The Domestic Dimension of Public Diplomacy

This book explores new grounds that public diplomacy is entering today, as domestic publics come to the forefront of the policy – acting both as foreign policy constituencies and public diplomacy actors cooperating with their foreign counterparts. The author discusses the phenomena of public diplomacy’s domestic dimension described as government’s ability to engage its own society in foreign policy practices through information, cooperation and identity-defining. By analysing data from over 80 recorded interviews with Australian, Norwegian and American public diplomacy practitioners, this volume illustrates both successful and unsuccessful models of such cooperation. From Norwegian Peace Diplomacy, through Australia’s ambivalent engagement with Asia, to U.S. Government-sponsored exchange programs, the author argues that governments around the world are slowly accepting a paradigm shift in diplomatic practice from monological/dialogical to a more collaborative public diplomacy. This book is an essential resource for students, scholars, experts and diplomats interested in world’s best-practices of engaging domestic civil society actors in foreign policy statecraft.