Harnessing Communications and Public Diplomacy

Mark Seip, a military fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, has published a new article. His piece, “Harnessing Communications and Public Diplomacy,” appeared January 29, 2016 on the website of the Atlantic Council. The paper consists of two key elements: an overview of today’s information environment and sharing culture, and a series of policy recommendations to “use communications as part of public diplomacy effectively.” Noting that the U.S. State Department’s public diplomacy apparatus has been “largely neglected” since the end of the Cold War, and that the digital landscape has changed profoundly since then, Seip suggests four steps to improve U.S. communication campaigns. His recommendations include: understanding your audience; “finding the mutuality” (of interests, policy objectives, cultural sensitivities, etc) between the audience and the PD actor; creating a space for conversation; and engaging in a dialogue, rather than a monologue. Seip concludes that information-based campaigns are most effective when practitioners can strategically leverage the four core aspects of communication campaigns with state policy goals. The full article is available here. 

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