Australian Public Diplomacy

In the chapter on Australian public diplomacy in the first edition of this volume (2009), it was remarked that “[i]n some ways Australian public diplomacy is a terra nullius.” This is no longer the case. The author notes the publication of three documents in particular as public diplomacy instruments catalysts that seek to professionalize public diplomacy in Australia in a number of ways necessitated by contemporary world politics, technological, and cultural developments. Australia spells out its role as a “state citizen” of the international rule-based order, a normative power seeking to uphold rules and its own liberal economic and political values that resonate with these rules—a virtuous spread of virtue. Professionalization includes training of personnel, modernizing technological approaches to message delivery and response evaluation, crafting of messages with virtuosity, and disseminating messages about inherent virtues—found in Australia’s modern political culture, its ancient Aboriginal culture and its multicultural community—and in the virtuosity of its peoples’ artistic, scientific, and technological expressions.