Public Diplomacy Policy Research Articles

Public Diplomacy and Democratic Backsliding in Turkey: A Retrospective Look at Government Investment in Soft Power

This paper discusses the development of public diplomacy policies and their implementation by the Turkish government through aggregate investment data and within the broader regional and global context in which the country’s policies evolved. Its main aim is to show how regime type is interrelated with foreign policy in general and public diplomacy as a branch of it. Turkey is a fruitful case because the country has experienced significant democratic backsliding since 2011, unlike the first period when the Justice and Development Party (henceforth AKP) came to power in 2002. The discussion over the data on budgets of various institutions responsible for adopting public diplomacy policies shows that cultural and educational public diplomacy received a major increase in investment, especially within the last six years, whereas the budgets for other institutions have fluctuated over the last ten years. Although the paper’s purpose was to provide a comprehensive picture of Turkey’s public diplomacy throughout the AKP rule since 2002, its main data source remains limited to the last decade. Thus, the availability and transparency of the data and its indication of the relationship between regime qualities and public diplomacy policies are also noted.

Measuring the efficiency of the Republic of Korea’s cultural diplomacy in Vietnam under Moon Jae-in’s presidency (2017-2022) and its potentialities

As soon as the new president of the Republic of Korea was elected in 2017, Moon Jae-in anchored the New Southern Policy (NSP), which targeted southern Asian countries and expanded South Korea’s strategic presence in the Asia-Pacific Ocean. As such, the ROK continued to adopt a public diplomacy policy and empowered Korean culture in Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam. This article aims to generalize Moon Jae-in’s policy on cultural diplomacy and his application in Vietnam as a case study. I employed Joseph Nye’s soft power and cultural diplomacy concept while adopting a qualitative method to collect official information from the ROK’s homepages and assess diplomatic results. The central argument of this article is that Moon Jae-in considers cultural diplomacy a key element of the NSP for promoting Korean culture and bolstering a strategic presence in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The ROK attempted to graft K-pop, movies, Korean customs, Korean languages, and Korean cuisine onto the Vietnamese concept and seek an upgrade of Vietnamese Korean cultural exchanges and the frequent organization of cultural events. Hence, an upgrade between the ROK and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in December 2022 marked an achievement of cultural diplomacy. I also argued that this attempt has a tonic effect on continuing the ROK cultural diplomacy under Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidency and on the foreseeable chance of both the SRV and the ROK in cultural diplomacy.

The Public Diplomacy Policy of Turkey towards Serbia

Yumuşak gücün öğelerinden biri kabul edilen kamu diplomasisi, son dönemlerin dünya çapında yaşanan hızlı küreselleşme süreci ile birlikte ortaya çıkan dikkat çeken kavramlarından biridir. İlk kez Edmund Gullion tarafından (1965) kullanılan ve geleneksel diplomasinin farklı ve ileri bir modu olarak görülen kamu diplomasisi kavramı, uluslararası ilişkilerin birbirinden farklı pek çok boyutunu kapsamaktadır. Bahse konu kavram, bir ülkenin diğer ülke halklarının sempati, ilgi ve beğenisini kazanma amacına ilişkin yürüttüğü politikaları ifade etmektedir. Son yıllarda kamu diplomasisi uygulamaları gerçekleştirmeye oldukça önem gösteren ülkelerden biri de Türkiye’dir. 2002 sonrası yaşadığı ekonomik kalkınma ve demokratikleşmeye paralel şekilde, farklılaşan dış politika anlayışı ekseninde Türkiye, kamu diplomasisi kapsamında gerçekleştirdiği faaliyetleri sayı ve nitelik anlamında artırmaya odaklanmıştır. Birçok bölge ve coğrafyada bu türden faaliyetleri sürdürmeye özen gösteren Türkiye, hali hazırda Balkan coğrafyasında da kayda değer çalışmalar yürütmeye çaba harcamaktadır. Türkiye’de kamu diplomasisi faaliyetleri hem resmi kurum ve kuruluşlar hem de hükümet dışı organizasyonlar eliyle gerçekleştirilmektedir. Bu çalışma çerçevesinde, kamu diplomasisi alanında Türkiye’nin yürüttüğü uygulamalar Sırbistan özelinde ele alınmıştır. Çalışmanın amacı, Sırbistan’da gerçekleştirilen Türk kamu diplomasi faaliyetlerinin neler olduğunu ve söz konusu faaliyetlerin kimler tarafından yürütüldüğünü tespit etmektir. Son dönemlerde Sırbistan’da kamu diplomasisi uygulamalarının artışına vurgu yapan çalışma kapsamında, akademik kitap ve makalelere ek olarak resmi- gayri resmî kurumların faaliyet raporları, internet siteleri ve yayın bültenleri incelenmiştir. Yapılan literatür taraması ve gerçekleştirilen rapor incelemeleri neticesinde, Sırbistan’da yürütülen Türk kamu diplomasisi faaliyetleri çerçevesinde resmi kurumlardan olan Türkiye İşbirliği ve Kalkınma Ajansı (TİKA) ve Yunus Emre Enstitüsü (YEE)’nün hükümet dışı organizasyonlara kıyasla daha aktif roller üstlendikleri görülmüştür.

