This course will examine concepts, practices, institutions, and critical issues in public diplomacy (PD), both from a governmental and non-governmental perspective. It assumes the central importance of public engagement in today’s diplomacy and crisis management, and will examine effective informational, educational and cultural programs in a world more and more divided along ideological and economic lines. More diplomatic outreach and engagement occurs in public places – real and virtual. A more diverse and increasingly active set of players is filling the global space for engagement and communications with a savvier and more discerning global audience. The communications landscape is faster, more complex, and more competitive than ever before, and new technologies are accelerating the speed of diplomacy but also accelerating the speed at which misinformation spreads.
Drawing on the experiences of diplomats and private sector practitioners, and a growing body of literature, we will explore what this means for the changing actors, issues, methods, and environments of public diplomacy and public relations in the 21st century. The course will focus on:
Perspectives on public diplomacy and related concepts: public affairs, public relations, strategic communication, soft power, information operations.
The practices of public diplomacy: listening (analysis), planning, advocacy (media), and cultural and exchange diplomacy.
Public diplomacy’s current context: Information competition, networks, globalization, non-state actors, and social media.
The future of public diplomacy: critical issues in study and practice, such as virtual programming, audience analysis, evaluation and measurement.

#N/A