For most travellers to Los Angeles, California, the last two weeks in July are prime time for vacationing. Few things could be more compelling than kicking off work shoes, putting on a swimming suit or spending lazy afternoons listening to the ocean waves crashing against the shore. However, for a small group of public diplomacy practitioners from around the world, Los Angeles was a destination for another reason: the University of Southern California (USC) Center on Public Diplomacy launched the Summer Institute: Advanced Training in Public Diplomacy.

Graduates of the first advanced training in public diplomacy: Front, from left: Professors Laurie Brand, Joshua Fouts, Eytan Gilboa, Kelton Rhoads and graduates Raymond Sommereyns and Virginia Stratford. Rear: Wang Jian, Alison Healy, Isabelle Broyer, Horst Rutsch, Stephanie Bunker, Jorge Mora Fernandez, Liang Yu, Patricia Seghers, Pamela Meidell, Melissa Powell, Tyrone Gunnie, Nikolai Rogosaroff, Patrick Hayford. (Two graduates are missing in the picture: Theeta Hotrakitya and Panurit Chamrasromran.) PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, eight UN representatives joined other professionals from the diplomatic, non-governmental and academic fields from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ghana, South Africa, Spain and Thailand in a two-week intensive course, from 9 to 21 July 2006, on public diplomacy. They challenged the definition of public diplomacy and learned a myriad of tools that could be used across diverse fields of practice in international communication.

According to Nicholas Cull, Director of the Master's in Public Diplomacy Program at the USC Center, the term "public diplomacy" was formally coined in 1965 by former diplomat Edmund Gullion, who used it as an alternative for such words as "propaganda" and "public relations"-expressions that generally carried negative connotations associated with blatant lies and spin. Former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld had used the term informally in much the same way as early as 1958. Governments use media and cultural exchange to explain themselves and build better relationships among nations and people.

One institution that is exploring new possibilities in this field is the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, which defines public diplomacy as the way a country strategically and inadvertently shapes its image among the foreign public. "Countries, organizations and individuals practice public diplomacy every day through a wide variety of conduits, such as educational and cultural exchange, international business, foreign policy, tourism, media, sports and entertainment." At the Center, newly developed theories, coupled with an academic compilation of the best public diplomacy practices, have created a unique understanding of this maturing field. "Increasingly, we see the role of public diplomacy as not being the exclusive domain of the State Department, but other non-State actors are factoring into this. The United Nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporations are ever-increasingly playing a role in public diplomacy", said Joshua Fouts, Director of the USC Center.

Participants at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, 2006 Summer Institute

In the last five years, a new kind of public diplomacy has emerged, moving beyond monologue and dialogue to that of collaboration. Not only has the global political agenda shifted during this time but technology and information management have also drastically changed and affected the practice of public diplomacy among Governments, corporations and citizens. Although practitioners may not agree on its exact definition, they can agree on the important role it is playing in the nation-to-nation and people-to-people relations worldwide. "In the world today, we can't underestimate the importance of public diplomacy", said Dr. Cull, adding that it is at the heart of international relations. "However, it is something that is not commonly taught in the diplomatic academies. The accumulated knowledge, the theory and the practice of public diplomacy is not widely disseminated around the field."

Eytan Gilboa, professor of international communication at Bar-Ilan University and a visiting professor at the USC Center, initiated the idea of a summer institute in 2005. "This is the first-ever public diplomacy course planned for officials", he said. "We are covering all the significant fields in public diplomacy, from the traditional areas of international broadcasting and international exchanges through media diplomacy to the newest forms of public diplomacy, such as e-image and cyber-public diplomacy." Taught by professors Cull and Gilboa, with adjunct USC Annenberg School for Communications professor Kelton Rhoads, the Summer Institute presented a methodology of theories and applications, and addressed the models of public diplomacy. Participants then immediately applied that knowledge in simulated group exercises. Topics included nation-branding, where participants planned a major public diplomacy campaign for a developing country; information management, with an exercise that addressed the coordination of a communication crisis after a revelation of secret talks among opposing actors; and media diplomacy, where students developed framed messages on current international events.

"The exercises and the teaching have complemented each other very effectively", said Patrick Hayford, Director at the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. "The teaching has given us an analytical understanding, and the exercises have made us to actually try and put into practice the models we've been given. The exercises have given us very useful, modern tools with which to analyse much of the work we do at the United Nations." Group exercises were enhanced by high-calibre professionals, including UN delegates, diplomats and attendees from NGOs. "Ideas, knowledge and experiences shared in the class, especially by high-level officials with lots of experiences in the field, have built a better and comprehensive understanding about public diplomacy", said Theeta Hotrakitya of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand. "Class interaction and interaction with others are important parts of the course. This partly comes from the variety of participants from different sectors in the foreign affairs community, including international organizations, NGOs, government agencies and embassies."

On the public diplomacy practitioners, Mr. Cull commented : "Many do not have formal training in the field and yet they are finding themselves called upon to be specialists. We opened this two-week course as a way to train those who don't have two years to spend in training." Pamela Meidell, founder and Director of The Atomic Mirror, a California-based foundation that uses creative arts to explain the consequences of the nuclear age and advocate for a nuclear free world, said that she was finally getting the tools to help her understand what she had been doing for the past ten years. "I came into the course really looking at cultural diplomacy. When I encountered the course, it was a different understanding of cultural diplomacy. It gave me a much broader base for understanding what I'm doing."

Countries and companies are relying on employees to communicate with target audiences. Formal training helps officials to better understand the tools available to successfully navigate through international relations and foreign policy. "Public diplomacy is becoming the main instrument of foreign policy, and the media are becoming the main instrument for public diplomacy", said Mr. Gilboa. "I think the demand for both knowledge and training in public diplomacy will increase exponentially."

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy was established in 2003 as a partnership between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations. It is a joint research, teaching and professional training centre dedicated to furthering the study and practice of public diplomacy in the United States and around the world.

(For more information, please visit www.uscpublicdiplomacy.org.)