Appraisal of Public Diplomacy Strategies of Major States: Lessons for Pakistan

The objective of diplomacy is to advance a country's national interests; Public Diplomacy(PD) achieves this aim by communicating directly with the foreign publics and ultimately influencing their governments. Major global actors including the US, UK, China, South Korea, and India, utilize public diplomacy as a foreign policy instrument. All these countries have developed cohesive policies and strategies to conduct public diplomacy. Pakistan can also utilize public diplomacy to fulfil its foreign policy objectives. This research article analyzes the public diplomacy strategy of Pakistan along with the UK, US, China, South Korea and India in order to identify the various strategies and tools adopted by these states. This research only investigates public diplomacy policy and strategy; the outcome of these efforts are not discussed. Distinctive aspects and instruments of PD strategies of all six countries are recognized, along with drawing lessons for an effective PD strategy in Pakistan. This research concludes that Pakistan can adopt certain effective elements from public diplomacy practices of other states and develop a cohesive and sound PD strategy of its own.

Legal and Institutional Strategy for the Effective Public Diplomacy Policy — focusing on Experience of UK

Legal and Institutional Strategy for the Effective Public Diplomacy Policy — focusing on Experience of UK

ROLE OF ISLAM IN MALAYSIA’S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: ABDULLAH BADAWI ADMINISTRATIONS

This paper investigates the role of Islam in Malaysia’s as a reform on soft power tools under the leaderships of Malaysia’s fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi. The study emphasis the reform in policy making, philosophies and approaches of the premiers in developing an understanding of the importance of Islam’s role in Malaysia’s public diplomacy. The research also determines the influence of international events in the public diplomacy policies. The study takes a constructivist approach and includes faith diplomacy into the realm of public diplomacy. This study has achieved its objective of understanding Islamic public diplomacy in Malaysia’s administration and should be useful for developing future policies of public diplomacy for domestic and international consumption. It is an interesting reflection of this study that the common perception that Abdullah’s public diplomacy was not successful is incorrect; this perception is founded on the labelling that Abdullah’s version carried, which is because Abdullah, true to his character and personality, embraced and enriched previous premiership Islamization principles, without wanting to change them. Though there are arguments as discussed that Islam Hadhari declined, it only declined in the domestic context. In the international arena it appealed to a much wider audience.

Slow boat from China: public discourses behind the ‘going global’ media policy

What mission and objectives does China want to achieve through its project of globalizing Chinese media? What are its moral and intellectual justifications? What key recommendations are being made in its policy deliberations so far, and to what extent do they represent continuity with or departure from China’s past? I pursue these questions in this paper through an analysis of a range of policy statements and scholarly research published in China. First, I examine the extent to which China’s public diplomacy policy has shifted, paying particular attention to both continuity and change over time. I then outline the major policy recommendations that have been proposed as part of China’s efforts to improve its global image through media expansion. Finally, I consider the ways in which various moral and intellectual resources have been marshalled to justify and propel such initiatives.

Changing the American Race Narrative, 1962–1965: Transparency as a Guiding Rule in American Cold War Diplomacy

During the period of 1962 to 1965, the “race narrative” that the United States presented to the world in the context of the status of African-Americans in American society, underwent a change. In a thought-out diplomatic move, the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson adopted a public diplomacy policy based on calculated transparency. While earlier attempts had been made in that direction, adopting a policy based on admitting past and present discrimination against African-Americans as the guiding rule was a novelty. This work aspires to track and analyze that policy’s crystallization, highlighting it as an example of linkage between social change, legal developments, and diplomacy. While indicating the limits of the scope of American candidness regarding continuing racial practices, and cooperation with racial regimes such as that of South Africa, I wish to point out the benefits that adopting this policy entailed, in terms of United States international prestige, its Cold War interests, and its ability to participate in United Nations initiatives to advance human rights.

