Congratulations to Professor Alexandre Bohas from ESSCA’s Aix-en-Provence campus, who has just published a collective volume (in French) on the role of culture in international relations and global power strategies. The original title of the book published by L’Harmattan, “Les Puissants à l’assaut de la culture”, may be freely translated by “The Mighty and their Onslaught on Culture”. As a specialist in the cultural industry, and author of “Disney. Un capitalisme mondial du rêve” (2010) and “Canal+ et les majors américaines. Une vision désenchantée du cinéma-monde” (2008), both also published by L’Harmattan, Alexandre’s research interests, benefiting from a ten-year experience in the international corporate environment, are clearly located at the intersection of cultural globalisation and the power dimension of international relations. He is particularly interested in transnational actors in the entertainment industry, American prevalence in this field, and the soft power resources of emerging countries. The book shows how spheres of culture have become essential for understanding the power strategies of both cultural industries and governments. If traditionally most of the international activity in cultural matters used to stem from the United States of America, that time is over. Today, there is a proliferation of private and public actors, and their transnational coalitions, with the digital taking a prominent place in hegemonic struggles. On the one hand, emerging countries have pursued a successful cultural development policy. On the other hand, the giants of the web (GAFAM) have increasingly invested in the production of audiovisual content. Free from regulation, these new actors compete with established powers for increasing their share of culture-based soft power.
