(A speech delivered by Rep. Jester Ivan O. Ricafrente, Chairman of the Policy Board of The Political Science Forum as Opening Remarks during the conduct of the seminar entitled, “International Public Diplomacy” held on September 12, 2011 at the Continuing Medical Education Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila.)
To our distinguished resource speaker, professors of Political Science lead by our Coordinator and TPSF Adviser, Asst. Prof. Ma. Zenia M. Rodriguez, fellow Political Science students, ladies and gentlemen: Good Afternoon.
According to a Library of Congress study prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate, the term `public diplomacy’ was first used in 1965 by Dean Edmund Gullion. Public diplomacy, in one of its earliest explanation says that it deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies. It also encompasses dimensions of international relations beyond traditional diplomacy; the cultivation by governments of public opinion in other countries; the interaction of private groups and interests in one country with those of another; the reporting of foreign affairs and its impact on policy; communication between those whose job is communication, as between diplomats and foreign correspondents; and the processes of inter-cultural communications.
Hence, public diplomacy is set to shape the communications environment overseas in which the foreign policy of the states is played out, in order to reduce the degree to which misperceptions and misunderstandings that might complicate and endanger the state-to-state relations of one to another. This process is evidently using the power of dialogue in order to have a peaceful status quo that promotes political stability and economic prosperity among nations while closely cooperating to each other.
The use of diplomacy is prevalent and is a powerful tool commonly used by the states to confront their problems affecting them directly or indirectly. This process is continuously promoted by the United Nations, along with its member- states telling one another that in case conflict or dispute may arise, they must go and sit together and employ all peaceful means and deject all breaches to peace and sustainable living. Therefore, forwarding diplomacy is inevitable.
The call to forward the matter at hand has been heeded by The Political Science Forum, because this seminar is set to help us better understand the thresholds of international public diplomacy, to locate the platform where it stands, and to indentify the factors and constraints that continuously challenge public diplomacy. This would be a venue to understand how helpful and vital public diplomacy is, in the field of International Politics. The world of today and the nations of the world must employ this process, method or tool to show their commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security. Our distinguished guest from a very trusted institution, on the other hand, with his professional experience in this field will drive us to this journey of discovering the portals of international public diplomacy.
Our goal now is to acquire the valuable insights that we are to learn in this academic- supplement undertaking and afterwards, when we are about to go to the actual field of professional life, we may be able to remember and apply the lessons from a simple seminar in we had in college.
Thank you and good day!
Ivan Ricafrente 