Experimental methods in public diplomacy

Abstract

Public diplomacy (PD) as a field of study lacks both theoretical and methodological depth. Although a wide range of methodology is used to study the field, case studies, surveys, and content analyses are the most frequently used. While these methods are necessary to study PD, they lack the ability to establish a causal relationship between variables. A lot of attention in PD scholarship is now on digitalization and the use of social media in PD. Similarly, a significant portion of scholarship is devoted to analyzing PD messages. This article argues that experimental methodology is an important but under-utilized tool for scholars in the field. Controlled experiments are believed to be the best method to determine cause-and-effect relationships among variables. The article aims to help scholars of the discipline conduct controlled experiments that further their understanding of PD campaigns and messages. It does so by detailing experiments as a methodology, indicating what type of research questions can be answered by this approach and how to carry out an experiment.