Humanitarian Public Diplomacy in Comparative Perspective: The 2015 Refugee Crisis (2015-2021), the Syrian Civil War (2011-2022) and the 2015 Nepal Earthquake

Abstract

Summary The aim of the article is to enhance understanding of the phenomenon of humanitarian public diplomacy in relation to digital communication strategics. It aspires to grasp the nature of discursive practices and strategies of public communications used by practitioners of humanitarian diplomacy. The article analytically maps discursive practices and strategies of public communications employed by humanitarian international organisations across humanitarian crisis cases and explains similarities and differences across cases. Three contexts of humanitarian crisis were chosen as case studies: the humanitarian crisis resulting from the war in Syria (2011-2022); the refugee-related humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean (2015-2021); and the humanitarian crisis that accompanied the Nepal earthquake in 2015.