Citizens in Foreign Policy

On 8 September 2023 we presented a draft paper “Public Diplomacy in Germany: Engaging the ‘Public’ on Foreign and Security Policy since 1990” (working title) at the 16th EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC). The EISA PEC 2023 was held at the University of Potsdam (Germany).

Our paper seeks to reconstruct public diplomacy by German state actors in the domestic arena during the last three decades. By zooming in on important “focal points” (e.g. Gulf War, Kosovo War, Afghanistan), we are particularly interested in how the meaning of the “public” has developed over time in these activities. The analysis thus tries to contribute to a more differentiated and dynamic understanding of one of the key terms in the field of public diplomacy.

We are very grateful to the discussant Paul Beaumont (NUPI, Oslo) for excellent and detailed comments. We would also like to thank our co-panellists Szilvia Nagy, Misato Matsuoka, Irena Kalhousová, Ali Balcı and chair Tatyana Bajenova as well as everyone in the audience for an insightful and fun session.