Education, Citizenship and New Public Diplomacy in the UK: What is Their Relationship?

Abstract

Global citizenship is a contested concept which is receiving attention in the United Kingdom as a means of contributing to students' understanding of global issues and the rights and responsibilities that they imply. Global citizenship education is criticised as indoctrination by some and considered the best route to global peace by others. This article provides a discussion of its relationship with the concept and practice of cultural relations and specifically the New Public Diplomacy. It is claimed that global citizenship education and the new public diplomacy have some shared objectives, and that a discussion of the one may benefit from a consideration of the other. Furthermore, the aims of the new public diplomacy cannot be met without a clear understanding of global citizenship education, and how it affects those aims. The article considers the relationship of both concepts and concludes that this relationship is important to the theory and practice of each.