To better present one's own ideas and agendas, one requires understanding of other cultures and everyday realities. In order to understand the numerous cultural specificities that can stimulate more direct dialogues between countries, a domain of cultural diplomacy has been developed in the field of international cultural cooperation, combining the goals of cultural and foreign policies. Cultural diplomacy can be defined as the exchange of ideas, arts and other aspects of culture between countries in order to foster mutual understanding (Schneider, 2003). In an increasingly dynamic environment that is facing global challenges, new forms of collaboration between artists, professionals, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, the private and public sectors, both nationally and internationally, needed to be developed and the beginning of the 21st century saw research studies and analyzes of contribution and importance for cultural diplomacy in daily life and its reflection on the economy (Feigenbaum, 2001). In the name of developing bilateral relations, France saw great potential in developing international cultural projects, programs and activities, and thus became the cradle of cultural diplomacy. France is the first among modern countries to recognize the importance of cultural diplomacy in the pursuit of a country's foreign policy goals and the first to apply it within international cultural cooperation, which is one of France's oldest public policies (Kessler, 1999). The French Institute was founded in Florence in 1907, and today acts as a satellite of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the aim of employing its international channels to promote French culture and general understanding of culture and carrying out actions through which the goals of French cultural diplomacy are achieved. It is the instrument of the Cultural Seasons which serves to inform the French public about the culture of a certain country and vice versa, and is based on the principles of reciprocity and bilateral cooperation. Using the example of the Croatian Cultural Season, which took place in the autumn of 2012, this dissertation describes the specific ways of preparing and implementing this mechanism of cultural diplomacy, which included the institutions of the Republic of France and the Republic of Croatia. The dissertation puts forward an analysis of how the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia followed the established practices of the French Institute and accepted its proposed modules of cooperation and project development. Cultural Season is a manifestation that has been taking place since 1985, during which the selected country has the opportunity to present itself to the French public through various programs in Paris and other cities in France. To date, more than fifty countries have been represented through this model in France, giving them the opportunity to intensify exchanges and gain increased visibility both in the French context and internationally. It is a significant event for a single country, which on this occasion promotes its culture through various contents in the broadest sense of the word. As the Cultural Season is primarily intended to be an endorsement of the main French cultural policies based on diversity and nurturing dialogue, the objectives of this mechanism are clearly defined in national strategic documents and are recognized as different directions: leading activities designed to enhance mutual understanding and learning; evaluating and/or creating new preconditions for understanding other cultures; emphasizing the importance of exchange in the fields of culture, education but also technology, science, ecology, economy and all its branches; initiating new meetings and fields for dialogue. This dissertation contributes to the analysis in the under-researched area of Croatian cultural policy - cultural diplomacy and explores some of the potential ways to improve cultural diplomacy in the Republic of Croatia. This dissertation consolidates and systematizes information on the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season in France and contributes to the analysis of the effects that this form of cooperation has achieved. Case study was used as the research strategy. It is a holistic research since it involves the collection of in-depth and detailed content-rich data and includes multiple sources of information including direct observation, participant observations, interviews, audio-visual material, documents, reports and physical artifacts (Haring, 2012). The dissertation is divided into 8 chapters including introduction. In order to conduct a case study, it is necessary to contextualize the contexts in which the subject of analysis is being realized, therefore the second, third and fourth chapters of this case study offer a segmented analysis of the implementation of French and Croatian cultural policy, international cultural cooperation and cultural diplomacy. Since cultural diplomacy, in the context of national politics, is designed to support the export of representative samples of national culture in order to promote foreign policy, the second chapter analyzes the context of Croatian and French cultural policy. From a wide range of public processes relating to the conception, implementation and examination of the relationship of national politics to cultural activities (Lewis. J.; Miller, T. 2003), Chapter Two provides insights into particular elements of cultural policy in France and Croatia. Relations have been identified within public authorities and it is explained how today's model of state intervention in cultural activities in Croatia and France works. A comparison of Croatian and French cultural policy has been made in the part related to national institutional support, seeing as it was crucial in the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season. The points of merging and separation of the national cultural policies of the two countries have been analyzed through the analysis of the activities of the