Fall 2005 247 Managing Culture at Diversity’s Expense? Thoughts on UNESCO’s Newest Cultural Policy Instrument ROBERT ALBRO n a fourth round of negotiations in October 2005, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formally approved a “Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions.” Abbreviated as the “cultural diversity con- vention,” this new legal instrument takes its place alongside a growing list of UNESCO cultural policy initiatives. Negotiations for this convention were unusually hotly contested, however, generating more media attention than most UNESCO efforts. Sustained coverage of the protracted deliberations was a testament to the extent that culture has come to matter—if in a variety of dif- ferent ways—for global affairs. Precisely because of the increasing attention given the culture concept for human rights, in social movements, for sustain- able development, diplomacy, and new cultural industries, it is particularly incumbent on those of us working in diverse cultural fields to try to sort out where cultural policymaking is heading. The most publicized disagreement during the convention process had the United States at loggerheads with France and Canada, put the regulatory authority of the World Trade Organization (WTO) up against that of UNESCO or the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), while determining to what extent “cultural goods and services” differ in kind from other goods and services (for different accounts of this debate see: Early 2004; Robert Albro is assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, where he also serves as senior research associate at the Culture in Global Affairs program. I COMMENTARY