COVID-19 and Public Diplomacy

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Reuters
La Jornada Maya

Wednesday May 27, 2020

COVID 19 has thrown diplomacy into a state of flux. The diplomatic tools that governments once used to communicate and share information are changing rapidly as technology tries to replace the personal contact that once were the basis for diplomatic discourse.

This is especially true of public diplomacy, which the European Commission defines as “the process whereby a country [or an entity] seeks to build trust and understanding by engaging with a broader foreign public beyond the governmental relations that, customarily, have been the focus of diplomatic effort"
Traditionally, public diplomacy has centered around three pillars: (a) cultural exchanges, in which artists and their products are circulated to foreign countries for audiences to glean messages based on values and vision; (b) academic exchanges, in which academics participate in conferences and round table discussions, bringing knowledge from their home countries to other publics and; (c) people to people contacts, through which people from different countries connect through common interests and values.

All of these elements depend on the interpersonal relationships that COVID 19 is limiting severely. The states that will best manage diplomacy will be those that will take advantage of technology in order to engage in a new form of cultural and academic dissemination.

Virtual conferences bring academics, diplomats, and the public together in a very effective and efficient manner. Personal presence is replaced by the ability to reach potentially millions of people at once and remain online forever.

Embassies and consulates can help domestic universities connect with universities and academics abroad to create the necessary networks.

Cultural products will also have to be marketed differently. Governments face huge costs in managing the pandemic and restarting frozen economies, and few if any will have the funding necessary to support traditional cultural diplomacy. International tours by symphony orchestras, operas, or dance companies will be fewer and farther between.

Cultural products will have to be marketed and shared on-line, and ways will have to be developed to monetize these global digital transmissions to ensure that they both reach broad audiences and project the cultural values of their home countries abroad on the one hand and also create income for artists on the other.

This is the way of the future. Governments and artists must adapt to this new reality if they are to participate successfully in public diplomacy and share their cultural heritage, national values, and meet foreign policy objectives.

Diplomats and cultural officials will have to be trained in the creative use of technology and digital marketing to promote artistic and academic websites and networks in their countries of accreditation. Foreign ministries, academics, and cultural organizations will have to work together to create the national “brand” that most countries want to develop and market globally.

Culture and academic relations can and do play a fundamental role in bringing wealth to a country, as they can influence consumers abroad to develop a trust in and appetite for a country’s technology, education, and consumer products.

Training producers and consumers is a challenge, but one that must be accomplished by public and private sector organizations if countries and their academic and cultural products are to remain competitive in a global environment.


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Edition: Enrique Álvarez