Public diplomacy
Encyclopedia
In international relations
, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of Public Diplomacy, and may be easier described than easily defined as definitions have changed and continue to change over time. It is practiced through a variety of instruments and methods ranging from personal contact and media interviews to the Internet and educational exchanges.
Over time, the concept and definition has evolved by various practitioners. Other definitions and descriptions include:
Standard diplomacy
might be described as the ways in which government leaders communicate with each other at the highest levels, the elite diplomacy we are all familiar with. Public diplomacy, by contrast focuses on the ways in which a country (or multi-lateral organization such as the United Nations) communicates with citizens in other societies. A country may be acting deliberately or inadvertently, and through both official and private individuals and institutions. Effective public diplomacy starts from the premise that dialogue, rather than a sales pitch, is often central to achieving the goals of foreign policy: public diplomacy must be seen as a two-way street. Furthermore, public diplomacy activities often present many differing views as represented by private American individuals and organizations in addition to official U.S. Government views.
Traditional diplomacy actively engages one government with another government. In traditional diplomacy, U.S. Embassy officials represent the U.S. Government in a host country primarily by maintaining relations and conducting official USG business with the officials of the host government whereas public diplomacy primarily engages many diverse non-government elements of a society.
Film, television, music, sports, video games and other social/cultural activities are seen by public diplomacy advocates as enormously important avenues for otherwise diverse citizens to understand each other and integral to the international cultural understanding, which they state is a key goal of modern public diplomacy strategy. It involves not only shaping the message(s) that a country wishes to present abroad, but also analyzing and understanding the ways that the message is interpreted by diverse societies and developing the tools of listening and conversation as well as the tools of persuasion.
One of the most successful initiatives which embodies the principles of effective public diplomacy is the creation by international treaty in the 1950s of the European Coal and Steel Community
which later became the European Union
. Its original purpose after World War II
was to tie the economies of Europe together so much that war would be impossible. Supporters of European integration see it as having achieved both this goal and the extra benefit of catalysing greater international understanding as European countries did more business together and the ties among member states' citizens increased. Opponents of European integration are leery of a loss of national sovereignty
and greater centralization of power.
Public diplomacy has been an essential element of American foreign policy for decades. It was an important tool in influencing public opinion during the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the term has come back into vogue as the United States government works to improve their reputation abroad, particularly in the Middle East and among those in the Islamic world. Numerous panels, including those sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, have evaluated American efforts in public diplomacy since 9/11 and have written reports recommending that the United States take various actions to improve the effectiveness of their public diplomacy.
The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy was established in the late 1940s to evaluate American public diplomacy effort. The Commission is a seven member bipartisan board whose members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate. William Hybl is the current chair, and other members include former Ambassadors Lyndon Olson and Penne Percy Korth Peacock, as well as Jay Snyder, John E. Osborn and Lezlee Westine. In 2008, the Commission issued a report entitled "Getting the People Part RIght" that was largely critical of the State Department's personnel policies and practices in hiring, training and promoting public affairs and public diplomacy officers. The report attracted significant attention, and was the subject of a Senate hearing.
This traditional concept is expanded on with the idea of adopting what is called "population-centric foreign affairs" within which foreign populations assume a central component of foreign policy. Since people, not just states, are of global importance in a world where technology and migration increasingly face everyone, an entire new door of policy is opened.
has several shades of meaning to it that have also changed over time.
Public Diplomacy.org describes two examples and explains the evolution:
In 1955, Oren Stephens, author of Facts to a Candid World: America's Overseas Information Program, called such programs (now known as "public diplomacy"), "propaganda." He referred to the Declaration of Independence as being "first and foremost a propaganda tract."
In 1961, Wilson Dizard, in the first book to be written specifically about USIA, which was then about eight years old, wrote: The United States has been in the international propaganda business, off and on, for a long time . . . propaganda played a crucial role in the war of independence."
In the years following these earlier views, some U.S. Government officials and others contended that U.S. public diplomacy programs are not propaganda. Others still contend, however, that since propaganda can be based on fact, public diplomacy can be equated with propaganda i.e. ideas, information, or other material disseminated to win people over to a given doctrine. If based on falsehoods and untruths, while still propaganda, it is best described as "disinformation."
USIA officials always contended that their programs dealt with the known facts; to do otherwise would be counterproductive as their reliability would be questioned.
Edward R. Murrow, in May 1963, as the Director of USIA at the time, in testimony before a Congressional Committee, summed up this view best when he said:
"American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that."
