Public Diplomacy Approaches Research Articles

Branding a small state as an innovation business partner

AbstractApproximately 50 small countries depend on international cooperation for their survival as sovereign nations. This case study contributes to the discussion of cosmopolitanism versus internationalism in public diplomacy and place branding. It argues that limited bilateral partnerships with universities and businesses based on government-to-government agreements and shared interest are a safer strategy for small countries seeking reputational security than outspoken support for cosmopolitan values. This strategy is a very useful form of place branding, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty. The case examined is Innovation Centre Denmark, with offices in innovation hotspots in various countries. It organizes its activities as bilateral triple helixes, inspired by the work of Henry Etzkowitz and his colleagues. The center developed as part of a nation branding strategy launched by Denmark, a small Nordic country, following the so-called Muhammad crisis in 2005–2006. Then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen described the controversy as Denmark’s worst international relations incident since WW2, as it damaged the country’s brand in some parts of the world. The article is multidisciplinary in nature, as it combines theories from international relations, business studies, and communication. The public diplomacy approach adopted is primarily represented by Nicholas Cull and his colleagues.

Characterizing the EU’s Public Diplomacy Approach in South Korea: Balancing “Who We Are” and “What We Stand for”

Characterizing the EU’s Public Diplomacy Approach in South Korea: Balancing “Who We Are” and “What We Stand for”

Public Diplomacy in Regional Integration: Strategizing Policy Goals

Contributing to the growing call on integrated public diplomacy approaches, this study examines the priorities and opportunities of public diplomacy activities in regional integration and it addresses a literature gap on the most favorable public diplomacy approach that would give regional blocs room to take a more strategic role in policy communications. The study briefly conceptualizes public diplomacy and regional integration through an integrative strategic communication framework grounded in relationship building as an end goal of public diplomacy. The study suggests a reconsideration of public diplomacy approaches through a two-way communication to both domestic and foreign audiences. It reveals structural challenges to grounded engagements, dialogue and collaboration strategies of co-existence, understanding mutual interdependence and relationship building. Through a contextual analysis, the study expounds the view of public diplomacy beyond governments and to that which downplays globalization and reintroduces territory into its governance.

Network Approach in Public Diplomacy: A Critical Analysis in the Context of Mass Society Practices

The concept of mass society is generally considered as an emphasis on the loss of the individual in society. Gustave Le Bon defines mass society as mindless, motivated masses. Today, it is assumed that the individual in the society can think independently, be rational and question. The network society approach is based on the idea of an independent and organized individual. According to Jan Van Dijk and Manuel Castells, with the help of technology and globalization, the way of production and communication has taken the form of a more organized and complex network. The network approach in public diplomacy (Metzl, 2001; Hocking, 2005; Zaharna R. , 2007; 2010) is accepted as an effective approach of public diplomacy. The approach, which is planned around volunteerism, synergy and team belonging, is based on the production of messages and the continuous circulation of the message within the system. In this study, the activities regarding the network society approach in public diplomacy is discussed through a critical perspective. The concepts of 'volunteering', 'synergy', 'team belonging', ‘flexibility` and ‘horizontal participation’, which constitute the basic principles of the network approach, were analyzed on the basis of the mass society approach. Purpose of the study: To critically consider the network-based public diplomacy approach and to analyze the concept of network society according to the principles of the mass society approach.

The diplomatic roles of Korean state-run sport for development programs

The Korean government established the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in April 1991 as an agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to design and execute most of its official development assistance (ODA) grants. Since then, KOICA has administered two forms of Korean sport grants: sport aid projects (e.g. the construction of sport facilities and provision of sport equipment) and sport technical cooperation programs (sport volunteering and Taekwondo coaching programs). Drawing on Murray’s (2018) categorization of sport diplomacy, as well as Foucauldian discourse analysis, we examine how KOICA sport initiatives have, over three decades, operated to support the government's foreign policy and diplomatic goals. The findings reveal that KOICA sport initially prioritized elite sport development in an approach akin to traditional sport diplomacy. Now, however, it appears to have adopted global sport for development (SFD) strategies with a focus on social development, in line with a new sport-oriented, public diplomacy approach. Through the combination of these two strategies, the role played by KOICA sport as a diplomatic tool of the Korean state has become more sophisticated.

