This chapter reviews central issues and debates regarding cultural diplomacy (CD) in the last two decades. From those debates, I argue why I consider that the role of local actors working with, and for, cultural institutes within the practice of CD is one that is essential, albeit one that is rarely explored. I argue that the debates, and the dichotomies produced within them, tend to obscure the possible contributions to, and roles of, local actors in CD, for which the call to study the actions of local actors becomes central in understanding how CD is implemented and why local detail in CD occurs.