Public Diplomacy: Panagiotis Agrafiotis on the Discreet Charm of Press Officers

Public diplomacy [JB emphasis]is a widely and frequently used term that “has been defined so many times over the years by different actors in different nations, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish a singular definition which reflects the broad array of interests and practices associated with it”[1]. The term “public diplomacy” was coined in 1965 by Edmund Gullion, Dean of the Edward Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University[2]. Gullion, who believed that journalists and diplomats had much in common, defined Public Diplomacy as “dealing with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies”, which was further defined as “using modern instruments and techniques of communication to inform large or influential segments of national populations that may even motivate them to a particular course of action”[3]. In other words, Public Diplomacy’s ultim..