Introduction

Abstract

Public diplomacy has become one of the most widely discussed terms in contemporary political science. Nevertheless, many gaps remain in the literature both in terms of our comprehension of the phrase and in the extent of the case studies under examination. This book is an attempt to improve both these areas. The book argues that rather than designating some governmental activities as “public diplomacy” it is more logical to decide what is, and is not, public diplomacy by researching from the perspective of the recipient foreign public, which is often overlooked by studies positioned at the source of the output. Additionally, by failing to critically examine public diplomacy at its point of reception the researcher rarely questions the concept of the audience, making the assumption that public diplomacy by default concerns foreign publics only. This book argues that we should look beyond such a narrow conceptualization to include wider international audiences and the source’s domestic public, with the evidence from the research heavily supporting this.