Nordic neighbors in pandemic crisis: the communication battle between Sweden and Norway

This essay is focusing how the strategic communication about the COVID-19 pandemic created tensions between Sweden and Norway, nations that from an outside view are very much alike when it comes to political, economic and cultural aspects. Both countries, together with Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, belong to the Nordic region, with a common history, plenty of collaboration forms and high levels of trade exchange, as well as a common high level of trust in society and governments. In the essay secondary data (news media content and national statistics) is used to describe and analyze how the communication battle between Norway and Sweden developed. It is concluded that it is possible to see the handling of the pandemic, and the strategic communication about this, as part of a grand and negative narrative about Sweden's societal development since the 1990s. Sweden has in some aspects become a negative international projection surface for many countries. From a public diplomacy approach the pandemic led to constant international comparisons, providing states both risks and opportunities. Drawing comparisons between states risks alienating certain publics, opens one to attacks from other countries and may harm a nation’s image.

Public diplomacy message strategy (Public Diplomacy) (see also public diplomacy approach)

The variable “public diplomacy message strategy” (or “public diplomacy approach”) refers to public diplomacy efforts in a given country in order to investigate how and with which goal public diplomacy is strategically communicated in the given context. The variable reflects the communication style of a specific actor (a politician, government, or country).
 
 Field of application/theoretical foundation: 
 Analyses of public diplomacy message strategies or approaches mostly build on the taxonomy of public diplomacy (Cull, 2008) or the proposed categories of public diplomacy by Fitzpatrick (2010).
 
 References/combination with other methods of data collection: 
 Public diplomacy message strategies can, in addition to content analysis, be analyzed by conducting interviews or surveys with public diplomacy actors, which allow validating the results from content analyses.
 
 Example study: 
 Dodd & Collins (2017)
 
 Information on Dodd & Collins (2017)
 Authors: Dodd & Collins
 Research question/reseach interest: Comparison between public diplomacy approaches between Central Eastern European (not explicated) and Western countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States)
 Object of analysis: Twitter content posted by 41 embassy accounts (not explicated)
 Time frame of analysis: March 2015
 
 Information about variable
 Varible name/definition: Public diplomacy practices: Communication strategy
 Level of analysis: Tweet
 Values:
 Building on Cull’s (2008) taxonomy of public diplomacy:
 (1) Listening (attempts to collect and collate information about foreign publics and their opinions)
 (2) Advocacy (activities that promote the country’s policies or general interests among foreign publics)
 (3) Cultural (efforts to promote cultural resources and achievements of a country)
 (4) International (activities that involve sending national actors abroad or receiving international actors to strategically manage the international environment)
 (5) News (use of radio, television and digital media to inform and involve foreign audiences)
 (6) Other
 Scales: Nominal
 Reliability: Krippendorf’s alpha = .50
 
 References
 Cull, N. J. (2008). Public Diplomacy: Taxonomies and Histories. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 31–54.
 Dodd, M. D., & Collins, S. J. (2017). Public relations message strategies and public diplomacy 2.0: An empirical analysis using Central-Eastern European and Western Embassy Twitter accounts. Public Relations Review, 43(2), 417–425.
 Fitzpatrick, K. (2010). The future of U.S. public diplomacy: An uncertain fate. Martinus Nijhoff/Brill.

China’s Public Diplomacy Goes Political

Summary China’s growing confidence on the world stage under the leadership of President Xi Jinping is reflected in the country’s more active, vocal and, lately, even ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. It is also clearly visible in China’s public diplomacy approach, where priorities have shifted from advertising Chinese culture as the country’s major source of soft power to promoting China’s models of domestic and global governance. The Chinese government proudly presents policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and, more recently China’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, as improvements in global governance or sometimes even as Chinese ‘gifts’ to the world. This article argues that under President Xi, the content and form of China’s public diplomacy have changed. China’s public diplomacy has hardened, it is more strongly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and the content of China’s public diplomacy messages have become more political.

