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Abstract
This article theorises the interplay between public diplomacy and populism. Building on Baudrillard’s simulacra, we advance the hybridity approach to soft power statecraft by analysing a cultural shift in US presidential public diplomacy. Using discourse analysis, we uncover how, rather than aiding the building of relationship with foreign publics, Donald Trump has brought to the field cultural codes alien to public diplomacy, imploding the meanings central to the endogenous norms of diplomacy and turning towards an agonistic relational dynamic with foreign publics. This article reveals how digitalisation affords the expansion of Donald Trump’s populist style, and makes the populist cultural shift highly visible on his Twitter. To reveal this dynamic in granular detail, we propose ‘kayfabe’ as an epistemic lens for the interpretation of the populist style in the conduct of Trump’s ‘simulated public diplomacy’, a defining feature of the current US global leadership. As well as considering socialities re-shaping relational dynamics, this article unpacks tensions stemming from the expansion of populist style into presidential public diplomacy. Finally, we reflect on the epistemic crisis of US public diplomacy within the strategic landscape of political uncertainties associated with the proliferation of populism in the field.
Highlights
This article theorises the interplay between public diplomacy and populism
We ask what happens to public diplomacy, a communicative practice for the management of relationships with foreign publics (Zaharna et al, 2013), when it is performed by a high-profile populist leader? We reveal how Trump’s tweets articulate a radical reinvention of public diplomacy, which we have called simulated public diplomacy, wherein engagements with foreign publics are performed within the setting of a spectacular agonism that enhances the president’s persona as an alpha deal-maker and fêted ‘face’ for the purposes of national electioneering
The results of our coding demonstrate that Trump’s tweets that pronounce upon matters of foreign policy or that appear to be directed towards foreign publics articulate a populist-styled simulation of public diplomacy, where caricatures of relationships with foreign leaders and publics are drawn with an eye to personalised, agonistic positioning
Summary
This article theorises the interplay between public diplomacy and populism. Building on Baudrillard’s simulacra, we advance the hybridity approach to soft power statecraft by analysing a cultural shift in US presidential public diplomacy. During the 2016 presidential election campaign Donald Trump advocated a revisionist approach to foreign policy articulated in a demotic and combative style that was alien to the norms of liberal governance that had been the linchpin of US soft power statecraft Following his election to the White House, concerns about the decline of US soft power – that is, its ability to ‘attract the publics of other countries’ (Nye, 2008: 95) – signalled during the campaign have evolved into a focus on the notably populist turn in Trump’s diplomacy and statecraft. Given that the only recent empirical study exploring the links between these two elements focuses on the authoritarian Russia (Yablokov, 2015), we shift the analytical focus to a democratic political landscape Against this backdrop, we ask what happens to public diplomacy, a communicative practice for the management of relationships with foreign publics (Zaharna et al, 2013), when it is performed by a high-profile populist leader? This article provides empirical insights into the relationship between US public diplomacy and populism as performed by the US president
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