Describing Public Diplomacy

At a high level, public diplomacy is a tool governments use to engage and influence foreign populations.  It is accomplished through direct diplomatic efforts, broadcast media, new media, and a variety of other mechanisms. Public diplomacy relies on a clear objective or objectives toward the targeted audience, and a strategy designed to meet those objectives. From a US perspective, public diplomacy can be used at multiple levels of government including at the national strategic or White House level, and also it can be used by other government departments/agencies to meet their operational and tactical objectives.  The objectives at lower levels should align with the higher level strategic objectives to avoid complications. Additionally, a constant objective of public diplomacy is to influence populations in other countries into supporting or not opposing US policies.

Public diplomacy is a critical tool the US government to use at a variety of levels to engage foreign populations and influence foreign perceptions of US policy.  Potentially more important than using public diplomacy is having a coherent strategy.  Any lack national level public diplomacy strategy risks miscommunication at lower levels of government, or even the messaging of one organization within the government countering the goals of the other due to misaligned public diplomacy objectives and strategies. Overall, public diplomacy is a tool that the government can and should use, but before using it, there should be a lot of thought into the short-, medium-, and long-term implications of adopting a particular public diplomacy strategy.