Still ‘120,000 American ambassadors’? : Hollywood, the US Department of State, and twenty-first-century cultural diplomacy

Abstract

This chapter addresses the role of Hollywood, specifically the motion picture industry’s connections with the US Department of State’s global network of embassies. Moving beyond the well-established literature of the Cold War, it brings the story up to date, drawing heavily on leaks of official diplomatic cables and the hack of Sony Pictures’ email server in 2014. Charting the dynamics of this alliance from Bill Clinton’s second term to the Biden administration, the chapter reveals how Hollywood and the State Department have shared a worldview over several decades, which has diverged on only a few occasions. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these links are stronger than ever and that they raise fundamental questions about Hollywood’s global economic dominance and the US government’s use of culture as a diplomatic tool.