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ABSTRACT
Israel’s public diplomacy efforts in the U.S. are aimed at garnering American public support for Israeli foreign policy. This study aims to identify the networks of Israeli public diplomacy toward the United States. Using the theoretical frameworks of networked public diplomacy and strategic narrative, the authors try to understand how network strategy is used and information is circulated to create a strategic narrative. Therefore, the two methods of social network analysis and qualitative content analysis are applied to identify the networks of Israeli public diplomacy in the United States and the content produced by it. The study finds that in Israel’s public diplomacy model, the networking method stands in contrast to its government-oriented strategic narrative. Thus, new forms of communication are applied to conduct old strategies. The research identifies four types of actors who apply new public diplomacy techniques and dissects the strategic narrative they employ to affect the American public in the service of Israeli interests. Despite the effort to apply new forms of public diplomacy, strategic narrative production and dissemination remain highly governmental and closed, which is indicative of the persistence of old forms of public diplomacy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Fatemeh Shafiee Sarvestani is Ph.D. in North American Studies. She obtained M.A. in North American Studies and B.A. in English Literature from the University of Tehran.
Saied Reza Ameli is Prof. of Communications and American studies, Department of Communications, Faculty of Social Sciences and Department of American Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran.
Foad Izadi, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran.