Assignment 4: Public Diplomacy/ Hughes resigned from her job

Lamiae Mejjane
Question:
Please read BIOGRAPHY of Karen P. Hughes, who initiated a number of innovations and institutional changes in the conduct of America Public Diplomacy.
Please define the following terms: soft power, public diplomacy, propaganda and write why Hughes has resigned from her job.
Answer: Karen P. HUghes introduced a number of institutional changes in the American public diplomcacy. In fact, among the innovations initiated by her were the introduction of educational programs aiming at giving a 'face to American foreign policy' by giving the opportunity to the outside world to get in touch with the American culture, values, etc. Also, other programs such as facilitating the acquisition of American visas by people from Iran or Afghanistan in order to continue their studies in the USA constitute a step towards ameliorating the image the USA has among Muslim countries in the Middle East, especially after the terrorist attacks. The work of Hughes consisted upon visiting for example Middle Eastern countries, listening to some people's views, opinions, needs, etc in order to formulate policies based on these needs, perceptions, etc. this face to face type of communication is essential in Public Relations in order to get the feedback of the audience, know its opinion, gain credibility, and then formulate policies based on the interest of the people. This new form of diplomacy (different from the old perception of diplomacy which involved only diplomats, coming from the elite classes, discussing with each other, without taking into consideration the needs and interests of the people. Hughes has resigned from her job due to the fact that she could no longer work efficiently with the Bush policy aiming at misleading the people by telling them the truth, which is the opposite of what a PR professional should do. Ethics are important to gain people support, credibility, etc
Public Diplomacy: a new form of diplomacy. The general people get an important role in this new form of diplomacy (at the opposite of the elite in the past). Public Diplomacy is a form of Public Relations where an individual has to promote an institution, a person (a political leader for instance) or an ideology. Public Diplomacy is done to win the support of the general population, influence public opinion internationally, and make the people believe in what seems to be the truth for the PR professionals
Soft power, originally named by Joseph Nye, is the contrary of military power (the use of force during war for instance). SOft power is the use of persuasion techniques, rhetoric in order to shape the people's minds and ideologies based on the interest of the people doing soft power. Soft power is used by democratic states which do no longer believe in the importance of using military force to gain a war.
propaganda was highly used by authoritarian regimes under Hitler, stalin for instance. It is the use of communication channels, through known persuasive or manipulative techniques, in order to shape or alter public opinion. Unlike public diplomacy or PR(based on telling the 'truth'), prpaganda relies on lies. George Orwell Novel (1984) is an example of a state where propaganda is highly used during the period of war in the SOviet Union (exactly in 1948) where political leaders brainwash the public in order to reject any form of resistance.