Public Diplomacy

Government-sponsored efforts to communicate directly with foreign publics, often bypassing normal channels of formal diplomacy. Public diplomacy includes all official efforts to convince targeted sectors of foreign opinion to support or tolerate a government's strategic objectives. Methods include statements by decision makers, purposeful campaigns conducted by government organizations dedicated to public diplomacy, and efforts to persuade international media to portray official policies favorably to foreign audiences.

There are two basic kinds of public diplomacy. The first is branding or cultural communication, in which the government tries to improve its image without seeking support for any immediate policy objective. States use branding strategies to foster a better image of themselves in the world. Ideally, branding creates general goodwill and facilitates cooperation across a variety of [Page 609]issues. It also helps to maintain long-term alliance relationships and undermine enemy propaganda.

During the Cold War, for example, the United States used public diplomacy to persuade European audiences that the foundations of democratic government and capitalist enterprise were superior to Soviet alternatives. The Voice of America broadcast directly into the Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe to dispel myths about the West. At the same time, the U.S. State Department built and maintained reading rooms in Allied nations, replete with books about American history and culture. The department hoped that exposure to American principles and ideas would reinforce broad support for U.S. policies.

The second type of public diplomacy includes various strategies designed to facilitate more rapid results—a category sometimes called political advocacy. Although branding or cultural communication is meant to affect long-term perceptions, political-advocacy campaigns use public diplomacy to build foreign support for immediate policy objectives. States sometimes encourage foreign publics to support their own leaders when they cooperate with the sender's policy, or oppose their leaders when they do not. Sometimes states need to quickly convince foreign audiences to support costly alliance military strategies. Foreign leaders may want to cooperate with alliance plans but fear domestic reprisal for agreeing to unpopular actions. Under these conditions, public diplomacy may help those leaders cooperate by reducing the threat of backlash at home.

Kuwait's efforts to gain U.S. popular support for an attack against Iraq in 1990 illustrate this kind of political advocacy. In late 1990, Kuwait hired an American public-relations firm to convince U.S. voters that liberation from the dictator Saddam Hussein was worthwhile and morally correct. Americans had mixed feelings about intervention, and most voters knew little about Kuwait. President George H. W. Bush rightfully worried that he lacked the public mandate to act firmly against Iraq. Kuwait therefore undertook a carefully orchestrated political-advocacy campaign to demonstrate the scope of Saddam's cruelty and gain American sympathy.

In other cases, states use public diplomacy to discredit adversaries. Nations tacitly or explicitly urge foreign publics to oppose leaders who do not share the sender's strategic interests. This strategy has two goals. First, it attempts to encourage cooperation by pressuring recalcitrant foreign leaders who rely on popular support. Second, when prospects for a change in policy are minimal, it encourages foreign audiences to revolt against their leaders. Neither strategy has a long history of success, probably because public-diplomacy campaigns are often received with skepticism. In addition, leaders who are the targets of such campaigns can limit and distort outside information before it reaches the public.

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