The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations(Studies in Diplomacy and International Relations)

The events of 11th September 2001 triggered a global debate on public diplomacy. Managing the public perception of their state has become an issue in foreign ministries from all countries, ranging from Canada to New Zealand and from Argentina to Mongolia. Many ministries of foreign affairs now develop a public diplomacy policy of their own, and few would like to be caught out without at least paying lip-service to the latest fashion in the conduct of international relations. Their association with public diplomacy can be seen as a symptom of the rise of soft power in international relations or, at another level, as the effect of broader processes of change in diplomatic practice, calling for transparency and transnational collaboration. The new public diplomacy is thus much more than a technical instrument of foreign policy. It has in fact become part of the changing fabric of international relations. Both small and large countries, whether under democratic or authoritarian regimes, and including the most affluent and those that can be counted amoung the world's poorest nations have in recent years displayed a great interest in public diplomacy. Foreign publics now matter to practitioners in a way that was unthinkable 25 years ago. This book joins the debate on the new public diplomacy by analyzing it from a number of thematic and national angles.

Table of Contents:
Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction; J.Melissen PART I: THE NEW ENVIRONMENT The New Public Diplomacy: Between Theory and Practice; J.Melissen Rethinking the 'New' Public Diplomacy; B.Hocking PART II: SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES Power, Public Diplomacy and the Pax Americana; P.van Ham Niche Diplomacy in the World Public Arena: The Global 'Corners' of Canada and Norway; A.K.Henrikson Public Diplomacy in the People's Republic of China; I.d'Hooghe Revolutionary States, Outlaw Regimes and the Techniques of Public Diplomacy; P.Sharp The EU as a Soft Power: The Force of Persuasion; A.Michalski PART III: IMPROVING PRACTICE Culture Communicates: US Diplomacy that Works; C.P.Schneider Making a National Brand; W.Olins Dialogue-Based Public Diplomacy: A New Foreign Policy Paradigm?; S.Riordan Training for Public Diplomacy: An Evolutionary Perspective; J.Hemery Index

About the Author :
JAN MELISSEN is Director of the Clingendael Diplomatic Studies Programme (CDSP), Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael', in The Hague, and Professor of Diplomacy in the Department of Politics at Antwerp University, Belgium. He is Co-Editor of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. His previous book with Palgrave Macmillan is Innovation in Diplomatic Practice (1999).

Review :
'This timely and fascinating book brings much needed scholarship to the global conversation on public diplomacy.' - Bruce Gregory, Director, Public Diplomacy Institute, George Washington University, USA 'The New Public Diplomacy is an excellent and original collection probing a topic at the heart of contemporary international relations.' - Nicholas J. Cull, Professor of Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California, USA 'Jan Melissen's book is a very valuable contribution to an increasingly important field of study. At a time when policymakers are still feeling their way towards an understanding of soft power and public diplomacy, Prof. Melissen and his distinguished colleagues ask - and convincingly answer - some pressing questions.' - Philip Fiske de Gouveia, Senior Research Associate, Public Diplomacy Programme, The Foreign Policy Centre 'Public Diplomacy, this striking departure from the old foreign policy rituals of confidential interaction behind closed doors, has become widely recognized and enacted by practitioners, but so far, has not been written about extensively in academic literature. Jan Melissen's book fills this gap and should find the interest of those who practice and those who study diplomacy.' - Ambassador Karl Th. Paschke, author of the so-called 'Paschke Report'