Public Diplomacy in theory and practice: culture, information and interpretation in Australian-Indian Relations

A Two Day International Conference

Venue: International Centre
Dates: 8-9 April 2011

Public Diplomacy is rapidly becoming the focus of government initiatives, including those by Australian and Indian governments. It is also an expanding field of activity, with both state and non-state actors seeking to communicate with publics overseas. At the same time, public diplomacy is becoming recognised as a multidisciplinary field of study, logically suggesting conceptual links to several disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.

There remains a fundamental tension, in approaching the task of public diplomacy between those who see it as a new tool with which to manage relationships conceptualised in traditional ways, and those who see it as an opportunity to enlarge the bases of international relationships. The former group sees public diplomacy largely as a form of public relations, intending that certain images are maintained and that negative images might be countered; and the enlargers tend to see it either in the conext of ‘soft power’ assumptions about new modes of exercising influence, or a more liberal notion of relationships between nations benefiting from a rich context of exchange.

How does this depiction stand up against current thinking and initiatives? Given the need for breadth and multiple layers of tissue in a growing relationship, especially one that has been shown to be vulnerable to sudden shocks, it is also time to explore the significance of public diplomacy in the Australian-Indian relationship, both past and present. Our starting proposition is that not only have Australian and Indian acts of public diplomacy been more significant than realised for the Australian-Indian relationship, but Australian and Indian scholars are well-placed to offer insights from regional and bilateral perspectives.

Read more about Building a richer relationshop between India and Australia

Coordinators:
Prof. David Lowe, Director, Alfred Deakin Research Institute and Dr Amit Sarwal, Department of English, Rajdhani College, New Delhi.

Contact:
For more information, please contact: Mr David Das, Senior Manager (India), Deakin India Office, E-mail: david.das@deakin.edu.au and Ph. No. 9811180725.