British Diplomat Offers Advice on Approaching Public Diplomacy

British Diplomat Nic Hailey explained the current British model of public diplomacy abroad to an audience at Harvard Kennedy School on October 8. Hailey, the counselor of Political, Press and Public Affairs at the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., discussed how British public diplomacy has changed to keep up with 21st century demands and how others can apply the theory in practical ways.

“All of diplomacy – public diplomacy included – is about building up the power to influence,” said Hailey, addressing the core of the subject.

According to Hailey, the UK’s approach to public diplomacy includes removing a wall between public and private diplomacy; knowing key players thoroughly by listening as much as talking; not focusing heavily on nation branding; building the right team; and building credibility through transparency.

“Some diplomacy will always be secret because there will always be things that you need to do behind closed doors,” he said. “But, what I’m doing privately, secretly, needs to be consonant with what I’m saying publicly. If I’m privately, as a nation, suppressing minorities and doing bad things and torturing people and then publicly, as a nation, saying that ‘I am the beacon of human rights’, people will just laugh at me.”

Hailey said that there are hundreds of elements that influence a nation's image - from television series to celebrities to history and tradition - that trying to change needle on how a nation is viewed for the sake of it is not the right approach. He argued that by focusing on nation-branding, diplomats are overlooking what is fundamentally important and what makes an impact: "It is about trying to identify the policy areas where we most want to influence the country we’re working in. You need to pick what really matters to you policy-wise and then work out how public diplomacy can contribute to that.”

He advised the audience that there are four key practical elements to consider in public diplomacy: Using the nation’s voice; use of media tools; integrating communication; and openness.

Hailey admitted that coming to grips with 21st century Web 2.0 platforms and the options they create has been as hard for the government as it has been for big business. He also advised the audience that communications areas in public diplomacy offices must all integrate. Web, print, PR, internal and polling communications can no longer remain in separate silos; they must merge into one team.

“That may seem self-evident, but I think public diplomacy practice in many nations for a while has been rather siloed bureaucratically all in different bits,” said Hailey. “You need to think about these as an integrated set of tools and you need to include internal communication in that because any company will tell you that the most important factor in its influence is what its own staff say about it. The same applies for diplomats.”

Hailey spoke at the invitation of the Public Diplomacy Collaborative of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation.