Posts tagged as:

soft power

Canadian Public Diplomacy – Where to?

January 2, 2012

In the previous post, I tried to show that during the 1980s and ‘90s the paradigm for the delivery of Canadian international policy shifted fundamentally. Over the course of those years, there was a deliberate move away from an emphasis on traditional, state-to-state interaction in the direction of public diplomacy (PD). This form of international [...]

Read the full article →

Canadian Public Diplomacy, Then and Now

December 14, 2011

I have recently been reviewing a new book entitled Diplomacy in the Digital Age, which is a collection of essays prepared in honour of Allan Gotlieb, a former Undersecretary of State  for External Affairs and Canada’s ambassador in Washington from 1981-89. It is an absorbing anthology, and contains valuable entries penned in some instances by [...]

Read the full article →

Science Diplomacy: New Day or False Dawn?

June 15, 2011

A few weeks ago in Oslo, Norway, in the company of about 40 other invitees from around the world, I attended an OECD “experts” meeting, sponsored by the Norwegian and German Ministries of Education and Research, on the subject of Science, Technology, Innovation and Global Challenges.
The workshop was predicated upon the shared realization that if  [...]

Read the full article →

A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part III

December 13, 2010

Parts I and II of this series have examined the role and place – or lack thereof – of science and technology in diplomacy and international policy. How do those observations play out in reference to Canada, and, by extension, for members of the international community more generally?
The Canadian case brings many of these issues, [...]

Read the full article →

A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part II

November 29, 2010

Part I of this series examined the relationships – or lack thereof – between diplomacy, science and international policy, and noted the serious image problems which plague all three enterprises. These difficulties have hobbled the practice of science diplomacy, and are compounded by a host of substantial issues, which will be addressed presently. First, however, [...]

Read the full article →

A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part I

November 15, 2010

Readers of Guerrilla Diplomacy will know that in that volume I argue that if development is the new security in the age of globalization, then diplomacy must displace defence at the centre of international policy.
Were policy-makers to accept this formulation, then diplomacy, and in particular public diplomacy (PD), would be placed front and centre in [...]

Read the full article →

Diplomatic Surge? Part I – From buzz to becoming

February 13, 2009

These should be heady days for diplomats. After a long stretch languishing in relative obscurity, the willingness to explore diplomatic alternatives to the use of armed force in the pursuit of international policy objectives has become suddenly, well, fashionable.
The arrival of the Obama administration, and especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President [...]

Read the full article →