Logics of narrative and networks in US public diplomacy: Communication power and US strategic engagement

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the evolving concept of power in the rhetorical assumptions warranting US public diplomacy and strategic communication as evidenced in contemporary policy discourse. The shift toward ‘engagement’ across US institutions responsible for international communication increasingly reflects some awareness of how crucial audiences for public diplomacy are organized in relation to the media they consume, and how audiences are connected as networks. These developments may necessitate wholly different forms of persuasive discourse that account for the network context of influence in public diplomacy. The rhetoric of a mediated public diplomacy would account for the changing ecology of international communication, and likewise reflect different conceptions of what is strategically possible: how public diplomacy can accommodate or manage foreign policy objectives.