Larry D. Lauer

“There is some confusion about the definition of public diplomacy. Some in government see it as government communicating directly with foreign publics. But many outside government see it mostly as people-to-people communication, the kind of communication that can result from tourism and foreign study.” 

Because I see international higher education as pure public diplomacy, I clarify my use of the term with my students in this way. Much of the confusion in the US is because there has not been a central home for public diplomacy since the Clinton administration. Before that, the United States Information Agency (USIA) was the home for people-to-people public diplomacy. It was separate from the state department and therefore enjoyed the credibility of not being associated with US foreign policy. But when president Clinton ended the agency and put the function inside the state department, that independent credibility was lost.

The potential of public diplomacy for the US is to demonstrate “the idea of America” independent of the complications of current foreign policy. A people-to-people approach demonstrates how individual freedom and human tolerance works on a day-to-day basis. The focus becomes conveying democratic values directly through real-life experiences.

Today this kind of public diplomacy is carried out by various associations, travel groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) such as Sister Cities International. The University of Southern California’s (USC) Center for Public Diplomacy is a higher education leader in exploring the possibilities of this broader people-to-people approach.

Some of my colleagues are more comfortable using the term “soft power” when describing the potential of international higher education. For them it seems to avoid some of this confusion. So I now use both terms. But whatever the term, the potential of the globalization of higher education to bring about greater cultural understanding, to educate true global leaders, and to harness university research expertise to solve world problems, is enormous.