Public diplomacy push planned for foreign policy

After introducing Turkey's policy of zero problems with neighboring countries in recent years, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is preparing to launch a major initiative to effectively use public diplomacy in the international arena in line with Turkey's foreign policy goals. Employed by leading world powers such as the US, Britain, Germany, France and China as an influential foreign policy tool to expand their international clout, public diplomacy means a diplomacy focusing more on communication-based activities towards foreign publics to gain their support for a particular foreign policy goal. Unlike classical diplomacy, which is limited to formal contacts between diplomats, public diplomacy helps a state tell about its policies to foreign audiences through mass media, the Internet, non-governmental organizations and opinion leaders to engage, persuade and attract their cooperation. Public diplomacy also aims to establish and foster relations based on mutual trust and understanding with foreign publics in the long run, thus helping to defuse prejudices and misconceptions on the initiator nation. In a sense, it is the management of perception of foreign or domestic audiences on a particular foreign policy goal, and tries to amend distorted, biased and baseless perception of a country, its culture and policies. Public diplomacy is also used to convince domestic audiences to support a particular policy. The Foreign Ministry is planning to implement its major public diplomacy plan starting early next year by doing necessary structural organization work and financial allocation.