The Czech Republic became independent in January 1993, when Czechoslovakia split up into two countries. Since then, the country has developed various strategies, including public and cultural diplomacy initiatives, which main role is to make the Czech Republic more attractive to foreign publics and to enhance its image. This blog will briefly analyze and explain the most successful steps of public and cultural diplomacy in the Czech Republic. It is a small state, and therefore public and cultural diplomacy is “an opportunity to gain influence and shape international agenda in ways that go beyond their limited hard power resources (related to size, military and economic strength)”.[2]
From the institutional point of view, the latest news state “the Czech Foreign Ministry has established a new section of public diplomacy. The public diplomacy section replaced the former section for culture, communication and presentation. It will cooperate with NGOs and the Czech Centres, which promote the country abroad.”[3] The Czech Centres play an important role, for instance in the United Kingdom, “the aim is to actively promote the Czech Republic in the UK by introducing the Czech Republic, Czech culture, and various opportunities to the British public and professionals to support mutual collaboration and exchange ”.[4] Agencies supported by ministries, as well as number of non-governmental organizations have been contributing to improving the image of the Czech Republic. For instance, The National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS), The Arts Institute, and so on. The evidence from number of countries shows that international broadcasting is a very effective tool of public diplomacy. And therefore, the Radio Prague is used to bring near the Czech Republic as such through broadcasting into six languages. The citizen diplomacy is no longer underestimated and since 1997, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Czech Republic has annually awarded the Gratias Agit prize, which is “becoming an ever more prestigious prize for the voluntary activities of people committed to working for the benefit of the whole society, for the promotion of friendship among nations and for the promotion of the good name of the Czech Republic in the world”.[5]
Pic.2: Logo of Czech Centres[6]
The Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2009 seemed to be a great opportunity of nation-branding, selling the image of the country to the rest of the European countries. It certainly enhanced its image. However, the internal domestic affairs have harmed the public and cultural diplomacy of the Czech Republic. During the Presidency of the Council, the continuous and constant instability of the Czech national government influenced the image negatively, as well as the recent events, when the Czech President Vaclav Klaus was caught on camera when ‘stealing’ the pen. This certainly has not helped to improve the image of the Czech Republic. On the other hand, as they say, even negative advertising is still advertising, which makes people to think about the Czech Republic as such.
Vid.: Watch how Vaclav Klaus is ‘stealing’ the pen[7]
To conclude, the Czech Republic, which is a small state, certainly needs a strategic public diplomacy. The reason is that “the smaller powers do not enter the global public discussion unless a crisis or scandal envelops them. It is unfortunate, but these seem to be the events that attract the global media and interest the mass audiences to which they cater. Perhaps it is for this very reason that smaller powers need public diplomacy programs”.[8]
[1] Picture available from: http://www.parcel2ship.co.uk/acatalog/Parcel-Delivery-Czech-Republic.html. [Accessed: 17 May, 2011]
[2] Batora, J. (2006). ‘Public Diplomacy between Home and Abroad: Norway and Canada’. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 54-55
[3] Prague Daily Monitor. (2011). Foreign Ministry sets up public diplomacy section. [Online] Available from: http://praguemonitor.com/2011/02/11/foreign-ministry-sets-public-diplomacy-section. [Accessed: 17 May, 2011]
[4] Czech Centre. About Us. [Online] Available from: http://london.czechcentres.cz/about-us/. [Accessed 17 May, 2011]
[5] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. Gratias Agit Award. [Online] Available from: http://www.mzv.cz/jnp/en/foreign_relations/culture_czechs_abroad/gratias_agit_award/index.html. [Accessed: 17 May, 2011]
[6] Picture available from: http://london.czechcentres.cz/about-us/. [Accessed: 17 May, 2011]
[7] Video available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd_vS01VJZs. [Accessed: 17 May, 2011]
[8] Smith, P.H. (1998): ‘Public Diplomacy’, paper presented to the International Conference on Modern Diplomacy, February 12-15, 1998, Malta. Available at: http://www.diplomacy.edu/Books/mdiplomacy_book/smith/regular/default.html. [Accessed 17 May, 2011]
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