After the 2021 Capitol Hill riots, The American Conservative published an article entitled ‘Waiting for Salazar’. It claimed that in troubled times a good alternative to liberalism for the US might be a traditionalist leader like the former Portuguese dictator, fueling both public and academic debate. Why does the image of Salazar still intrude upon American political debate? The answer lies also in the effectiveness of the Estado Novo’s soft power in the US. ExPORT examines how the Estado Novo used cultural diplomacy and national re/branding strategies in the US between 1933 and 1974, understanding the first as the use of soft power to achieve international goals, and the second as a policy aimed at recasting the country’s image to generate national pride and contest negative perceptions abroad. It assesses how Estado Novo targeted the US to promote its national culture, landscape, food, cinema, and folklore, in order to enhance stable relations, boost economic interaction and maintain control of, and support from, the Luso-American community. The project’s main hypothesis is that the Estado Novo intensified cultural diplomacy in periods when relations with the US were jeopardized and political diplomatic channels seemed spoiled. Offsetting this fragility, these policies served as a tool to secure both the regime’s geopolitical interests and its stability at home. The hypothesis relies upon analysis of funds allocated to soft power in the Portuguese state budget that indicated increased spending correlated with four key points: 1939-43 (the detaching from fascist powers); 1953-56 (the peak of Portuguese migration to the US, the Indian crisis, admission to the UN amidst its hostility to colonialism); 1961-63 (tensions between Salazar and Kennedy and the start of the colonial wars); 1968-74 (the rise of Caetano, and the apex of national and US protests against the colonialism and the regime). Overall, the project will interpret the term ‘ExPORT’ not just as an economic indicator but as a whole set of soft power policies; investigating them as amultidimensional device situated at the crossroads of culture, politics and economics, though a close analysis of written, visual and audio material held in Portuguese and US archives.
Research Centre | Research Group | Role in Project | Begin Date | End Date |
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DINAMIA'CET-Iscte | Cities and Territories | Partner | 2023-01-01 | 2025-12-31 |
Institution | Country | Role in Project | Begin Date | End Date |
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Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS/UL) (ICS/UL) | Portugal | Leader | 2023-01-01 | 2025-12-31 |
Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies - Brown University (DPBS-BU) | United States of America | Partner | 2023-01-01 | 2025-12-31 |
C.E.U. - Cooperativa de Ensino Universitário. C.R.L. (CEU-UA) | Portugal | Partner | 2023-01-01 | 2025-12-31 |
Name | Affiliation | Role in Project | Begin Date | End Date |
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Paula André | Professora Associada (DAU); Integrated Researcher (DINAMIA'CET-Iscte); | Researcher | 2023-01-01 | 2025-12-31 |
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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.