Public Diplomacy: Improving Practice, Conference Report

The end of the Cold War, the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States and the rapidly emerging Asian economies have fundamentally altered the overall power equation in the international system. These and other developments carry the risk of a diminishing significance of small and middle powers, which can be countered, inter alia, by public diplomacy. Soft power is an increasingly valuable currency in international relations and 'PD' is about its instrumentalization. Practitioners are increasingly dealing with both governmental and non-governmental actors, and foreign and domestic policy are more and more intertwined. What is important in public diplomacy is that its success is ultimately determined by perceptions and interpretations 'at the receiving end'. There are still more questions than answers about public diplomacy. Is it a matter of mere imagery in foreign policy-making? Should one also consider domestic audiences? Is public diplomacy about diplomats responding to crises or does it also aim at long-term relationship building? How does it relate to other approaches, like international cultural relations or nation branding? Should 'PD' be initiated and executed by MFA's and embassies alone, or is there a need to involve other non-governmental actors and civil society? These and other questions were addressed at an International Expert Seminar on 17th and 18th of November 2005. The participants represented 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and The Netherlands. This Conference Report contains the results of the seminar at the Clingendael Institute, which was held under the Chatham House Rule.

Clingendael Papers in Diplomacy can be ordered from the CDSP office at [email protected],
Telephone +32 (0)70-3746605Ashvin Gonesh is a Research Assistant at the Clingendael Diplomatic Studies Programme. His background is in Business Administration (Erasmus University Rotterdam), with a specialization in International Reputation Management. He participated in projects on corporate sustainability, cross-cultural management, volunteer management, and reputation management for different organizations, including Amnesty International, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Rotterdam School of Management.