Engagement is applied in diplomacy as a synonym for a wider range of more specific practices of contact between an international actor and a foreign public, including
public diplomacy, communication and the deployment of
international aid
In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another.
Ai ...
. It is associated with the approach to foreign policy that some have dubbed
smart power. It was the title of a 2008 anthology of essays on the future of public diplomacy published by the UK
Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Since January 2009, it has been widely used by the administration of President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
in the United States. In May 2009, the Obama administration announced the creation of a unit within the
National Security Council responsible for coordinating diplomacy, aid and international communication called the Global Engagement Directive.
Variations on 'Engagement' include 'Strategic Public Engagement', which was first seen in June 2009 in a report by the Washington-based Think Tank
Center for a New American Security
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is a Washington, D.C. based think tank established in 2007 by co-founders Michèle Flournoy, board member of military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, and Kurt M. Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Paci ...
entitled ''Beyond Bullets: A Pragmatic Strategy to Combat Violent Islamist Extremism.''
The term engagement is used in both military and marketing contexts and thus has the advantage for the Obama administration of reassuring . Other terms might imply less neutrality or greater continuity with the approach of previous administration.
[ These points are made in the essay by Professor Nicholas Cull of USC entitled 'Engagement is the new Public Diplomacy]
See also
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Engagement (military)
A military engagement is a combat between two forces, neither larger than a division nor smaller than a company, in which each has an assignor perceived mission. An engagement begins when the attacking force initiates combat in pursuit of its mis ...
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Engagement marketing
Engagement marketing, sometimes called "experiential marketing", "event marketing", "on-ground marketing", "live marketing", "participation marketing", "Loyalty Marketing", or "special events", is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumer ...
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Public diplomacy
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Smart power
References
{{reflist
External links
Cam Simpson, ‘Obama Revamps National Security Posts,’ ''Wall Street Journal'', 27 May 2009
PDF of ''Engagement: Public Diplomacy in a Globalised World'' (UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, 2008)
Kristin M. Lord, John A. Nagl & Seth Rosen, ''Beyond Bullets: A Pragmatic Strategy to Combat Violent Islamist Extremism.'' (Center for a New American Security, Washington DC, 2009)
Types of diplomacy