The New Public Diplomacy
The New Public Diplomacy
at 9:58am on Wednesday, 23rd January 2008
Together with David Steven and Alex Evans we are kicking off a new project exploring the changed landscape for diplomacy in which governments now find themselves, and what they need to do to equip themselves to operate effectively in this new context.
The days when foreign policy was the preserve of a technocratic priesthood are largely gone. Somewhere between the anti-globalisation protestors who closed down the Seattle trade talks in 1999 and the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the world was disabused of the notion that foreign policy is only conducted by and between professionals. Today, non-governmental actors of every variety demand a piece of the international action, and willingly use their agility, focus and passion to elbow states aside. The media is an evermore voracious force, even as the stock of human attention remains limited. All this leaves governments in a frustrating position – huge responsibilities, fewer levers than ever to achieve change. They face some tough questions. Are cross-border currents of public opinion uncontrollable, or can they be dammed or redirected? Where are those fomenting future revolutions (benign or otherwise) to be found, and are they amenable to external pressure? What about the ideas, stories and values that people use to make sense of the world? Are they formed merely in reaction to events, or are they imbued with the power to reshape our environment? And where do governments get their own ideas and direction from? Who shapes them?
The days when foreign policy was the preserve of a technocratic priesthood are largely gone. Somewhere between the anti-globalisation protestors who closed down the Seattle trade talks in 1999 and the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the world was disabused of the notion that foreign policy is only conducted by and between professionals. Today, non-governmental actors of every variety demand a piece of the international action, and willingly use their agility, focus and passion to elbow states aside. The media is an evermore voracious force, even as the stock of human attention remains limited. All this leaves governments in a frustrating position – huge responsibilities, fewer levers than ever to achieve change. They face some tough questions. Are cross-border currents of public opinion uncontrollable, or can they be dammed or redirected? Where are those fomenting future revolutions (benign or otherwise) to be found, and are they amenable to external pressure? What about the ideas, stories and values that people use to make sense of the world? Are they formed merely in reaction to events, or are they imbued with the power to reshape our environment? And where do governments get their own ideas and direction from? Who shapes them?
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