NATO and Public Diplomacy: Opportunities and Constraints of 21st Century

The main objective of this paper is to explain and interpret the evolution of NATO’s public diplomacy efforts in terms of the opportunities and limitations of today’s globalized environment. Public diplomacy refers to the efforts of states and non-state actors to better explain their values to the world. It concentrates particularly on “soft power” tools, such as science, art, culture, sports and media that enable interaction between societies. Because NATO is widely associated with security and defense issues, it is important to understand how it responds to the developments of today’s diplomatic trends with its own public diplomacy and communication activities. As technology continues to change and evolve, NATO’s communication strategies have faced new types of networks and platforms. Now celebrating its 72nd anniversary, the Alliance seeks to embrace and implement a contemporary communication policy with new mechanisms. Within this framework, this paper will provide a definition of the concept of public diplomacy, and explore the historical evolution of NATO’s public diplomacy agenda. NATO’s coordination activities and values, practical means of communication and their expected impact will be discussed.