International Trust and Public Diplomacy

Kirsten Mogensen, an associate professor at Roskilde University in Denmark and an alumna of the CPD Summer Institute, has published a new essay on the intersection of public diplomacy, people-to-people communication and international trust building. The essay International Trust and Public Diplomacy, appeared February 13, 2015 in the International Communication Gazette. Mogensen’s piece explores the tenuous relationship between trust and messaging through the lens of four recent public diplomacy cases: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s letter in The Washington Post, the British Council’s activities in China, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s letter in The New York Times, and the US’s engagement in Turkey. The article concludes with an analysis of trust building activities aimed at foreign publics and foreign governments, and a reminder that successful public diplomacy practitioners must be able to understand the wants and needs of their audience. 

The article is available here.