A Partnership Forged by Water: the Role of the Netherlands Embassy in Washington D.C. in Promoting Dutch Water Expertise in the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2021-08-16
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
It is commonly know that water is inherent to the Dutch identity and that over the years the Dutch have exported their knowledge to other (deltaic) countries. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans there was a window of opportunity for the Dutch embassy in Washington D.C. to promote Dutch water expertise. This thesis will focus on how the embassy made use of this opportunity by focusing on water expertise as a form of niche diplomacy, fostering the Dutch nation-branding activities. In the wake of Katrina, the Dutch embassy reached out to officials from Louisiana. Out of this contact a knowledge exchange followed through which Dutch expertise could be promoted.
While this case study has received quite some popular attention, not much academic literature has been written about Dutch-American cooperation on (integrated) water management after Katrina. By mapping the window of opportunity, the initiatives, and visits following the contact between the Dutch embassy and Louisiana officials after Katrina, and by analyzing the outcomes of these events to long term relations and knowledge sharing, this thesis demonstrates how this offer of help was used and has contributed to promote the Dutch nation brand of water experts and how it fostered further Dutch-American cooperation in this field.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren