Public diplomacy

In international relations, the term public diplomacy is a term coined in the 1960s to describe aspects of international diplomacy other than the interactions between national governments. It has been closely associated with the United States Information Agency, which used the term to define its mission. It was originally a euphemism for truthful propaganda.

Related Topics:
International relations - United States Information Agency - Propaganda

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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 - according to the definition at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy - 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.

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Film, television, music, sports, video games and other social/cultural activities are enormously important avenues for otherwise diverse citizens to understand each other, and can be seen as integral to the international cultural understanding which a modern public diplomacy strategy should try to support. 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.

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One of the most successful initiatives which embodies the principles of good 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. The extra public diplomacy benefit this provided was that the more business the countries did together, the more ties among member states' citizens increased: this social interaction catalysed greater international understanding.

Related Topics:
1950s - European Coal and Steel Community - European Union - World War II

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