Former diplomat John Brown explains that propaganda has a negative connotation even if it originally has some interpretations that were not meant to be deceptive. He writes:
However, there is overlap with many of the instruments used in Public Diplomacy and propaganda (mass media). Further, there is some overlap in other disciplines such as Public Affairs, Public Relations, and Advertising.
Practitioners of Public Diplomacy will acknowledge similarities for certain goals and conduct in these areas, but maintain that they differ in key respects and that none of them captures the complexity or nuance that is necessary to achieve the goals of engaging and explaining American policy to a foreign public.
Public Affairs is communication with the US public, not foreign publics.
Public Relations is product based and usually commercial.
Advertising is profit based and doesn’t involve a dialogue.
Methods such as personal contact, broadcasters such as the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
exchange programs such as Fulbright and the International Visitor Leadership program, American arts and performances in foreign countries, and the use of the Internet are all instruments used for practicing Public Diplomacy depending on the audience to be communicated with and the message to be conveyed.
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of Public Diplomacy, and may be easier described than easily defined as definitions have changed and continue to change over time. It is practiced through a variety of instruments and methods ranging from personal contact and media interviews to the Internet and educational exchanges.
Background and definitions
Nicholas J. Cull of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, wrote in his essay "'Public Diplomacy' Before Gullion: The Evolution of a Phrase:"The earliest use of the phrase "public diplomacy" to surface is actually not American at all but in a leader piece from The Times in January 1856. It is used merely as a synonym for civility in a piece criticizing the posturing of President Franklin Pierce.
The modern meaning of the term "public diplomacy" was coined in 1965 by Edmund Gullion, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a distinguished retired foreign service officer, when he established an Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy
The brochure for the new center provided a description of the concept: “Public diplomacy… deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies. It encompasses dimensions of international relations beyond traditional diplomacy; the cultivation by governments of public opinion in other countries; the interaction of private groups and interests in one country with another; the reporting of foreign affairs and its impact on policy; communication between those whose job is communication, as diplomats and foreign correspondents; and the process of intercultural communications.”
Over time, the concept and definition has evolved by various practitioners. Other definitions and descriptions include:
The most important roles public diplomacy will have to play for the United States in the current international environment will be less grand-strategic and more operational than during the Cold War. Support of national policy in military contingencies is one such role, and probably the most important.
- Carnes Lord (former Deputy Director USIA), Professor of Statecraft and Civilization, October 1998
Public diplomacy - effectively communicating with publics around the globe - to understand, value and even emulate America's vision and ideas; historically one of America's most effective weapons of outreach, persuasion and policy.
- Jill A. Schuker (former Senior Director for Public Affairs at the National Security Council) July 2004
Public diplomacy may be defined, simply, as the conduct of international relations by governments through public communications media and through dealings with a wide range of nongovernmental entities (political parties, corporations, trade associations, labor unions, educational institutions, religious organizations, ethnic groups, and so on including influential individuals) for the purpose of influencing the politics and actions of other governments.
- Alan K. Henrikson, Professor of Diplomatic History, April 2005.
Public diplomacy that traditionally represents actions of governments to influence overseas publics within the foreign policy process has expanded today - by accident and design - beyond the realm of governments to include the media, multinational corporations, NGO's and faith-based organizations as active participants in the field.
Crocker Snow Jr., Acting Director Edward R. Murrow Center, May 2005.
"PUBLIC DIPLOMACY refers to government-sponsored programs intended to inform or influence public opinion in other countries; its chief instruments are publications, motion pictures, cultural exchanges, radio and television." (U.S. Department of State, Dictionary of International Relations Terms, 1987, p. 85)
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which was the main government agency in charge of Public Diplomacy until it merged with the Department of State in 1999, described it as:
Public diplomacy seeks to promote the national interest and the national security of the United States through understanding, informing, and influencing foreign publics and broadening dialogue between American citizens and institutions and their counterparts abroad.
For The Planning Group for Integration of USIA into the Dept. of State (June 20, 1997), public diplomacy is defined as follows: "Public Diplomacy seeks to promote the national interest of the United States through understanding, informing and influencing foreign audiences."
According to Hans N. Tuch, author of Communicating With the World (St. Martin's Press, NY, 1990), public diplomacy is defined as:
"Official government efforts to shape the communications environment overseas in which American foreign policy is played out, in order to reduce the degree to which misperceptions and misunderstandings complicate relations between the U.S. and other nations."
