New Public Diplomacy and non-state actors

 

Traditionally, countries raced to build better militaries and powerful economies to race to become the most powerful, however in the information-oriented aged of today, power politics is about whose story or narrative is accepted by the international community. countries today tend to struggle to increase their credibility by promoting their own agenda or narrative over that of their rival country or organisation. The role of non state actors has increased greatly in the recent years. international organisations and multi national corporations have totally transformed the way public diplomacy was carried out in the past. This is due to the fact that the international organisations have greater access to audiences in other countries therefore these organisations play a vital role in public diplomacy today.

The ability of non-state organizations to use their networks to access the foreign audiences has led this form of diplomacy to be named as the ‘new public diplomacy.’ New public diplomacy is more than just promotion campaigns and governmental communication with foreign publics. It is about creating bonds with civil society members of other countries as well as facilitating the creation of networks between domestic non-governmental parties and foreign ones.The members could include heads of large private companies, trade organisations and other industries.

New public diplomacy also suggests aiming government policy at enhancing and becoming part of such networks created by these organisations rather than opposing it. The transformation of public diplomacy into the new public diplomacy signified that interaction with foreign publics was no longer one way. This meant that publics were now part of the communications. In recent years, countries have increasingly relied on soft power to win create a better environment in other countries for foreign policy to be carried out. Soft power means using the power to influence other countries instead of using force.   For example the series of standoffs between the governments and their publics in the middle east saw a crucial role played by Facebook, twitter and other social networks.

In todays era, hard power alone is not a solution to ending international or domestic conflict and soft power associated with the new public diplomacy will have an increasing role to play in the future. For example the most important international issue today is the fight against terrorism and in order to address is properly, winning hearts and minds is a vital step. As globalisation increases, so does the connectivity between people worldwide with the creations of new networks such as the internet, email, cellphones etc. Non state actors have an increasing role to play in international relations in the years to come.