This December, a group of seven graduate students from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles will embark on a journey to India. We will be in New Delhi and Mumbai meeting with a range of stakeholders interested in how this global player is positioning itself to foreign and domestic audiences.
India is an ever-intriguing case study for scholars and practitioners alike because their public diplomacy program is quite new. India is also exciting to explore because the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs has been mandated to shepherd over track-two diplomacy as well– engaging with domestic as well as foreign audiences. Moving past the government, the Indian nonprofit and private sectors are beginning to play a role in conducting public diplomacy as well.
Issues like poverty, gender equality, and education have long been the domain of NGOs, but increasingly, the private sector is playing a role in tackling them. Corporate social responsibility is growing within India, and the government has been reaching out to Indian communities abroad to strengthen ties. With both sectors dedicated to advancing India, public-private partnerships are being created to accelerate the country’s development.
Our research will thus appraise the role of each of these actors: public, private, and nonprofit, as well as media and academia—and how they create the public diplomacy ecosystem in India. We will survey a wide range of ‘diplomacies’—from cultural to economic to citizen-powered initiatives—to understand how each of these is contributing to communicating the idea of India.
Indian soft power is on the rise, but with so many actors in this game, and so many strategies to choose from, it is even more important now to streamline the message of India abroad. India needs to evaluate what it stands for, the values it would like to share with others, and how to convey that message in an effective and credible way.
With that preface, the objectives of this research trip are:
1. Listen, take notes, and learn what India is really all about.
We’ll ask questions like: How do foreign publics understand India? How does that understanding (or lack thereof) inform policy towards India? How does India proactively communicate itself to the world, and what messages are most clearly being heard?
2. Assess India’s public diplomacy strategy.
Coming in with fresh perspective, we’ll offer our evaluation of what’s working, what’s not, and where future opportunities lie in conducting public diplomacy towards and from India.
3. Explain what public diplomacy means.
Why is a conversation about public diplomacy relevant to India? How can public diplomacy strategies be used to strengthen India’s role as a global player?
We invite your thoughts and questions on our project. Please subscribe to stay up to date! Each member of the India: Inside Out team will be writing on our particular research areas before our trip, our impressions of India upon our arrival, and once we’ve delved in, our analysis of what that public diplomacy ecosystem looks like.
– The India: Inside Out team
Great initiative, Maya. Look forward to seeing you guys in India in December. Send me a mail if you need any help from our side.
Navdeep Suri
Navdeep,
Thanks for your accessibility– we’re looking forward to meeting as well. Over the coming weeks, the team will share their views on what we expect to be India’s PD opportunities and challenges. We hope to hear your thoughts, and your colleagues’, on these views, and begin the conversation now. We’ll certainly benefit from your perspective.
Best,
Maya
This looks like a fantastic opportunity for program participants to use their knowledge in a practical setting, and learn more about the field through India’s “public diplomacy ecosystem” [great term].
I have one overarching question:
What will be done with outputs from objective 2?
Am I to understand you will offer your evaluation to the stakeholders? If so: (A) Will this be done in country or after program completion? (B) Is there a mechanism in place to evaluate the reception of your assessments?
Respectfully,
Mallory Hubl
Syracuse University Public Diplomacy
Hi Mallory,
Thanks for your feedback, and we’ll look forward to having you and your colleagues at SU participating in this journey with us, virtually!
The output for the second objective will be a written report that will assess India’s PD strategy based on a few core areas. We are still in the process of determining what that evaluation model will look like, but it will certainly be in place. And yes, we’ll be offering the report to a range of stakeholders, including those we meet with, but also publicly on the site.
In terms of timeline, During our two weeks in India, we’ll be discussing our impressions of the country and sharing our thoughts on the organizations we meet with; we’ll also be inviting questions from our colleagues all over the world, and hope to be able to provide some answers to you. Within a month or so of our return, we’ll have our final report made public.
Best,
Maya
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Hey Congratulations to Mona and all the team of the project. Diplomacy is definitely something we are in need for a better world.
Best,
Rodrigo Torres (Brazil).
I would appreciate any insights you may get into ICT policy in India from your research. This sounds like a fabulous experience – best of luck with it, and enjoy!
Kathy Stershic
Thanks for the good wishes, Kathy, we’re looking forward to our arrival in Delhi next week! I came across this document and thought it might be of interest to you: http://aifde.blogspot.com/2011/11/discussion-new-ict4e-policy.html#!/2011/11/discussion-new-ict4e-policy.html
We may have the opportunity to meet with some of the fellows from the America India Foundation while in Mumbai, so if any of their work is connected to ICT policy, I’ll be sure to keep you updated!
Hi,
Interesting blog. Im an ex annenberg student. Let me know if I can help you in any way while you re down.
take care
Anamika