Standard diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
might be described as the ways in which government leaders communicate with each other at the highest levels, the elite diplomacy we are all familiar with. Public diplomacy, by contrast focuses on the ways in which a country (or multi-lateral organization such as the United Nations) communicates with citizens in other societies. A country may be acting deliberately or inadvertently, and through both official and private individuals and institutions. Effective public diplomacy starts from the premise that dialogue, rather than a sales pitch, is often central to achieving the goals of foreign policy: public diplomacy must be seen as a two-way street. Furthermore, public diplomacy activities often present many differing views as represented by private American individuals and organizations in addition to official U.S. Government views.
Traditional diplomacy actively engages one government with another government. In traditional diplomacy, U.S. Embassy officials represent the U.S. Government in a host country primarily by maintaining relations and conducting official USG business with the officials of the host government whereas public diplomacy primarily engages many diverse non-government elements of a society.
Film, television, music, sports, video games and other social/cultural activities are seen by public diplomacy advocates as enormously important avenues for otherwise diverse citizens to understand each other and integral to the international cultural understanding, which they state is a key goal of modern public diplomacy strategy. It involves not only shaping the message(s) that a country wishes to present abroad, but also analyzing and understanding the ways that the message is interpreted by diverse societies and developing the tools of listening and conversation as well as the tools of persuasion.
One of the most successful initiatives which embodies the principles of effective public diplomacy is the creation by international treaty in the 1950s of the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...
which later became the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Its original purpose after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was to tie the economies of Europe together so much that war would be impossible. Supporters of European integration see it as having achieved both this goal and the extra benefit of catalysing greater international understanding as European countries did more business together and the ties among member states' citizens increased. Opponents of European integration are leery of a loss of national sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
and greater centralization of power.
Public diplomacy has been an essential element of American foreign policy for decades. It was an important tool in influencing public opinion during the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the term has come back into vogue as the United States government works to improve their reputation abroad, particularly in the Middle East and among those in the Islamic world. Numerous panels, including those sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, have evaluated American efforts in public diplomacy since 9/11 and have written reports recommending that the United States take various actions to improve the effectiveness of their public diplomacy.
The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy was established in the late 1940s to evaluate American public diplomacy effort. The Commission is a seven member bipartisan board whose members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate. William Hybl is the current chair, and other members include former Ambassadors Lyndon Olson and Penne Percy Korth Peacock, as well as Jay Snyder, John E. Osborn and Lezlee Westine. In 2008, the Commission issued a report entitled "Getting the People Part RIght" that was largely critical of the State Department's personnel policies and practices in hiring, training and promoting public affairs and public diplomacy officers. The report attracted significant attention, and was the subject of a Senate hearing.
This traditional concept is expanded on with the idea of adopting what is called "population-centric foreign affairs" within which foreign populations assume a central component of foreign policy. Since people, not just states, are of global importance in a world where technology and migration increasingly face everyone, an entire new door of policy is opened.
Differences from propaganda, public relations, and advertising
There remains controversy over exactly what constitutes the definition and practice of Public Diplomacy and whether it is simply a form of propaganda or spin. The term propaganda itselfPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
has several shades of meaning to it that have also changed over time.
Public Diplomacy.org describes two examples and explains the evolution:
In 1955, Oren Stephens, author of Facts to a Candid World: America's Overseas Information Program, called such programs (now known as "public diplomacy"), "propaganda." He referred to the Declaration of Independence as being "first and foremost a propaganda tract."
In 1961, Wilson Dizard, in the first book to be written specifically about USIA, which was then about eight years old, wrote: The United States has been in the international propaganda business, off and on, for a long time . . . propaganda played a crucial role in the war of independence."
In the years following these earlier views, some U.S. Government officials and others contended that U.S. public diplomacy programs are not propaganda. Others still contend, however, that since propaganda can be based on fact, public diplomacy can be equated with propaganda i.e. ideas, information, or other material disseminated to win people over to a given doctrine. If based on falsehoods and untruths, while still propaganda, it is best described as "disinformation."
USIA officials always contended that their programs dealt with the known facts; to do otherwise would be counterproductive as their reliability would be questioned.
Edward R. Murrow, in May 1963, as the Director of USIA at the time, in testimony before a Congressional Committee, summed up this view best when he said:
"American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that."
Former diplomat John Brown explains that propaganda has a negative connotation even if it originally has some interpretations that were not meant to be deceptive. He writes:
At its best, public diplomacy:
Provides a truthful, factual exposition and explication of a nation’s foreign policy and way of life to overseas audiences; Encourages international understanding; Listens and engages in dialogue; Objectively displays national achievements overseas, including in the arts.
