Public diplomacy
Public diplomacy refers to the practice of governments and other entities directly communicating with international audiences to influence foreign political policies and perceptions. The term, coined by American diplomat Edmund A. Gullion in 1965, distinguishes positive engagement from propaganda, aiming to foster understanding and goodwill between nations. Traditionally, public diplomacy has involved official communications, but its scope has evolved to include non-state actors, such as NGOs and corporations, particularly in our interconnected digital world. This broader approach, termed "new public diplomacy," recognizes the influence of various organizations in shaping international opinions through soft power—the ability to affect others through attraction rather than coercion.
Public diplomacy encompasses a variety of methods, including educational exchanges and media engagement, to promote a country’s beliefs and policies. The aftermath of significant global events, such as the September 11 attacks, has heightened interest in public diplomacy, leading to its study in academia and its incorporation into international relations curricula. Scholars emphasize the distinction between public diplomacy and journalism, noting that while both aim to communicate, the former seeks to influence, whereas the latter primarily aims to inform. Understanding public diplomacy is increasingly pertinent for those pursuing careers in international relations, as it integrates insights from public relations, marketing, and communication studies to address global challenges.
Public diplomacy
Though public diplomacy has no universally agreed upon definition, it is generally defined as communication with numerous international publics to influence foreign political policies. Public diplomacy can be used to build transnational understandings that foster peace or to shape another country's perception of a certain nation or people. The role, along with the definition, of public diplomacy in world affairs continues to evolve.
Origin and Definitions
Edmund A. Gullion, an American diplomat and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, coined the term public diplomacy in 1965. He defined it as governments directly communicating with global publics to try to influence other countries' foreign policies. Gullion conceived the idea of public diplomacy partially to distinguish positive government interaction with overseas audiences from propaganda, a form of biased communication meant to cultivate misinformed political views. He did, however, admit that public diplomacy closely resembled propaganda. With time, public diplomacy has also come to be separated from standard diplomacy—the official communications of two or more governments by appointed representatives—and public affairs, the communication of governments with their own citizens.
It took until the final years of the twentieth century for public diplomacy, as Gullion had described it, to be understood as an important component of the standard diplomacy that government representatives practiced. This was because public diplomacy advertised a country's beliefs and policies to a transnational populace, an act that would ultimately aid that country's foreign policy objectives. Methods that countries can use for conducting public diplomacy with overseas citizenries include launching foreign-exchange educational programs and foreign language instruction and allowing news media such as television and radio to flourish in foreign nations.
The concept of public diplomacy has become a point of contention within the field of journalism. Over time, journalists reporting from foreign countries have sometimes been accused of serving as conduits of public diplomacy, underhandedly attempting to manipulate foreign opinion of their home countries by broadcasting biased information.
These journalists, even those financially backed by their native countries, try to separate journalism from public diplomacy. They believe that although the two fields resemble each other, their intentions are fundamentally different; while public diplomacy seeks explicitly to influence opinion, journalism is meant only to inform. As debates continue to surround the exact definition and place of public diplomacy on the global stage, scholars worldwide have created entire academic fields devoted to the study of this particular branch of international relations.
Public Diplomacy in Academia
Research performed at the University of Southern California's (USC) Center on Public Diplomacy has asserted that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States were responsible for generating wider interest in public diplomacy from world leaders and academics. The reason for this was that terrorists who lauded the attacks from their hideouts were still managing to recruit more members, despite the communication efforts of opposing countries with more advanced technology.
As a result of the classroom study that began to appear around public diplomacy after the attacks, the term's definition was expanded from its 1965 wording. While Gullion had identified the agents of public diplomacy only as national governments, global academia then created the term new public diplomacy to increase Gullion's range. New public diplomacy extends the authority to communicate with foreign populations from only nations to various non-state entities that nevertheless wield political influence throughout the world.
These entities can include subnational groups, supranational organizations such as the United Nations and European Union, and sometimes privately owned corporations. Academics who support new public diplomacy claim that the power to interact directly with the citizens of foreign nations came to these nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) through the diffusion of information by innovations such as the Internet and new media. With these tools, businesses and other private organizations have been able to increase their profiles around the world and therefore command more influence with foreign audiences.
The contemporary international relations academic Joseph Nye has termed this newly acquired prestige of NGOs soft power. Soft power is the ability of an agent's political ideology and activity to bolster the agent's reputation within a foreign population. Therefore, according to the academic definition of new public diplomacy, even nonpolitical organizations can play a part in international relations by using public diplomacy to exercise their soft power.
In addition to being studied and theorized about by scholars, public diplomacy is also taught to college students who aspire to careers in international relations as employees of governments, NGOs, or global corporations. In such classes, students learn about not only the operations of sovereign governments and other influential organizations but also how these entities communicate with audiences overseas and across national borders to achieve their business or political agendas.
For this reason, many related academic subjects have also become important in the study of public diplomacy. Public relations and marketing are useful in teaching students how to create the international brands that will be used to sell an organization's ideas abroad. Other areas of study that have proven instrumental in public diplomacy educations are communications, media studies, history, and international relations. In the view of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy, the field of public diplomacy is still a new academic discipline that will continue to develop.
Bibliography
Brown, John. "Public Diplomacy & Propaganda: Their Differences." American Diplomacy. American Diplomacy Publishers Chapel Hill NC. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2008/0709/comm/brown‗pudiplprop.html
"Public Diplomacy." Newhouse Syracuse University. S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://newhouse.syr.edu/academics/degrees/masters/public-diplomacy
The Public Diplomacy Reader. Ed. J. Michael Waller. Washington, DC: Institute of World Politics Press, 2007. 23–24. Print.
"Supranational Organisations." University of Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/careers/global/working-internationally/work/supranational/overview
"What Is PD?" USC Center on Public Diplomacy. University of Southern California. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/page/what-pd
"What Is Public Diplomacy?" Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Tufts University. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://fletcher.tufts.edu/murrow/diplomacy