Bridging the Theoretical Gap between Public Diplomacy and Cultural Diplomacy Hwajung Kim As public diplomacy has undergone a paradigm shift in the information age, cul- tural diplomacy remains loosely defined as a strand of public diplomacy, yet there has been little explanation as to why this was so. Rather, cultural diplomacy has been underestimated in recent diplomatic activities. The combination of new public diplomacy and soft power has become the formula for how international cultur- al exchanges and programs work in contemporary diplomatic activities and has brought a new perspective on arts and culture as a means of soft power. The present study aims to uncover the missing pieces in cultural diplomacy as a subset of new public diplomacy and delves into what complicates the definition of cultural diplomacy. The study concludes that new cultural diplomacy should be considered as an intersectional concept of new public diplomacy and international cultural relations. Key Words: public diplomacy, soft power, cultural diplomacy, international cultural relations ince the 9/11 terrorist attacks, public diplomacy has become a strong foreign Spolicy tool for mutual understanding through two-way communications. Public diplomacy addresses foreign publics and thereby increases the soft power of a state. Despite public diplomacy having distinct origins in the United States, many countries have started paying enormous attention to public diplomacy as a key part of diplomatic practices to strengthen their own soft power. Thus, public diplomacy has spread throughout the world from Latin America to Eastern Europe and Asia as a means of capturing the hearts and minds of foreign *Hwajung Kim([email protected]) is a lecturer on public diplomacy at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University. She received her Ph.D. from Ewha Womans University in 2016, receiving the best doctoral thesis prize from the university. Her research interests include soft power and cultural governance as well as public and cultural diplomacies. This paper reorganizes and rewrites the second chapter of her doctoral dissertation, “Effective Public-Pri- vate Partnerships in Cultural Diplomacy: A Case Study of Germany and South Korea.” The Korean Journal of International Studies Vol.15, No.2 (August 2017), 293-326 http://dx.doi.org/10.14731/kjis.2017.08.15.2.293 Ⓒ 2017 The Korean Journal of International Studies The Korean Journal of International Studies 15-2 | 294 publics. Furthermore, as public opinion has started to have an impact on foreign policy decision-making, publics have been gaining interest in foreign affairs and diplomacy. There has been an emergence of a broader literature in the field of foreign policy and more generalized insights from practitioners and about publics. Today, public diplomacy is hotly contested not only by scholars and practitioners but also by diverse actors from the general public. The term ‘public diplomacy’ has been widely used since the First World War, and it has been referred to as publicly-brokered peace covenants or the propaganda of the Cold War. Education, arts and cultural exchange programs and international broadcasting were the main tools for conducting public diplomacy, and individual governments spent large amounts of money particularly on education and cultural exchange programs up through the end of the Cold War. In the post-9/11 era, definitions of public diplomacy—the so-called ‘new’ public diplomacy—have expressed a strong foreign policy orientation towards mutual understanding, which is reflected in terms such as ‘engagement,’ ‘relationship building’ or ‘two-way communications’ (Melissen 2005). Cultural diplomacy has become a linchpin of public diplomacy with the rise of concern for soft power as globalization—in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life around the world—has been growing for several decades (Kim 2011). There is no doubt about the positive contribution of cultural diplomacy to national image, branding, and social cohesion; thus, cultural diplomacy has been regarded as a subset of public diplomacy by many public diplomacy scholars. However, currently there is no compelling research explaining why this is so. Rather, different views on cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy, and the relationship between the two, complicate our precise understanding of what cultural diplomacy means. For example, ‘engagement diplomacy’ embraces neither public diplomacy nor cultural diplomacy, while ‘contemporary diplomacy’ puts them in different domains. From other perspectives, cultural diplomacy is regarded as either the core of public diplomacy or as a subset of public diplomacy, as previously mentioned. This confusion—at least four different views on the linkages of cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy— comes from the lack of theoretical research, and widens the gap between cultural diplomacy in academia and practice. It blurs where to draw the line between ‘culture for the purpose of flourishing cultural assets, values and identities’ and ‘culture as a means of foreign policy and diplomatic activities.’ Given these circumstances, it is imperative to create a proper conceptualization of cultural diplomacy, which requires more in-depth analysis. This study aims to define this relationship, bridging the gap between public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy by contesting cultural diplomacy as a subset Bridging the Theoretical Gap between Public Diplomacy and Cultural Diplomacy | 295 of public diplomacy, thus contributing to the theorizing on cultural diplomacy with the emergence of globalization and the informational age. Fundamental questions have arisen as to what the historical and contemporary aspects of cultural activities were in international relations in conjunction with a state’s foreign policies and diplomacy, and how the growing attention on soft power has contributed to redefining cultural diplomacy in a contemporary context. Public diplomacy has its roots in international relations (IR), starting with the ‘power and diplomacy’ of realist thought, and further developing into the ‘complex interdependence’ and ‘new institutionalism’ of neoliberalism, and the issues of culture and identity dealt with in constructivism. Yet ironically, cultural diplomacy has not been rigorously studied by IR scholars since the end of the Cold War. In addition, recent scholars in the field of cultural diplomacy are multidisciplinary and have quite scattered views on the subject, rather than drawing from traditional IR theories. This study finds that the most profound research has been conducted by international historians, whose studies have affected scholars in a variety of different fields. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore historians’ points of view on cultural diplomacy, followed by an exploration of perceptions of IR scholars and cultural diplomacy scholars, consecutively. This study does not employ a comparative approach, but attempts to embrace various fields of study to explain why and in what ways cultural diplomacy has been considered as a subset of public diplomacy over time without sufficient theoretical groundings. In exploring these issues, this study begins by examining paradigm shifts in public diplomacy in relation to the theoretical development of public diplomacy, and further explores how soft power and ‘new’ public diplomacy are interrelated. Secondly, this study investigates perspectives on cultural diplomacy from international historians, international relations scholars and cultural diplomacy experts to reveal inconsistencies in cultural diplomacy scholarship as a subset of new public diplomacy. Lastly, this study delves into how soft power can be incorporated into public and cultural diplomacies to conceptually and theoretically explain cultural diplomacy in a contemporary context. PARADIGM SHIFT IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY Public diplomacy’s multidisciplinary conceptualization has been explored in the fields of communications and international public relations, marketing, foreign policy analysis, and diplomatic studies (Gilboa 2008; Gregory 2008; Melissen The Korean Journal of International Studies 15-2 | 296 2013; Sharp 2013). Despite the vast amount of literature on public diplomacy from diverse disciplines, public diplomacy is also criticized for its lack of a theoretical infrastructure (Entman 2008). The multidisciplinary approaches to public diplomacy all tend to focus on public opinion, which results in communicative dimensions of diplomacy. As Melissen states, “Diplomacy has never been able to neglect public opinion” (Sharp 2013, 194). For this reason, British communication and public relations scholars in the 1950s and 1960s tried to include propaganda under the overarching concept of public relations, which was called “bad apples” by public relations scholars who were insisting that public relations was a form of diplomacy (L’Etang 2009, 609). In line with this scholarly debate, Tuch (1990) argued that public relations should be defined and considered in the context of globalization, and Signitzer and Coombs (1992) further develop the linkage between public relations and public diplomacy. Subsequently, scholars in communication studies contributed to the development of public diplomacy by applying the lens of communication to public diplomacy theory and practices (Leonard 2002; Jönsson and Hall 2003; van Ham 2008; Rasmussen 2009; Pamment 2011; Hayden 2013), or by incorporating national branding concepts