Dialogue-based Public Diplomacy: a new Foreign Policy Paradigm?

The traditional diplomatic paradigm is inadequate to the broad range of challenges to security and economic welfare at the beginning of the 21st century. A new paradigm must be developed based on collaboration and dialogue. To be effective, such collaboration and dialogue must extend beyond governments and political elites to broader civil society. Public diplomacy has a key role to play in this, but only if it is fully integrated into the policy-making and implementation processes, and not left, as now, as an optional, bolt-on, extra. Drawing on case studies of the war on terrorism and nation building, this article examines how public diplomacy might play this role, and the respective roles of diplomats and non-governmental agents in its devlopment and implementation.