Exploring the Current Competitive Landscape in Public Diplomacy

Public diplomacy (PD) efforts are understood within the context of their own country, but rarely thought about in terms of a competitive landscape.  Understanding the global PD landscape can help agencies and governments strategically position their PD activities.  Increasingly, countries are using economic strategies to push foreign policy agendas.  This is known as economic diplomacy, or economic statecraft.  The student team participating in this Capstone compared the ways in which the United States government, United Nations (UN), key European governments (focusing on the UK and Germany, with the addition of Turkey), and rising powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China - BRIC countries) use economic statecraft to enhance their respective PD efforts.  The student team developed a recommended “positioning” strategy that will be presented to the client (Booz Allen Hamilton) and US Department of State officials highlighting ways in which the US government could use economic statecraft in their own PD endeavors.  Critical questions to answer include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Who are the US government’s “natural” competitors in economic statecraft and PD activities?   Note: These competitors have been identified above:  UN, UK, Germany, Turkey, and BRIC
• How do these competitors view economic statecraft as a PD tool?
• How do economic statecraft efforts of these competitors impact the PD landscape?
• What recommended activities should the US government pursue in light of this landscape? 
• How can the US government develop a “positioning” strategy by using economic statecraft to realize its PD objectives?