Pathways for the Future of Evaluation in Public Diplomacy

The latest issue of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy is an article about Evaluation practices in Public Diplomacy by CPD Research Fellow Alexander Buhmann & co-author Erich J. Sommerfeldt.

In "Pathways for the Future of Evaluation in Public Diplomacy," Buhmann and Sommerfeldt present their findings after interviewing 25 individuals with professional experience in the public diplomacy sector, seeking to shed light on the various challenges public diplomats face regarding evaluation. The authors identify main themes that had commonly arisen throughout their conversations and target various approaches that may serve to be effective in improving PD evaluation practice. .

"[O]verlapping and competing approaches to program enactment across the various bureaus and operating locations of the U.S. State Department further complicate the already muddied responsibility of public diplomacy practitioners to prove the value of their work," write Buhmann and Sommerfeldt. "From this arises the need to identify potential and pragmatic solutions to improve the way evaluation is perceived, planned, enacted, and institutionalized, both at the level of public diplomacy research offices and those practitioners who are often shouldered with the responsibility of day-to-day evaluation responsibilities."

Download "Pathways for the Future of Evaluation in Public Diplomacy" here.