After running an effective cultural-diplomacy effort during the Cold War, the United States reassessed its approach in the early 1990s, arguing that public funds were better directed elsewhere, and it scaled back or suspended some federally funded cultural programs abroad. The assumption was that private institutions (e.g., the Smithsonian Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation) and non-governmental cultural forces (Hollywood, pop music, global media) could project U.S. influence without formal diplomacy. However, major educational exchanges such as Fulbright remain funded by the U.S. Department of State.