Applied Public Diplomacy: A Marketing Communications Exchange Program in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In late 2003 through 2004, the Saudi American Exchange conducted an exchange program, the Formula 1 Global Marketing Challenge. This program is presented in this article as an example of applied, grassroots public diplomacy; a program that facilitated intercultural communication between Arab and U.S. graduate and undergraduate students. The Formula 1 Challenge is described as a structured set of activities leveraging both online and in-person collaborative exercises focused explicitly on establishing mutual understanding of culturally grounded communication and media consumption practices. The program is argued to reflect a possible alternative conception for public diplomacy as a state-centric, media-driven set of policies—and reflects a public diplomacy exercise that embodies dialogue-oriented activities called for in normative prescriptions for U.S. public diplomacy.

The Identity of University Social Responsibility on the Websites of the Universities of the Autonomous Region of Madrid (Spain) and the State of Puebla (Mexico), As a Tool of Grassroots Public Diplomacy

“…In this way, how there is in use the university social responsibility (USR), it can give tracks on the behavior of the universities and the opportunities to generate networks with target publics. We can observe the results of the grassroot public diplomacy in the educational sector with the experiences realized by Gregory Payne and HRH Prince Faisal F. Al Saud (Hayden, 2009) for Saudi American Exchange, and by Gregory Payne, Efe Sevin, and Sara Bruya (2011) for the town of Rosarito Beach in Baja, Mexico.…”

The Influence of International Education Experience on Host Country-Related Outcomes: An Analysis of Chinese Students’ Relationships with South Korean Universities

“…For example, studies have shown that the permanent presence of U.S. universities in the region has become an effective U.S. soft power asset, nurturing future Arab leaders who favor American values, such as free speech and democratic systems. Hayden [45] also showed how a Saudi American Exchange program facilitated intercultural communication and mutual understanding through in-person collaboration between Arab and U.S. students. Thus, educational/professional exchange programs are often considered as an important player for building relationships between the U.S. and the rest of the world [46].…”

Branding Korea as My Friend s Country : The Case of VANK s Cyber Public Diplomats

“…While state-centric perspectives regard the realm of public diplomacy as exclusive to state agencies (Golan 2015;McDowell 2008), some recent articles tend to define (public) diplomacy based on practices (Henders and Young 2016;Henrikson 2013;Kelley 2014;Scott-Smith 2014) or objectives (Gregory 2008b;La Porte 2012). Ayhan (in press) brings together the latter two approaches and argues that non-state actors can be regarded as actors in public diplomacy if they are institutionalized at least to some extent (La Porte 2012); the initiative has intentional (Gregory 2016;Scott-Smith 2008) and political (Hayden 2009; La Porte 2012) public diplomacy objectives that are connected to foreign policies (Byrne 2016;Cull 2013; Rasmussen 2010) for public interests rather than private interests (Castells 2008;Gregory 2016;Ronfeldt and Arquilla 2007); they employ communication with estranged publics (Der Derian 1987;see also Constantinou 1996) as a primary tool (Jönsson and Hall 2003;Rasmussen 2009…”