Public Diplomacy :: International Relations Global Essays Papers

Public Diplomacy Utilizing more factually driven information than the vast majority of his other chapters, Stevenson’s chapter 14 â€Å"Persuasive Communication† is still error-prone. Discussing the public diplomacy campaigns that have become so prominent this century, Stevenson insists on presenting a negative and cynical viewpoint on a matter that has tremendous potential for real change in the global arena. Referring to public diplomacy and information efforts as â€Å"propaganda† repeatedly, Stevenson divorces himself from judicious and fair-minded reporting, and reveals himself for the hugely partisan scholar that he is. Speaking of the public diplomacy campaigns, Stevenson claims that it is debatable â€Å"whether mass media have mass effects or only limited effects on audiences† (Stevenson 364) and implies the futility of the efforts. In reality, however, public diplomacy campaigns are paramount to international relations and the continued success of the global system. The New York Times ran a special last December on the immense impacts that the United Nations Framework on Global Climate Change could provide. The treaty, signed last year in Kyoto, Japan, required extensive â€Å"public relations† efforts on behalf of the United States and the European Union in order to convince developing nations, like those in Asia and Latin America, of the enormity of the problem that every system and every people on Earth were facing. It is not possible to dismiss this concerted effort on the part of the West to influence the periphery as cultural imperialism, colonialism, dependency revisited, or as any singular cynical argument. The Kyoto treaty was a vital and necessary first step towards a problem that faces every country. The public diplomacy was necessary only because the peripheral states lacked the scienti sts and leading research institutions that the West had employed in order to explore the problem. As a further example of the benefits of public diplomacy, examine the United States’ position on nuclear deterrence. Although admittedly the US triumphs by restricting nuclear proliferation, the rewards are global. Hugely unpopular arms control treaties in the developing world have only been accomplished by the diplomacy initiated by the West. START-4 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) set to be signed into law by the US, Russia, and for the first time, the former states of the USSR, required significant public relations campaigns in order to convince the population of the necessity of arms control.