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Public diplomacy is a term much used but seldom subjected to rigorous analysis. This article-which draws heavily on a report commissioned by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the spring of 2007-sets out a simple taxonomy of public diplomacy's components and their interrelationships. These components are (1) listening, (2) advocacy, (3) cultural diplomacy, (4) exchange, and (5) international broadcasting. It examines five successful and five unsuccessful uses of each individual component drawing from the history of U.S., Franco-German, Swiss, and British diplomatic practice. The failures arise chiefly from a discrepancy between rhetoric and reality. The final section applies the author's taxonomy to the challenges of contemporary public diplomacy and places special emphasis on the need to conceptualize the task of the public diplomat as that of the creator and disseminator of \"memes\" (ideas capable of being spread from one person to another across a social network) and as a creator and facilitator of networks and relationships.

The United States has a long history of deploying new technology as a mechanism for public diplomacy (the conduct of foreign policy by engagement with foreign publics) but it was relatively slow to make full use of the on-line technologies known as Web 2.0. This essay reviews the early work of the US Information Agency (1953–1999) in the field of computer and on-line communications, noting the compatibility of a networking approach to USIA's institutional culture. The essay then traces the story forward into the work of the units within the US Department of State which took over public diplomacy functions in 1999. The article argues that this transition deserves a large part of the blame for the difficulty which the risk-averse State Department displayed in embracing first the web and then the full range of qualities associated with Web 2.0. The State Department has emphasized one-way broadcast media rather than two-way relational media and functions connected with listening and exchange diplomacy were subordinated to advocacy. The essay also notes the challenge of a non-diplomatic agency—the Department of Defense—playing a dominant role in digital and other forms of outreach at some points in the process. The essay ends by noting the recent evolution of the State Department's approach to digital media and the emergence of a non-governmental model for American digital outreach (known by the acronym SAGE) which may overcome many of the institutional limits experienced thus far and provide a way to bring together the relational priorities of the New Public Diplomacy with the relational capacities of Web 2.0 technology.

A healthy journal is a living thing that grows and flourishes in symbiosis with the scholarly community that it serves. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy is an excellent example of this. The journal has evolved since its foundation in 2004 most obviously be acquiring the back end of its title in 2007. The broadening of scope reflected a policy realm in which issues of reputation were plainly seen as more than just a matter for marketers and the promotion sector, but rather necessarily required attention to wider issues of foreign policy and its engagement with foreign publics. My experience of the journal as a contributor and in due course one of its editors (2011–2019) has been that of a valued platform for ideas. In preparation for this special issue, I set myself the task of re-reading my own contributions to that platform. In so doing, I have noticed not only that they provide a cross section of the evolution of our field, but also that the existence of the journal shaped that evolution in important ways.

The second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, co-edited by two leading scholars in the international relations subfield of public diplomacy, includes 16 more chapters from the first. Ten years later, a new global landscape of public diplomacy has taken shape, with major programs in graduate-level public diplomacy studies worldwide. What separates this handbook from others is its legacy and continuity from the first edition. This first edition line-up was more military-focused than this edition, a nod to the work of Philip M. Taylor, to whom this updated edition is dedicated. This edition includes US content, but all case studies are outside the United States, not only to appeal to a global audience of scholars and practitioners, but also as a way of offering something fresher than the US/UK-centric competition. In Parts 1–4, original contributors are retained, many with revised editions, but new faces emerge. Parts 5 and 6 include 16 global case studies in public diplomacy, expanding the number of contributors by ten. The concluding part of the book includes chapters on digital and corporate public diplomacy, and a signature final chapter on the noosphere and noopolitik as they relate to public diplomacy. Designed for a broad audience, the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy is encyclopedic in its range and depth of content, yet is written in an accessible style that will appeal to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This article examines the history of public diplomacy and identifies seven lessons from that history. These are: (1) public diplomacy begins with listening; (2) public diplomacy must be connected to policy; (3) public diplomacy is not a performance for domestic consumption; (4) effective public diplomacy requires credibility, but this has implications for the bureaucratic structure around the activity; (5) sometimes the most credible voice in public diplomacy is not one's own; (6) public diplomacy is not ‘always about you’; and (7) public diplomacy is everyone's business. The article considers the relevance of these lessons for ‘the new public diplomacy’, which have emerged over the last decade. Cull concludes that this new public diplomacy era has opened up fresh possibilities, but has not erased the relevance of the history of public diplomacy. On the contrary, the lessons of the past seem even more relevant in an age in which communications play an unprecedented role.

This article provides an over-view of Nordic contributions to the field of public diplomacy, examining the historical appearance of such constituent practices as listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange, international broadcasting and an awareness of soft power. The Nordic approach is contrasted with that of the United States. The piece ends with a consideration of the Nordic experience of the so-called New Public Diplomacy approaches including use of on-line media and memes.