Culture and Cooperation during the Interwar Period

• Author: Anisoara Popa
• Pages: 671-676

Globalization and Cultural Diversity

671

Culture and Cooperation during the Interwar Period

Anişoara Popa1

Abstract: Starting from the most important Publications of the International Institute for Intellectual

Cooperation (1925-1946) we will explore the ideas concernin g culture and personalities involved in the

intellectual cooperation during the Interwar Period. Pointing out the role that the International Institute of

Intellectual Cooperation had and the Romanian contribution to this cooperation is another purpose of this

article.

Keywords: culture; cooperation; League of Nations; International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation;

interwar period

The internecine, unprecedented confrontation of states and empires in the Great War has shaken the

world and it determined the call to rational choices for building a peace that would make a similar

experience impossible for the future. The Society of Nations, as the main institutional body

representing rationality, would contribute to conflict management, overcoming the significant moral

crisis and the insurance of a just, equilibrated/real peace. In this context, intellectual cooperation of all

the illuminated minds of those times would be involved in this forum, that would constitute special

structures in this sense and it would create an extended international debate.

After referring to the distinct stages of the “cultural interwar building” and to the objectives and

paradigm of this cooperation, we will insist, in this article, on the most influent acceptations that

culture and cooperation carried during this period. We will underline also the Romanian contribution

and also the importance of the Romanian intellectuals’ involvement in the cultural cooperation of the

time.

Regarding the steps of the “cultural interwar building”, researchers focused rigorously on trying to

understand the mechanisms, the endeavors, achievements or the causes of the failure. (Iacobescu,

1988; Renoliet, 1999; González, 2014 etc.)

It was shown that “the institutional concretization of the intellectual cooperation concept took place in

1922, by creating the International Committee for Intellectual Cooperation, which brought together

famous intellectuals such as Henri Bergson, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Paul Valery

and it was considered back then as one of the most influential intellectual international organizations.”

(Carbunaru, p. 130).

1 Professor, PhD, Faculty of Communication and International Relations, “Danubius” University of Galati. Address: 3 Galati

Boulevard, 800654 Galati, Romania, Tel.: +40.372.361.102, fax: +40.372.361.290. Corresponding author: apopa@univ-

danubius.ro.