At its worst, propaganda:
Forces its messages on an audience, often by repetition and slogans; Demonizes elements of the outside world; Simplifies complex issues and history; Misrepresents the truth or deliberately lies.
However, there is overlap with many of the instruments used in Public Diplomacy and propaganda (mass media). Further, there is some overlap in other disciplines such as Public Affairs, Public Relations, and Advertising.
Practitioners of Public Diplomacy will acknowledge similarities for certain goals and conduct in these areas, but maintain that they differ in key respects and that none of them captures the complexity or nuance that is necessary to achieve the goals of engaging and explaining American policy to a foreign public.
Public Affairs is communication with the US public, not foreign publics.
Public Relations is product based and usually commercial.
Advertising is profit based and doesn’t involve a dialogue.
Methods
There are many methods and instruments that are used in Public Diplomacy. Nicholas Cull divides the practice into five elements: listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange diplomacy and international broadcasting (IB).Methods such as personal contact, broadcasters such as the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
exchange programs such as Fulbright and the International Visitor Leadership program, American arts and performances in foreign countries, and the use of the Internet are all instruments used for practicing Public Diplomacy depending on the audience to be communicated with and the message to be conveyed.
See also
- USC Center on Public DiplomacyUSC Center on Public DiplomacyThe University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy is a joint academic research, teaching and training center created and run jointly by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations.Center leadership is...
- Diplomacy MonitorDiplomacy MonitorDiplomacy Monitor was a free Internet-based tool created in 2003 to monitor diplomacy documents published in various diplomacy-related websites, including official sources from governments all over the world.Diplomacy Monitor addressed the emerging Internet-based...
, a tool for tracking Internet-based public diplomacy - Office of Public DiplomacyOffice of Public DiplomacyThe Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean was an intra-agency propaganda organization established in the United States during the administration of Ronald Reagan...
- Otto ReichOtto ReichOtto Juan Reich , a Cuban-American, is former senior official in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush...
- Political warfarePolitical warfarePolitical warfare is the use of political means to compel an opponent to do one's will, based on hostile intent. The term political describes the calculated interaction between one's government and a target audience to include another country's government, military, and/or general population...
- Music and political warfareMusic and political warfareMusic and political warfare have been used together in many different political contexts and cultures as a way to reach a targeted audience in order to deliver a specific political message. Political warfare as defined by Paul A. Smith is the "use of political means to compel an opponent to do...
- Public diplomacy (Israel)
- Public diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of IranPublic diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of IranPublic diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran refers to the public relations efforts to disseminate information about the Islamic Republic of Iran. Such efforts seek to communicate with foreign publics in order to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence...
Further reading
- "A Clash of Professional Cultures:The David Kelly Affair" by Biljana Scotthttp://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/butt/teaching/scott-clash.pdf (Published in Hannah Slavik (ed.) Intercultural Communication and Diplomacy, DiploFoundation, 2004.)Also see conference slideshow presentation http://www.diplomacy.edu/Conferences/MSD/papers/scott.pdf
- "The Evolution of Public Diplomacy" {http://www.publicdiplomacy.org/70.htm} by Walter R Roberts
- "Multiculturalism for the masses: social advertising and public diplomacy post 9/11" by Biljana Scotthttp://www.biscott.co.uk/publications/documents/multicult.htm (Published in Hannah Slavik (ed.) Intercultural Communication and Diplomacy, DiploFoundation, 2004.)
- "Public Diplomacy" by Pamela H. Smith, Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy, London http://diplo.diplomacy.edu/Books/mdiplomacy_book/smith/p.h.%20smith.htm (Published in "Modern Diplomacy")
- "Multistakeholder Public Diplomacy of Small and Medium-Sized States: Norway and Canada Compared" by Jozef Bátora http://www.diplomacy.edu/Conferences/MSD/papers/batora.pdf(Paper presented to the International Conference on Multistakeholder Diplomacy,Malta, February 11-13, 2005)
External links
- PUBLIC DIPLOMACY at Syracuse University
- How the World Sees America - Amar Bakshi on Washington Post/Newsweek on Public Diplomacy
- Example of term being used by President George W. Bush in relation to the Middle East - January 19, 2005 The AgeThe AgeThe Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
- Public Diplomacy Wiki maintained by the USC Center on Public DiplomacyUSC Center on Public DiplomacyThe University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy is a joint academic research, teaching and training center created and run jointly by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations.Center leadership is...
- Public Diplomacy (USIAAA)
- Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
- The Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy at The Fletcher School
- Public Diplomacy Research Network
- The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office collection of articles on Public Diplomacy
- Public Diplomacy Blog - India & SE Asia