Moving from Monologue to Dialogue to Collaboration: The Three Layers of Public Diplomacy

Abstract

For a number of years, commentators and professionals have noted that effective public diplomacy requires that state and private actors communicate with the people of other nations by moving from monologue to dialogue. This article argues that both monologue and dialogue are essential public diplomacy tools and that collaboration is a third layer of public diplomacy that should also be examined. Collaboration, defined in this article as initiatives that feature cross-national participation in a joint venture or project with a clearly defined goal, may in certain instances be a more effective public diplomacy technique than either monologue or dialogue. By examining related social science research, this article seeks to start a systematic examination of the circumstances in which each of these three layers of public diplomacy—monologue, dialogue, and collaboration—is most appropriate.