Introducing the CPD Annual Review

Engaging foreign publics is now essential to a nation’s international relations. This public dimension of diplomacy is not only global in nature, but also involves a multitude of actors and networks. The CPD Annual Review explores the global trends that are shaping the expanding field of public diplomacy.

The CPD Annual Review is based on an analysis of media coverage of events and activities that have public diplomacy implications and impact. It is designed to serve as a guide to better understand the global landscape of public diplomacy. Here, “public diplomacy” broadly refers to a nation’s communication with a foreign population, through institutions and individuals, to advance interests and increase understanding. The CPD Annual Review captures the scope and scale of public diplomacy around the world in 2013, including types of activities and actors involved, both as principals and recipients.

The public diplomacy stories analyzed for this report were sourced from CPD’s PD News collection. Since 2005, CPD has been aggregating English-language news and commentary related to public diplomacy on a daily basis. In 2013, we collected more than 1,500 stories through manual aggregation by our researchers. These stories were then coded and analyzed for this report (see Appendix 1 for details).

The 2013 CPD Annual Review demonstrates that public diplomacy was present in every region of the world, with the United States, China, India, Israel and Russia among the most active countries. Public diplomacy activities concentrated within the functions of Government PD and Cultural Diplomacy. And the global public diplomacy pursuits embodied an interactive, multilateral system.