Diplomasi Publik Korea Selatan sebagai Kekuatan Menengah di Bawah Kepresidenan Moon Jae In

In 2016, the people of South Korea jointly voiced their anger after the corruption committed by Park Geun-Hye and her aide was revealed. National Assembly then voted to impeach Park Geun-Hye, resulting her departure from her post on March 10, 2017. Subsequently, Moon Jae-In succeeded her position as president in May 2017. A year in the office, his administration saw how the scandal that involved the previous president could bring an adverse impact on South Korea's image and as well as jeopardize its position as a middle power. Under the presidency of Moon Jae-In, South Korea moves to use soft power and public diplomacy as a strategy to restore its image. This paper will discuss the strategy of Moon Jae-In’s administration in using both soft power and public diplomacy to maintain its position as a middle power. Public diplomacy approach will be used to analyze how Moon Jae-In strategizes. At the end of the writing, there will be conclusions that discuss how the strategy has gradually brought an impact on South Korea in the eyes of the world.

Exploring citizens’ judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugees

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is threefold: to introduce a theoretical frame regarding the meaning of legitimacy as an intangible asset of the public sector; to test a way of operationalizing legitimacy typologies that allows exploring and comparing how citizens from two countries evaluate the legitimacy of public policies; and to suggest implications for governments’ legitimacy-building strategies in shared international crisis, such as the refugees coming from the Syrian region.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on Suchman’s typology, it was defined and categorized different types of legitimacy into concrete measurable, communication related statements concerning consequential, procedural, structural and personal. For the illustrative example, four focus groups were conducted in two different European societies as a mean to have two poles of comparison.FindingsThe paper reports current understanding of legitimacy by citizens, discusses how different legitimacy types might demand different communication and public diplomacy approaches. The basis for hypothesis for further research on how governments should build legitimacy during emerging societal issues such as immigration policies is set.Practical implicationsIt proposes a typology and its operationalization, discusses how communication might shape legitimacy and profiles the challenge governments have in building it. Within a public diplomacy context, it brings clues for new strategies to the challenge of explaining policies on international crisis combining the tension of domestic with foreign publics.Originality/valueThere is little research so far in search for clues for communication strategies for the legitimacy of policies on the 2015 European refugee’s crisis. This contributes to the emerging area of intangible assets in the public sector and tests a focus-group research strategy with both hermeneutical and pragmatic aims. Combine public diplomacy theory with public sector intangible assets theory to respond to the tension of internal and external public demands.

Mexico's Public Diplomacy Approach to the Indo‐Pacific: A Thin Soft Power?

This article argues that Mexico has a thin public diplomacy approach to the Indo‐Pacific. The reasons are twofold: first, the great weight of the United States poses limits on Mexico's foreign policy outside North America; and second, the scarce resources have been channeled to soft power strategies elsewhere, particularly toward the Indo‐Pacific. However, China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia have better chances to engage productively in public diplomacy, and the MIKTA group—Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Australia—offers certain venues to expand common interests. To develop a better appreciation of Mexico's public diplomacy, a brief summary of its main features is offered as well as some comparative analysis of Mexico's image abroad.

The inclusion of non-Western artistic traditions in cultural policy: Contrasting social justice and public diplomacy approaches

Abstract On both sides of the Atlantic, the dissemination of non-Western artistic traditions among the general public has been hampered by the prevalence of Eurocentric aesthetic standards in cultural institutions and organizations. In recent years, however, some states have taken steps in order to increase the exposure of immigrant-origin artists in a variety of disciplines, including theatre, music, dance, literature, cinema and visual arts. This article offers a systematic comparison of two such initiatives that have been developed at the national level: the Equity Office of the Canada Council for the Arts and Spain’s network of cultural ‘Houses’ (Red de Casas). While the former was assigned a social justice mandate, the latter was created to further foreign policy goals through public diplomacy. These diverging approaches have created distinct funding opportunities, policy instruments and structural outcomes, with important implications for processes of artistic segregation and mainstreaming.

