emulated as much as possible. Either model of autonomy would be effective but the more independent British Council model would have a number of advantages in the Korean case.