CPD Research Reads

Check out the latest titles in our signature scholarly series CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy—now with 70 titles since inception—which showcases new research and critical thinking about the study and practice of public diplomacy. 

CPD Perspectives is managed by CPD Research Associate Sohaela Amiri with Guest Editors CPD Faculty Fellow Robert Banks and CPD Research Fellow Emily Metzgar. Read each essay via the free downloads below for the latest deep-dive explorations in public diplomacy.

Solving the Public Diplomacy Puzzle—Developing a 360-degree Listening and Evaluation Approach to Assess Country Images

By Diana Ingenhoff & Jérôme Chariatte

November 2020

Ingenhoff and Chariatte develop an innovative, multimethod approach that allows practitioners to strategically analyze how public diplomacy communication and publics contribute to the formation of country image. To illustrate the use of this approach, the authors highlight what key components shape the Swiss country image across five different countries: Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Scaling Paradiplomacy: An Anthropological Examination of City-to-City Relations

By Jennifer Hubbert

December 2020

Hubbert argues that with the expanding role of cities in diplomatic practice, the traditional analytical methods of international relations research would benefit from new methodologies and conceptual inputs to make sense of the growing shift to city diplomacy. Specifically, she looks to both understand the relationships city diplomacy actors form with broader institutions and power structures, while also looking in depth at what constitutes a city more generally. By doing so, Hubbert does not aspire to discuss any one  policy or outcome but instead reflects on the overall process and methods for the analysis of city diplomacy.

Building an Impact Evaluation Toolbox based on an Arts and Soft Power Ecosystem

By Ian Thomas

December 2020

Thomas features a new conceptual framework that allows public diplomacy practitioners to better measure the impact of soft power and public diplomacy activities. Thomas argues that practitioners view soft power not as a linear process, but as an ecosystem with multiple feedback loops in which the exchange of ideas, people and culture have impacts both within and outside the ecosystem. He hopes to provide an overarching soft power measurement framework to bridge the gap between the quality of data available to public diplomacy practitioners and the effective use of this data in policy implementation and practice.

Singapore and Public Diplomacy

By Alan Chong

June 2021

Chong positions public diplomacy as a field of practice and study often premised upon issuing propaganda over the heads of target governments with the aim of endearing one’s government and its policies directly to a foreign population. He examines the prehistory and history of public diplomacy in Singapore to suggest that non-state information campaigns are precedents to project identity and political causes. Implications on how post-1965 Singapore projects its soft power through people-to-people dimensions are discussed.

Museum Diplomacy: Parsing the Global Engagement of Museums

By Sascha Priewe

August 2021

Prize discusses museums as significant actors in public and cultural diplomacy and examines their various international networks as participants in diplomatic activity. Priewe recognizes the agency and potential of museums as diplomatic actors in a burgeoning space with renewed scholarly interest in cultural diplomacy.