WTF Is Public Diplomacy???
The facts are these:
Public diplomacy (PD) is a term that describes how the United States communicates officially with foreign audiences primarily to influence these audiences according to U.S. foreign policy objectives.
The term originated at the United States Information Agency (USIA) where PD program managers and planners wanted to distance the organization’s mission from the term “propaganda,” which took on a negative Cold War perception (“Propaganda is only what Nazis and Soviets do!”) USIA described in its mission statement the following definition of public diplomacy:
“To understand, inform, and influence foreign publics in promotion of the national interest and to broaden the dialogue between Americans and U.S. institutions and their counterparts abroad. To accomplish this, we
- explain and advocate U.S. policies in terms that are credible and meaningful in foreign cultures;
- provide information about the U.S., its people, values, and institutions;
- build lasting relationships and mutual understanding through the exchange of people and ideas; and
- advise U.S. decision-makers on foreign attitudes and their implications for U.S. policies.”
Image via Wikipedia
PD activities include any type of information dissemination and/or influence program aimed at foreign audiences. These also include activities labeled as cultural diplomacy, citizen diplomacy, and other descriptors for different types of non-traditional diplomacy. PD also entails international broadcasting activities governed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (or BBG), which is a quasi-governmental organization only tangentially affiliated with the State Department. The BBG manages organizations like Radio Free Europe and Al-Hurra, which are out-facing broadcast news services aimed at foreign audiences. Said services once primarily operated only on radio but have modernized to disseminate their content via television, the internet, and other means.
Public diplomacy officers are stationed around the world at all U.S. embassies and within the geographic bureaus at Main State in Washington, DC.
For more definitional resources in This, Our National Communication Nightmare:
- Is “Public Diplomacy” really Diplomacy or a Form of Marketing to an International Audience? (jedayang.wordpress.com)
- Defining PD (publicdiplomacy.wikia)
- What Is Public Diplomacy? (uscpublicdiplomacy.org)
- I’m Coming For You, Public Diplomacy!!! (mustbeawesome.com)
