Ethos Perspectives

Strategic Communication: Public Diplomacy

Introduction
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, there have been calls for the US to develop a coordinated national communication strategy with a greater emphasis on public diplomacy as an element of soft power. In particular, the US needs to adopt a more sophisticated and targeted approach using multiple channels in order to reach different Muslim audiences more effectively. Initial attempt under Charlotte Beers failed. In April 2006, Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, was been asked to set up a new Policy Coordination Committee on Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications.

The UK reviewed its public diplomacy last year. However, it is proceeding with somewhat less urgency and more ambivalence due in part to a greater public unhappiness over the UK’s role in the war on Iraq and a distrust of ‘spin’ taking precedence over substance.

This edition of Ethos Perspectives presents some analyses of how the environment has changed and why strategic communication and public diplomacy need to adapt. It also looks at the effectiveness of current efforts of the US and UK in these areas and how they might proceed.

Reference 1: U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Efforts to Engage Muslim Audiences Lack Certain Communication Elements and Face Significant Challenges by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
A 2005 GAO report on public diplomacy argued that interagency coordination efforts were hampered by the lack of a national communication strategy. This follow-up report found that the US State Department’s public diplomacy efforts to engage Muslim audiences still generally lacked basic strategic communication elements found in the private sector such as having core messages, segmented target audiences, in-depth research and analysis to evaluate results and an integrated communications plan to bring all these elements together. Although the budget has increased, and the State Dept has established a new strategic framework for public diplomacy for FY 2006, missions have yet to receive written guidance on implementation.

U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Efforts to Engage Muslim Audiences Lack Certain Communication Elements and Face Significant Challenges (US: GAO, May 2006). http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-535/ (accessed August 1, 2006).

Reference 2: British Public Diplomacy in the Age of Schisms by Mark Leonard et al
This book is published by the Foreign Policy Centre and Counterpoint, a British Council think-tank. The Foreign Policy Centre is a European think-tank established in 2005 and supported by Tony Blair. It aims to develop innovative policy ideas by organising its work around cross-cutting global issues (rather than the traditional ‘desk’ approach) and seeks to reach audiences beyond the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence. Mark Leonard is a member of the UK’s Public Diplomacy Strategy Review Board and Director of Foreign Policy at the Centre for European Reform.

In this book, the authors argue that a major rethink is needed on the approach taken to public diplomacy to suit an unstable, shifting, post-Cold War, post-Iraq world, where divisions—or schisms—push nations into very different alliances. Neither a redeployment of old Cold War propaganda tolls, nor the 1990's variant of Cool Britannia will do. Instead, the authors propose a new direction which showcases the UK as a modern and innovative country as well as a principled power that believes in international law, global development and European unity.

Some of the recommendations are: channelling resources to focus on allies in the West as much as developing countries; pooling resources with other countries to achieve common goals in developing countries; improving strategic communication e.g. by integrating public diplomacy into the heart of foreign policy strategy and having longer-term planning and coordination; enhancing non-governmental forms of contact; channelling public diplomacy efforts into non-governmental routes; and continuing support for crucial organisations such as the British Council.

Leonard, Mark et al., British Public Diplomacy in the Age of Schisms (UK: Foreign Policy Centre, February 2005). http://fpc.org.uk/publications/148 (accessed August 16, 2006).

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