On Friday 11 September 2026, Professor Giles Scott-Smith (Leiden University) will present this year’s RIAS William J. vanden Heuvel Memorial Lecture Enduring Culture? US Cultural Diplomacy beyond Liberal Internationalism with Laurien Crump (Radboud University) and Kaete O’Connell (Southern Methodist University).
About the speakers:
Giles Scott-Smith
Giles Scott-Smith is an Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History at Leiden University, and Dean of Leiden University College.
Laurien Crump
Laurien Crump is a researcher at the Centre for Parliamentary History at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her work focuses on foreign and defense policy, transatlantic security, and European security during and after the Cold War.
Kaete O'Connell
Kaete O’Connell is a Senior Fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History and Deputy Director of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. She is a historian of the U.S. and the world whose research examines how food, alcohol, and everyday cultural practices shape American power, military occupation, and diplomacy.
About the lecture:
What happened to US cultural outreach after the end of the Cold War, and how should the second Trump administration be situated within this longer trajectory?
In his lecture, Giles Scott-Smith draws on the recently published volume US Cultural Diplomacy since the Cold War to trace the development of US cultural outreach after 1991 and consider how the second Trump administration fits within this history.
Following the lecture, Laurien Crump and Kaete O’Connell will offer their responses, followed by questions and discussion with the audience.
US Cultural Diplomacy since the Cold War, co-edited by Giles Scott-Smith and Jeff Michaels, was published by Manchester University Press in 2026.
You can find the invitation here.
Event Details:
Title: Enduring Culture? US Cultural Diplomacy beyond Liberal Internationalism
Lecturer: Dr. Giles Scott-Smith
Date: Friday 11 September 2026, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Location: RIAS, Hofplein 16, 4331 CK Middelburg
Please register here
