Note: Did the addition of the adjective "public" to diplomacy (which became quite prevalent in the mid-1960s in U.S. governmental circles, then turned into a near-global phenomenon by the beginning of our new century, and today is used the world over (consider, for example, China, India, Korea, Israel, Turkey), lead to a fury of ways to modify the word diplomacy? (Granted "gunboat diplomacy" had long been in existence.)
Today, several "modified" diplomacies have become part the U.S. foreign policy jargon, among them many considered a subset of "public diplomacy": citizen diplomacy; sports diplomacy; fashion diplomacy; celebrity diplomacy; gastrodiplomacy -- the list goes on.
Oh, lest I forget, we have the au courant term "digital diplomacy," the subject of many press reports regarding the cyberspace "information war" with ISIS. DI (I'm surprised if does not yet seem to have been turned into an acronym) is also the focus of academic "conceptual" speculations of is implications/role.
Do note, however, what the ever-reliable (?) Wikipedia says about "panda diplomacy": "Panda diplomacy is China's use of giant pandas as diplomatic gifts to other countries. The practice existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor." I'd say the practice yes, but not the term.
image from, with caption: Giant panda in the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
My own minor contribution to the creation of a new diplomatic expression -- "pubic diplomacy" -- did not appeal to the wordmakers of the world, although it not infrequently appears as a typo in the press and (as I know from professional experience) in some U.S. Embassy internal memoranda.
And at least pubic diplomacy does make people with a sense of humor snicker or even laugh.
The term "cultural diplomacy" seems to have been used by the U.S. government beforepublic diplomacy became part of its official vocabulary by the 1970s.
Below my recent Facebook entries on adjectival modifications of diplomacy -- which perhaps have diluted the word "diplomacy" to an extent that it has lost, arguably, most of its original meaning.
Sir Harold Nicolson would not have been pleased by how his cherished profession -- diplomacy -- is being redefined by the addition before it, in a verbal construction, of words he doubtless would consider superfluous, if not vulgar.
Indeed, some, perhaps without a sense of humor, have called "public diplomacy"an oxymoron.
News Feed
So, this happened :)) "Emoji #diplomacy? DFAT asked about Julie Bishop's use of a red-faced emoji to describe #Putin"
So, this happened :)) "Emoji #diplomacy? DFAT asked about Julie Bishop's use of a red-faced emoji to describe #Putin"
John Brown
And now we have ... :
‘To me it looks like an opportunity for the minister to do 11 profile stories about fashion diplomacy’.
Australia will have fashion events in New York, Paris, Istanbul, Jakarta and New Delhi to promote designers and labels.
...See More
And now we have have ... soap opera diplomacy, in Spanish.
Monday, August 31, 2015
"Mrs. diplomacy" in the lady
hwz.ren
Image from, with caption: Zhang Qian and Chen Yi were devoted to China's foreign affairs in the 1950s and 1960s.
Excerpt:
[A] message of friendship between ordinary people. "Mrs. diplomacy is actually part of the public diplomacy." Zhao Jin said, need to be pointed out that, "Mrs. diplomacy" in the lady, including Lady national leaders and senior diplomats, that qualify as a national political representatives officially Mrs. groups. Ms. Chen Yi Zhang Qian, in the history of New China's "Madame diplomacy" had leave an indelible mark. Statistics show that a total of Zhang Qian visited after the founding of New China 21 times, to over 12 countries, during which the delegation had also success has led women to visit Myanmar and Vietnam; in the country, Zhang Qian received many president's wife is the queen and other VIPs, New China's diplomatic vision, especially in terms of Southeast Asia and exchanges remarkable achievements. Zhuo Lin Ms. Deng Xiaoping, then together with Deng Xiaoping at the end of January 1979 to the beginning of February, after the founding of New China to achieve a first visit to the United States of Chinese leaders. Zhao Jin said that, although the Constitution and the law does not define responsibilities and obligations conferred and Mrs. national leaders. ...
