The focus on public diplomacy organisation and objectives must be rejected. Instead, we need to integrate a culturally-informed understanding of foreign groups, organisations and dynamics into the core of decision-making.
Public diplomacy is not just a euphemism for a kinder, gentler propaganda, but also part of the modern diplomat’s toolkit. This is not our mother’s diplomacy. Today a citizen blogger is as much a public diplomat as any Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs.
With Wikileaks, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy Movement, nation states are facing a second wake-up call in public diplomacy as adversarial publics challenge them in the quest for global public support.
Although we seem to live in a global world, examining how communication technologies are used on a daily basis by social actors is key to understanding how diplomacy is evolving.
Social media is opening up direct two-way communications between foreign ministries and the general public on an industrial scale. The US Department of State is leading the trend.
In an era of increasing international tensions over issues such as territory, natural resources and wealth distribution, exchange programs enhance cross-border understanding.
Public diplomacy and place branding are putting traditional diplomacy to the test. But these newer forms of diplomacy should not be considered harbingers of a mediatized global democracy.
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