Public Diplomacy in the Public Sphere
Toward a Theoretical Framework on Meaning Contestation of Foreign Policy
Keywords:
Public Diplomacy, Public Sphere, Habermasian Theory, Communicative Action, LegitimacyAbstract
This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding public diplomacy (PD) through the concept of the public sphere as an arena in which foreign policy messages are contested, negotiated, and legitimized. The central argument is that existing PD scholarship remains sender-centric, treating PD as a strategic communication process designed and dispatched by states, without sufficiently analyzing the dynamics of the receiving sphere in target societies. The article contends that the public sphere is not a neutral conduit through which messages flow, but a structured arena with power dynamics, discursive logics, and competitive processes that systematically determine the fate of those messages. The article also identifies a fundamental theoretical tension at the core of public diplomacy between communicative action as the normative foundation of the Habermasian public sphere, and strategic action as the logic driving public diplomacy as a foreign policy instrument. This article argues that this tension constitutes the primary theoretical problem that PD scholarship has yet to adequately address. To address this theoretical gap, the article proposes a conceptual framework organized around three analytical dimensions: (1) power asymmetry governing who can effectively speak and be heard in the target public sphere; (2) frame competition through which actors contest the meaning and legitimacy of foreign policy messages; and (3) legitimation processes that determine whether messages gain or lose social acceptance in the receiving society. Together, these three dimensions provide a systematic set of analytical tools for explaining why the same PD message succeeds in some public spheres and fails in others.
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