Most of the existing academic analysis contend that culture and
identity—as a security policy—appeared in the political discussions of
European institutions as late as after the Cold War. While adopting a
historical and contextualist approach, this paper challenges this
account, analysing the geopolitical aspect of culture inside the
triangle of political union, beside foreign policy and defence,
identifying culture as an independent factor that influences foreign
policy and its management. Analysis of the political documents of the
Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 1949 to 1974
demonstrates that notwithstanding the CoE’s character as being neutral
and maintaining its distance from pure military functions, culture
became security policy, an extension of the ‘political aspects of the
defence question’ from the early 1950s on. Culture was lifted as a
necessity above normal politics and as a question of survival, that is, it was securitised.