Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy

Over the past decade, scholars, practitioners, and leading diplomats have forcefully argued for the need to move beyond one-way, mass-media-driven campaigns and develop more relational strategies. In the coming years, as the range of public diplomacy actors grows, the issues become more complexly intertwined, and the use of social media proliferates, the focus on relations will intensify along with the demands for more sophisticated strategies. These changes in the international arena call for a connective mindshift: a shift from information control and dominance to skilled relationship management.

Leading international scholars and practitioners embark on a forward-looking exploration of creative conceptual frameworks, training methods, and case studies that advance relational, networking, and collaborative strategies in public diplomacy. Light on academic jargon and rich in analysis, this volume argues that while relationships have always been pivotal to the practice of public diplomacy, the relational dynamics are changing. Rather than focus on specific definitions, the contributors focus on the dynamic interplay of influence in the public diplomacy environment. That environment includes state and non-state actors, public and private partners, competitors and collaborators, new and old media, and is conditioned by power, ethics, and cultures.

This book is an essential resource to students and practitioners interested on how to build relationships and transform them into more elaborate network structures through public communication. It will challenge you to push the boundaries of what you think are the mechanisms, benefits, and potential issues raised by a relational approach to public diplomacy

R. S. Zaharna is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and an affiliate Associate Professor in the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, DC. She has been one of the leading scholars in public diplomacy and was recently selected as a Research Fellow by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. In addition to more than twenty years of teaching strategic communication, she has advised on communication projects for multinational corporations, governments, and international organizations, including the United Nations, World Bank, and USAID. Since 9/11 she has testified on several occasions before the US Congress and has addressed diplomatic audiences and military personnel in the United States and Europe on strategic communication and public diplomacy.

Amelia Arsenault is Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgia State University, and the Media and Democracy Research fellow at the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in collaboration and digital media strategies in public diplomacy.

Ali Fisher, director of Mappa Mundi Consulting in London, is widely recognized as a leading thinker on network public diplomacy. He regularly advises governments, charities, companies, and NGO on best practices for online engagement and network building. He is the former director of Counterpoint, the British Council’s research think-tank.