Five Things I Learnt at the ISA

Darryl Copeland has already posted about PD at ISA in Montreal last week but here’s five things that I learnt

1. A lot of the PD panels at ISA were sponsored by the Diplomatic Studies Section rather than by International Communication and I think that this points to the growing impact of the Diplomacy/Public Diplomacy fusion on both practice and academic perspectives. Jan Melissen made the comment (based on his work in diplomatic training) that the younger generation of diplomats ‘get it’ – you no longer have to explain what PD is and why it matters.

2. There were several interesting papers on the domestic aspects of PD – for instance on UK counter radicalization efforts that link the UK and Pakistan, or the domestic elements of campaigns for NATO membership.

3. There was an interesting panel on PD and the EU which pointed to the fact that PD is not just something that the EU tries to do externally but is a tool used by members inside the EU.

4. The American colleagues are increasingly sceptical about US international broadcasting.  The view was expressed on several occasions that the money given to the BBG might be better spent on other activities.

5. A fair amount of head scratching over the question of evaluation – but I’ll come back to this in a separate post.