Introduction

Abstract

This introduction frames the historical, theoretical, and methodological contributions of the book. The author defines earth diplomacy and discuss how it differs from a dominant practice of international relations that is complicit with colonialization and ecocide. She positions the phrase within allied theories of visual sovereignty, sustainable diplomacy, and earth jurisprudence. The chapter addresses how earth diplomacy drives a critical wedge into the methodological nationalism of the existing literature on Cold War art and diplomacy, while laying to rest a long-standing colonial stereotype of the Ecological Indian. Using an example of a painting by Fritz Scholder that traveled to Romania in 1972, the author connects the fraught history of United States treaties with Native nations to the fresh betrayals of the Indian Termination policy, arguing that these circumstances conditioned Native artists’ forays into Cold War internationalism.