ministry of culture as the main state level institution creating cultural policy, and in order to later understand and relate the conclusions regarding the organizational capacities of the Croatian Cultural Season. Namely, the coordination of the preparation and implementation of the Festival of Croatia in France was a task assigned to state institutions, therefore the differences and similarities that existed in their activities between Croatia and France have been identified. Furthermore, the relations within public authorities have been identified and the relationships that individual state institutions perform have been clarified. The current model of state intervention in cultural activities in Croatia and France through the work of the ministries of culture has been elaborated. A review of the historical development of the ministries of culture in France and Croatia has been made in order to more easily understand the tradition of the umbrella body of the state administration for cultural issues in both countries and to understand the role that the ministries played in the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season in 2012. Chapter Three analyzes how the cultural policies of France and Croatia are implemented internationally. At the same time, the segment of international cultural cooperation that makes up the sum of all activities carried out by the executive to ensure the representation of national culture abroad has been studied. Attention was drawn to the cross section of the activities of the French and Croatian ministries of foreign affairs and culture as competent ministries for the implementation of international cultural policy in both countries. The starting points of the analysis are the internal structures of the two ministries in both countries, from their beginnings to 2012 when the Croatian Cultural Season was organized, in order to gain insight into the services of the ministries that have historically been responsible for issues of international cultural cooperation in both countries. An overview of organizational units that have operated throughout the history of the two ministries in the field of culture can identify which of the two ministries has greater authority for conducting international cultural cooperation in the public administration system, and therefore in their current direction. Chapter Four deals with cultural diplomacy as the concept of action at the international level, which is promoted by national policies through the field of international cultural cooperation. The activities of key stakeholders of the French and Croatian national apparatus who form the administrative support in the promotion of cultural diplomacy have been analyzed, with an emphasis on those involved in the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season. Since at the time when the Croatian Cultural Season was being prepared and implemented, a reform of foreign policy was being implemented in France, following the adoption of the International Cultural Act of 2010, which had a direct impact on the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season, a reflection on the processes that took place on that occasion and their goals is presented. With the implementation of the reform, the notion of diplomacy of influence is being incorporated into official communications and legal state documents in France, therefore it is analyzed what this concept signifies in French public policy. Considering that the case study primarily indicates the focus of the research (Thomas; 2011), the dissertation continues to focus on the case of the Croatian Cultural Season and the information available pertained to its preparation and organization is interrelated. Four key groups of research questions related to the analysis of the case study were identified: in what context was the Croatian Cultural Season prepared and implemented, in what manner was it prepared and implemented, how much organizational capacity was required for its preparation and implementation, and what were its achievements and effects. Chapter Five explains the legal and organizational framework within which the Croatian Cultural Season was prepared and implemented, and analyzes the manner in which preparations for the event took place. The organization of the Cultural Season is the result of bilateral decisions that are construed and negotiated through diplomatic channels at the highest state level. The idea and the need to hold the Cultural Season is agreed upon through diplomatic channels, and then this idea is developed and advocated until the signing of political and legal documents, which creates the preconditions for the beginning of organization and specification of content- and formal frameworks of cooperation. For these reasons, the processes that provided the legal basis and the documents binding the two countries on certain conditions are described, depending on national legal frameworks, and settled and agreed upon on a bilateral basis. At all stages of the creation and implementation of this project, decisions are made jointly through the work and communication of the members of the Mixed Organizing Committee. Representatives of different state administration bodies, appointed by the leaders of their bodies and in charge of the preparation and implementation of the Cultural Season, participate in the Mixed Organizing Committee. Therefore, the way in which they operate is analyzed. As cultural season programs and activities are held in collaboration with different stakeholders in the two countries, study visits by French professionals to Croatia are organized to give them an insight into the Croatian context and to offer ways to present them in France during the Cultural Season. At the end of this chapter, which deals with the preparatory phase of the project, an analysis of study visits has been made, as well as an analysis of the specific collaborations resulting from those visits. Chapter Six looks into the programs that took place during the Festival, outlines their content, and assesses the organizational capacity needed to prepare and implement these programs. The analysis of the program identifies the division into fields of activity, divided into 13 separate groups: heritage, film, music, economy, theater, literature, dance, interdisciplinary fields, education, sport, visual arts, gastronomy, science. This approach was applied for three reasons: communications and meetings of the Mixed Organizing Committee were divided into these categories, program tables for the work of the Mixed Organizing Committee were divided into these categories, and advisers at the French Institute and the Croatian coordinating bodies of the Festival were divided into these categories. Basic information is provided about each program implemented during the Festival, in order to provide context and insight into the content of these events. The key questions that have been answered are related to the content and method of performance, venue and context of the venue, the organization or institution that participated in the preparation and implementation, the names of the artists or professionals from Croatia who participated, and the duration or number of performances when possible. Additional information regarding the cooperation is added when their specificity within the occasion was recognized. If a publication was published regarding a program, basic information about the content and format of the publication is provided. Technical data related to attendance, Croatian artists and professionals, and partner institutions involved in the implementation are provided in the description, and an analysis of this data is presented at the end of each section, where the data have been interrelated. Some institutions were actively involved in the preparation and implementation of a number of different programs, which led to greater engagement of the human capacities of these institutions in the preparation and implementation of the Festival. In order to allow comparative analysis on the engagement of institutions by industry, a division has been made within each program group into two categories of institutions involved: partner and institution. The number of partners indicates the number of legal entities participating per program, and the number of institutions indicates the number of legal entities that were involved at the level of the entire program group, further broken down by industry. These are exclusively organizations that have contributed to the creation of content, created and actively participated in the production of a particular program. Chapter Seven analyzes communication strategy and the measurable effects of the Croatian Cultural Season. The actions undertaken, activities carried out and information gathered are divided into five sections in this chapter: the visual identity, the media presence of the Croatian Cultural Season and the Republic of Croatia in the fall of 2012, publications published during the Croatian Cultural Season, bilateral visits of high officials and high representatives held due to Croatian Cultural Season and cross-sectoral cooperation. Information on these effects, which can be described as direct effects of the Croatian Cultural Season, was collected from all available materials related to the preparation and development of the Croatian Cultural Season, described substantively and put into numerical relations when applicable. The expansion of the scope of activities and public institutions involved encourages the rapprochement of the two countries in all segments, so the Cultural Seasons project is used as an opportunity to strengthen dialogue across all sectors. In this case, the culture of a country is understood in the broadest sense of the term, therefore programs and activities that are incorporated and developed within a particular Cultural Season may also pertain to the fields of education, science, sports, tourism, gastronomy, economy and beyond. It is essential that an agreement on the extension of the areas of action and programs represented be reached by consensus between the two countries. In the Croatian example, as many as five ministries, one national agency and a chamber of commerce were involved in the work of the Mixed Organizing Committee. Chapter Seven analyzes the participation in the implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season in France by sector, with inter-departmental activities divided into two types of cooperation. The activities of the Croatian institutions, outside the cultural sector, with the French institutions during the preparation and implementation of the Festival within their sector are included in the sector specific activities. Direct intersectoral activities provide information on activities carried out during the preparation and implementation of the Festival, within which direct cross-sectoral cooperation has been recognized. Namely, apart from the fact that representatives of different departments participated in the work of the Mixed Organizing Committee and thus achieved crosssectoral cooperation, in an effort to present Croatia as best as possible in France, concrete actions were implemented between individual sectors. As a conclusion, Chapter Eight summarize methodology and main points of the dissertation that were highlighted as a results of research work. It highlights the dilemmas and recommendations that should be taken into account when implementing a similar mechanism of international cultural cooperation in Croatia. Certain experiences drawn from the preparation and implementation of the Croatian Cultural Season have been singled out, as they can be implemented outside the framework of the Cultural Seasons mechanism. Bearing in mind the long tradition that the Republic of France has in implementing cultural policy and international cultural cooperation, and the fact that in the Republic of Croatia this segment of public policies is still underdeveloped, attention has been drawn to strategic planning, implementation of the consultation process, and continuity in implementation practices.