CHALLENGES FACED BY PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INTERNAL AND OUTSIDE

Kathy R. Fitzpatrick published "Defining Strategic Publics in a Networked World: Public Diplomacy's Challenge at Home and Abroad" in the 7th issue of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy in 2012 ( In the introduction of his article titled (pp. 421-441), he argues, with reference to Shaun Riordan, a former diplomat, that classical diplomacy will increasingly have to take civil society into account in the 21st Century. This is undoubtedly a correct determination. Ministries of Foreign Affairs and other relevant state institutions have initiated new structures for this purpose in every country and have begun to develop strategies for the societies they have determined as targets.

However, detection should be understood more as a technical requirement in line with the spirit of the time. Public diplomacy activities are affected by difficult-to-solve problems, starting from how to define the publics considered as targets and the means by which to approach them. First of all, it is essential that the principles of strategic public diplomacy be adopted from the very beginning.

The expression "from the beginning" refers to the process that begins with the definition of national interest. After making this definition, every state has to think about how to express its national interest to the outside world. The outside world may interpret your definition of national interest in its own way. But the purpose is to concretize and express that definition as made by you. The next stage in the process is to determine the target, get to know it in every aspect, and decide on which methods to work with. Afterwards, competent people and institutions must step in to implement it. Implementing all these stages one after another within the scope of an interdisciplinary strategy is a must for strategic public diplomacy.