Public Diplomacy as a Passat

Superbowl Sunday is upon us and along with the unbelievable amounts of chips, guacamole, sandwich platters and assorted grilled meats are a flurry of very expensive commercials, oh and of course, football. A personal favorite of the night showed a miniature “Darth Vader” attempting to use the force on various objects in his house. A dog, a doll, laundry machines and a sandwich were left unmoved by mini-Vader’s powers, however, his small yet mighty hands did manage to have an effect on the Passat parked in his driveway.

As I watched this commercial, created to show the best of German engineering, I could not help but let my mind wander to Public Diplomacy. In my quest to exert the force over the somewhat confusing realm of Public Diplomacy, the relationship of soft power and Public Diplomacy has to be confronted. In some ways, it seems that soft power is much like marketing and one could easily change foreign policy goals for sales goals. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. describes soft power as “means getting others to want the same outcomes you want” (Nye 95). In the realm of auto manufacturers, this means using soft power to have customers buy your products. In the realm of foreign policy, this means exerting soft power to have other countries or foreign publics share the same feelings or goals as you do.

Nye further develops his idea of soft power addressing three components of current soft power. “Daily communication,” what and how the government tells the press, “strategic communication,” which focuses on specific policy initiatives and the “development of lasting relationships with key individuals” (Nye 101). Just as VW may control its publicity, or specific policy initiatives, all while establishing lasting contacts with customers and powerful members of different foreign publics, countries can build their appearance. It appears that image is as important to foreign policy as it is in marketing brands. A country’s power does not remain just with its expansive geography, or amount of bombs, but also its image.

However, similarly to auto customers’ opinions, states cannot totally control what other states or publics want. As Peter Van Ham writes, just because one has a vehicle (or a Passat) does not mean one has power. Van Ham relates that power is everything…it is the ability to define the rules of conduct, how the system should be etc. With this in mind, power is also perception-based. As perception is subjective, one person’s idea of power ownership may be different from another. Hocking states that just because one shares a cultural affinity does not mean there will be consensus on everything. (35) Though the United States and the United Kingdom share a cultural affinity for McDonalds and MTV does not mean they will maintain the same foreign policy initiatives. It is this ambiguous nature of soft power, in comparison to the more concrete sense of hard power that makes its inclusion in Public Diplomacy and foreign policy initiatives much more confusing. Unlike Volkswagen, one cannot always use the force to change people’s and governments’ opinions and actions.