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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Posts by Craig Hayden

‘DEEDS’ INDEED: EXAMINING THE ETHOS OF U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY POLICY
APR 27, 2007 - 9:14AM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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The many justifications for U.S. public diplomacy policy range from the concrete to the abstract. In forums such as this Web site, public diplomacy is described as both a specialized instrument for foreign policy promotion, as well as a symbol of the lofty ideals of promoting international dialogue and cultural understanding. Yet the instrumental aspect of public diplomacy typically boils down to the amplification of United States ethos.

Public diplomacy conveys aspects of U.S. national character that in turn creates opportunities for dialogue, highlights shared cultural heritage, and provides exposure to information about U.S. policy and society. It builds an... FULL TEXT
 
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PUBLIC RELATIONS, PELOSI, AND THE U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MACHINE
APR 12, 2007 - 2:30PM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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U.S. public diplomacy programs aim to cultivate connections between foreign publics and the United States, which in theory fosters greater understanding of the United States, its motivations, and ultimate policy objectives. It should make sense of U.S. politics and reveal a more "objective" picture of the stewards of U.S. policy, who act at the behest of the American people. And it’s not an exact science. Strongly entrenched negative views about the U.S. in the Middle East (and elsewhere) continue to push the State Department towards new ideas for how this can be accomplished.

One of the more recent efforts involved... FULL TEXT
 
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DISAGGREGATE: A STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
MAR 15, 2007 - 4:00AM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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An article by George Packer in the December 18, 2006 issue of the New Yorker raises some interesting questions for public diplomacy. The article, titled "Knowing the Enemy: Can social scientists redefine the 'War on Terror'?" highlights how insights from counter-insurgency and cultural anthropology studies have revealed that the U.S. conflict with jihadist groups is largely informational. And, this conflict is comprised of multiple groups reflecting both local and regional concerns. According to Packer, the sweeping notion of the "War on Terror" fails to reflect that the "war" is made up of very particular groups that operate on a local... FULL TEXT
 
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PERSUASION IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: BACK TO BASICS
MAR 1, 2007 - 4:49AM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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Much of the discussion on the Public Diplomacy blog dwells on how a nation can persuade others about its image and its policies. The most common observation has been that actions (e.g. a foreign policy) can "speak" louder than any communication campaign. Again and again, this argument is presented: U.S. public diplomacy programs face difficulty because U.S. policy actions so obviously overpower any attempt to persuade publics through international broadcasting, cultural exchanges, and the other components of U.S. public diplomacy.

The U.S. needs to move beyond this stopping point. The debate on branding has been instructive, but I think some... FULL TEXT
 
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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND BRANDING: A CLARIFICATION
FEB 15, 2007 - 11:00AM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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I'd like to respond to Simon Anholt's remarks on my previous post about "branding" as a defining discourse for public diplomacy. Anholt seizes on what I feel is a very real and lingering confusion surrounding the term and its relevance for public diplomacy. He reminds us that we should not confuse branding campaigns with the "nation-brand." To be clear, it was not my intention to suggest that Anholt advocated commercial-style promotional campaigns as public diplomacy. I brought up Anholt's work because it was instrumental in bringing the term "brand" into contemporary rethinking of public diplomacy. The "brand" is an alternative... FULL TEXT
 
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