KSR Diplomacy Diary: 11. Public Diplomacy - Part I

11. Public Diplomacy I

1. The practices and methods of public diplomacy are as old as governance of societies and states, but the concept of public diplomacy is new, emerging in the 1960s. It is a collection of methods through which governments and other entities like education institutions, the media, cultural entities connect with foreign publics. Foreign ministries are also interested in connecting with home publics, to explain to them complex international issues and to convince them of their country’s position.

2. Public diplomacy is a set of methods, and it connects with two other concepts, the country as a brand and the development of soft power, which are outcomes of public diplomacy actions. The country brand is important as it’s attractiveness brings foreign tourists to one’s country, and also helps to generate business, and draw foreign students to one’s universities. Soft power, a concept developed by a leading international affairs scholar Joseph Nye, is elusive and is sometimes misunderstood.


3. Let us look at some countries. Hollywood adds to the US soft power, but this happens autonomously, not through planned actions by any single overarching agency. That also applies to the attractiveness of Bollywood films for India. Germany has a strong brand image, for its precision industries, its sense of discipline, plus its famous automobiles and motorcycles. Some years back, it decided to rebrand itself as a ‘Land of Ideas’, and that has worked well because it is also a great country of innovation and culture. China spends some $10 billion per year but is unhappy over the soft power and brand image results. Small states such as Mauritius or the Maldives, or Trinidad and Tobago or Fiji and Samoa do very well with their brand images. As do Australia and New Zealand.

Correction: I mis-spoke about India’s film production; it is 1000 films per year, not day. And while speaking about Australia’s tourism slogans, I said ‘Canada’ when it should have been ‘Australia’. Sorry.