Friday, January 25, 2013

PD: a more integrative approach


As Nicholas Cull, a prominent scholar of public diplomacy, discusses in his article “Listening for the Hoofbeats,” diplomacy is no longer a top-down enterprise. Not only do diplomats continue to engage with other diplomats, but the US State Department is also emphasizing the importance of public diplomacy as a critical foreign policy strategy. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Tara Sonenshine, recently asked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “So how do we engage fully and, more importantly, how do we maximize our chances of success, so that the American people and the people of the region benefit from the current changes sweeping the Middle East and North Africa?” she responds to her own question by stating, “two words: public diplomacy.” She outlined several current programs that DOS participates in that offer educational exchanges with MENA countries. These partnerships include collaborations with universities and businesses that sponsor entrepreneurs to learn critical skills, offering opportunities for Syrian college students whose studies have been interrupted due to the civil war to finish their degrees at American universities, and English language training and outreach programs, among others.  These initiatives allow the US to gain a platform with key populations and actors as well as the opportunity to hold important conversations. Secretary Sonenshine reports that US Embassy Cairo now has over 500,000 Facebook fans with whom they attempt to reach out to. As Bran Hocking et. al. write in their article “Futures for Diplomacy: Integrative Diplomacy in the 21st century,” diplomacy is becoming more integrated. While diplomats and official communications are still vitally important, a more nuanced view of audiences and stakeholders is critical for the success of US objectives as well.

Read Under Secretary Sonenshine’s full remarks here: http://www.state.gov/r/remarks/2013/202945.htm

Is the "old public diplomacy" Really That Old?


While browsing the Al Jazeera newspaper yesterday, I came across an article entitled “Chinese media expands Africa presence.”  According to the article, China committed 45 billion yuan ($7.2b) to expanding its state-run media in the African continent.  Thus far, China currently provides news for mobile phones and broadcasting by the China Central Television (CCTV) station in Nairobi, Kenya.  In addition, just this past month, China launched an African edition of its biggest English-language newspaper – China Daily.  Before China’s great plunge into Africa, Africans learned about the Chinese mostly through Western sources. 

From http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/01/201312071929822435.html
[Colin Shek/Al Jazeera]

Western media companies tend to focus exclusively on how China is Africa’s biggest trade partner.  They frame this relationship in terms of China manipulating and exploiting the continent.  China’s expansion into Africa however, occurs alongside a steady downsizing of Western media in the continent.  Now, why is this relevant to my burgeoning study and exploration into the practice of Public Diplomacy (PD)?

Well in the lexicon of PD guru, Nicholas Cull, the Chinese have listened for the “hoof beats of history” and are leaping “at just the right moment to catch onto its coat as it thunders past” (see Cull's Listening for the Hoof Beats: Implications of the Rise of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy, 2012).  Cull uses this great imagery to describe the importance of recognizing public engagement as a means to conducting foreign policy in the 21st century – an unprecedented era in which communications technology allows everyday people around the world to have influence on world affairs.  Interestingly, while I believe Cull’s metaphoric description is applicable to China’s actions in Africa, I do not believe it is due to China’s willingness to engage in a two-flow model of mutual exchange, dialogue, and cooperation.  Such a model is often coined as the “new public diplomacy” by scholars like James Pamment (see Pamment's New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century, 2012). 

Instead, I believe China’s intentions in listening for the “hoof beats” harkens back to the old model of PD, characterized by persuasion tactics and a one-way flow of information.  As Pamment explains, this type of PD is akin to propaganda (p.2).  China’s state-run media operates strategically with what news it chooses to report and how it chooses to report it.  In Africa, the strategic intentions of the Chinese are to counter the West’s negative portrayals of the Africa-China relationship.  In the Al Jazeera article, a researcher is quoted as saying that “China’s learning and realising that the public and the world is going to be more sympathetic to a narrative that they know.”  China’s strategy seems even more calculated when we consider the reasons why it chose its biggest English-language newspaper to expand.

China’s expansion into Africa is therefore a part of its quest for soft power.  At the same time, we obviously should not be so quick to write off the existence of the “old public diplomacy.”  The world is indeed changing.  It is changing, however, without completely releasing its grip on the ways of old.  Undoubtedly, clashes between “old” and “new” diplomatic agendas occur every day.  I look forward to exploring them.