Never the twain shall meet? Rethinking China's public diplomacy policy

In recent years, China has developed an increasingly ambitious public diplomacy program to enhance its soft power abroad. Although several scholars have sought to assess the effects of this program, little attention has been paid to the Chinese governmental conception of soft power and its use in propaganda. This article explores how the state's view of soft power is transformed into policy through the cultural bureaucracy and, conversely, how it limits the program's effectiveness. The article concludes that the limited success of soft power is due to the following main factors. First, although China's public diplomacy programs are planned and implemented in ways that reflect its domestic cultural policy, they are rarely successful even in their home markets. Second, China's conception of soft power focuses on top-down, State-centered image management, thereby overlooking the relational and context-dependent aspects of soft power.

Strategic Practices of Public Diplomacy Policies in Educational Field and Turkey's Potential for Cultural Diplomacy

Public Diplomacy has become a primarily preferred strategic factor in the new international system in which strategic value of communication has grown, the concept of public diplomacy has become prominent, the accurate information and persuasion have gained importance. Unlike traditional diplomacy, public diplomacy that prioritizes affecting other countries’ public opinion aims non-state actors and public opinions. These are goals of public diplomacy: Informing and manipulating foreign public opinions; increasing this effect; correcting misunderstanding and establishing the ground for a deep inter-society dialogue. Public Diplomacy management, based on mutual communication and interaction, largely benefits from the elements of soft power such as culture, education, sport and etc. for creating mutual sympathy. This paper explains the role of public diplomacy in the new century, underlines the success of strategies practiced in educational field and emphasizes on the Turkey's potential for cultural diplomacy.

What Became of the New Public Diplomacy? Recent Developments in British, US and Swedish Public Diplomacy Policy and Evaluation Methods

Summary This article examines the relationship between theories of the ‘new’ public diplomacy and recent attempts by foreign ministries in the United Kingdom, United States and Sweden to develop public diplomacy strategies for the early twenty-first century. It provides a summary of policy debates in each nation alongside analysis of the evaluation methods that have been designed to support them. The article argues that expressions of a new public diplomacy are best explained within the constraints of different institutional and national cultures. Innovations in public diplomacy have typically taken place within the context of domestic demands for public accountability and value for money, pressures for empirical data to inform policy-making, and the increased centralization of public diplomacy activities. Evaluation plays an important role in improving actors’ capacities for newer forms of public diplomacy, but often by measuring the public diplomacy institution and its objectives, rather than whether the needs of foreign publics are met. This suggests that any paradigm shift from old to new public diplomacy has in practice centred on domestic and organizational concerns rather than the achievement of normative goals such as increased dialogue with foreign citizens.

Towards a critical pedagogy of comparative public diplomacy: pseudo‐education, fear‐mongering and insecurities in Canadian–American foreign policy

Little research has examined public diplomacy as a comparative education issue, particularly regarding social‐psychological, economic and political fears or personal and national insecurities. This paper discusses American public diplomacy as a mostly Cold War strategy adapted to post‐9/11 national security interests, fears and desires. It further explores differences, similarities, and debates in Canadian media, policy documents and academia, in response to American political, economic and military pressures or demands for a ‘North American’ (i.e. joint American–Canadian) security approach. From a critical pedagogy perspective the paper argues that modern public diplomacy has been a dubious, pseudo‐educational, fear‐mongering concept nurtured by academics, politicians and military leaders as part of an American foreign policy, military security and propaganda strategy. The paper further shows that post‐9/11 Canada, problematically, adapted its own public diplomacy policies to serve American interests. Further research is needed to examine more closely public diplomacy's impacts on Canadian education.

The Mission of Arab Journalism: Creating Change in a Time of Turmoil

In the years after 9/11, the Bush administration repeatedly charged that the Arab media are biased against the United States. A cross-border survey of 601 Arab journalists found that much of the conventional wisdom that has shaped U.S. public diplomacy policy toward the region lacks substance.Arab journalists see their mission as that of driving political and social reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Iraq and Palestine fall well below such internal Arab issues as political reform, human rights, poverty, and education as priority concerns.They draw a clear distinction between U.S. policy and the American people; criticize the U.S. for failing to live up to its ideals, which they largely share; and exhibit skepticism about the role of the clergy. Politically, half call themselves “democrats,” and they most closely identify with the pan-Arab region and the broader Muslim world, not with an individual nation-state.