China’s Public Diplomacy in Zimbabwe: perceptions, opportunities and challenges

Contemporary Chinese engagements in Africa have been described in many terms by scholars and media practitioners. One of the threads in the China-Africa discourse is the role of public diplomacy and the desire by the Chinese government to engage African governments and citizens. Using insights from the concept of public diplomacy and new public diplomacy, this study seeks to understand China’s public di-plomacy in Zimbabwe by analysing news stories from the Chinese Embassy Website in order to discern the key actors and instruments used. Furthermore, the study uses the media reports from the private and public media as a barometer to form valuable insights on how the Chinese engagements and public diplomacy initiatives are perceived. Focus is particularly placed on convergences and departures between official Chinese public diplomacy narratives and the local media perceptions. The study finds that China has maintained the traditional state-centred public diplomacy model and that it has extensively focused on relationship building in its public diplomacy approaches in Zimbabwe which is in line with new public diplomacy. However, there are divergences between the themes prioritised by China and those prioritised by the local media which points to a possible communication gap. The study, therefore, proposes a proactive approach by China for effective public diplomacy in Zim-babwe.

A region speaks: Nordic public diplomacy in historical context

This article provides an over-view of Nordic contributions to the field of public diplomacy, examining the historical appearance of such constituent practices as listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange, international broadcasting and an awareness of soft power. The Nordic approach is contrasted with that of the United States. The piece ends with a consideration of the Nordic experience of the so-called New Public Diplomacy approaches including use of on-line media and memes.

„Branding Tschechien“. Public Diplomacy und Nation Branding als Instrumente der Außenpolitik

The article develops the traditional theoretical framework of public diplomacy, used in international relations since decades, into the new approach – the nation branding. The nation branding became very popular practice within the public diplomacy and more general “applied foreign cultural policy” in the last two decades. The development of new communication tools such as the Internet and social networks challenged the public diplomacy approaches and brought search for new communication tools the state can use towards the public of other states. Our analysis focus on the Czech example that is incorporated into more general East-Central European frame.

Sport and relational public diplomacy: the case of New Zealand and Rugby World Cup 2011

Although some have questioned the mixing of sport and politics, sport has always been a part of political life and as such an important factor in diplomacy. Whether or not the resulting outcome is positive or negative often depends on the approach taken. In 2011, New Zealand hosted the Rugby World Cup tournament. The government and Rugby Union along with regional and local governments, and civil society and business networks across the country developed and executed the 45-day REAL New Zealand Festival. By adopting a relational public diplomacy approach, characterized by the development and maintenance of relationships, collaboration across networks and exchange of resources both material and ideational, New Zealand executed what has been broadly acknowledged as a successful sports-diplomacy initiative. The resulting social capital was not due to the product – The REAL New Zealand Festival – itself, but instead of the interactive process that the initiative facilitated between various networks of domestic and foreign publics. Time is still required to assess long-term effects, but initial signs are encouraging that New Zealand succeeded in elevating Auckland's stature as an international metropolis, showcasing New Zealand as a productive, innovative business and investment environment, and bolstering its national brand as a beautiful, rare and 100% pure destination.

Israel’s New Peer-to-Peer Diplomacy

Summary The new Israeli public diplomacy approach seeks to empower Israeli citizens to utilize their position both as information consumers and producers in order to participate in grass-roots public diplomacy efforts. So-called ‘peer-to-peer diplomacy’ reflects the shift from ‘old public diplomacy’, where the nation-state has since 1960 been the sole actor in international relations, to today’s reality where average citizens play an increasingly important role. The notion of ‘peer-to-peer’ (P2P) describes the latest development in diplomatic practice, wherein civilians — by virtue of social media — are not only consumers of government information, but also information producers, with the potential to bypass existing official government bodies. Today’s public diplomacy is about more than governments employing ‘soft and smart power’. It is increasingly about dealing and collaborating with a public that can obtain and produce the information themselves.

Making Friends at Court: Slow and Indirect Media in US Public Diplomacy in Norway, 1950–1965

AbstractThis article explores why slow and indirect media were regarded as particularly appropriate means in the US public diplomacy efforts towards Norway in the period 1950–65. The article traces how these strategies were carried out in practice by using as examples exchange programmes and the setting up of American Studies in Norway. The Norwegian case is seen in relation to similar efforts elsewhere, and the article discusses whether this case should be seen as a singular one or as a local variation of more general US public diplomacy strategies. In conclusion, it is suggested that the Norwegian case appears to be an almost ideal-typical example of how ‘culturalist’ public diplomacy approaches were mobilised for political purposes.