The Manufacturing of Uncertainty in Public Diplomacy: A Rhetorical Approach

Editors: Surowiec, P. and Manor, I.

Pages: 145-170

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030545529

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-54552-9_6

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the use of rhetorical analysis as a method for understanding how and why public diplomacy efforts might be used to increase uncertainty in publics. As Zaharna and Uysal (2016, 111) note, “much of contemporary PD scholarship is built on the premise or goal of a positive relationship between the state and publics” and the construction of such positive relationships often involves reducing uncertainty in a public regarding what a state stands for and how it can be expected to behave. However, recent changes in the dominant modes of public diplomacy practice undermine the assumption that the reduction of uncertainty regarding a nation’s intentions, cultural character, or even identity will always be a central motivation for public diplomatic communication. In order to examine why the generation of uncertainty might be a legitimate soft power goal we consider public diplomacy as a form of rhetoric. Rhetoric is traditionally performed in environments of uncertainty and seeks to tame or restrict that uncertainty in ways which are convincing for a public. Yet, given its roots in the contingent nature of persuasive communication, there are situations when rhetoric may temporarily increase uncertainty if this serves to defend a particular understanding from alternate or competing ‘truths’. The chapter presents two micro-cases of public diplomacy designed to cause uncertainty in foreign publics, one involving UK communications targeting EU citizens resident in the UK during Brexit and the other focusing on US President Donald Trump’s tweets regarding his nascent plans to buy Greenland.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-54552-9_6#citeas

Source: Manual