Research On Mechanism And Path Selection Of Public Diplomacy Maintaining National Security

Currently,as a form of diplomacy,public diplomacy is more classified by states as a cultural and international communication category in the “low politics” field,and lacks beneficial interaction with national security in the “high politics” field.But in fact,public diplomacy can play a role in maintaining national security to a certain extent.At present,most of the existing research in the academic community believes that public diplomacy has a positive significance in maintaining national security,but there is little attention paid on the internal logic and mechanism between them.This paper provides theoretical thinking on the beneficial role of public diplomacy in maintaining national security,and deeply explored the mechanism and path selection between public diplomacy and national security.In terms of research approach,this paper starts with the concepts of public diplomacy and national security,and deconstructs the core issues through theories such as constructivism,post structuralism,and security complexes,this paper establishes an explanatory framework for “conducting public diplomacy-changing audience ideas and cognition/influencing identity-influencing foreign policy preferences-security interaction and feedback”.Based on this explanatory framework,the mechanism of public diplomacy maintaining national security was explored,while the operation,evaluation,and challenges of public diplomacy maintaining national security were analyzed,and path choices were given in response to the challenges.Finally,take the public diplomacy under the “the Belt and Road” initiative to maintain China’s national security as a case to verify the rationality of the above analysis.It considers that the implementing country of public diplomacy can change the idea and cognition of the target audience,influence the identity of the target audience,and exert a certain impact on the foreign policy preferences of the target country by conducting public diplomacy,ultimately,it can feedback to the national security of the implementing country through the security interaction between states within the security complex.It is not difficult to identify the definition of national security that national security includes three dimensions: “relative security state”,“perception and judgment of state”,and “possessing security capabilities”,each of which corresponds to different elements.It is found that public diplomacy can promote some elements of the three dimensions of national security,thereby achieving the goal of maintaining national security.Analyzing the current operational status of public diplomacy maintaining national security requires to set about from its characteristics,methods,and models.Specifically,the characteristics of “implicit”,“soft”,and “indirect” make it necessary to improve the practical efficiency of public diplomacy maintaining national security;the difference between “defensive” and “offensive” means lies in whether the country’s attractiveness,discourse power,and agenda setting ability are strong or not;the different models of “single mode”,“strategic mode”,and “multi-level mode” depend on different public diplomacy subjects,various communication methods,and differentiated target audiences.This paper establishes five core variables in evaluation work based on the action process,and provides an evaluation paradigm.Due to factors such as insufficient comprehensive national strength,low efficiency,and imperfect discourse systems,most countries do not prioritize public diplomacy when choosing means to maintain national security.The paths available to address the challenges of public diplomacy maintaining national security include enhancing comprehensive national strength,adjusting the strategic thought,improving the effectiveness,and creating a discourse system.States can make more efforts to further promote the practice of public diplomacy maintaining national security.The public diplomacy under “the Belt and Road” initiative maintaining China’s national security is in line with the above explanatory framework.By carrying out the public diplomacy,China has improved the target audiences’ ideas and cognition of the “the Belt and Road” initiative and China,affected the identity of people in countries along “the Belt and Road” towards their own country and China,and made the states along “the Belt and Road” show a preference for cooperation in their policies towards China,which further maintains China’s national security.The public diplomacy under the “the Belt and Road” initiative maintaining national security also verifies the mechanism,operation,challenges and path choices proposed in this paper.