Assess the scope and importance of setting up the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs in strengthening India’s Foreign Policy. (2012, 20 Marks)
Public diplomacy, a term coined by Edmund Gullion in 1965, is a state’s engagement with foreign publics rather than governments, aimed at shaping the environment in which other states make policy. Unlike propaganda it is meant to be two-way: to listen as well as transmit. India institutionalised it in 2006 by creating a Public Diplomacy (PD) Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, alongside the older one-way External Publicity (XP) Division.
Why it was set up
- A rising profile: after 1991, high growth and the 1998 tests made India a subject of global interest, and its capacity to explain itself lagged behind.
- Foreign publics as a variable: the Indo-US civil nuclear initiative (2005–08) showed that opinion in partner legislatures, media and think tanks could make or break a policy.
- The information revolution: 24-hour news and social media rewarded speed and narrative.
- Soft power: Joseph S. Nye argued that attraction flowing from culture, values and legitimate policy is a form of power; India had the endowment but little machinery to project it.
Scope of the Division
- Explaining policy: background on decisions, briefings and outreach to foreign and Indian media.
- Engaging the strategic community: sponsoring conferences, lectures and Track II dialogues with scholars and think tanks, including India’s first public-diplomacy conference in Delhi (December 2010).
- Image-building: documentaries, publications and support for cultural and academic exchange, complementing the ICCR.
- Digital diplomacy: the MEA opened its Twitter presence in July 2010, becoming one of the world’s most-followed foreign ministries.
- Domestic outreach: university programmes that built a constituency for foreign policy at home.
In Nicholas J. Cull’s typology (2008) of listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange and international broadcasting, the Division covered advocacy well and listening least.
Importance for foreign policy
- It made foreign publics a legitimate object of policy within a ministry long focused on chancelleries.
- It supported India’s bid to be seen as a responsible, democratic rising power in Washington, Europe and the Global South.
- It created a lasting habit of engaging think tanks and media, aligned with the “new public diplomacy” emphasis on networks and relationships (Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy, 2005).
- It gave institutional form to the argument of Shashi Tharoor (Pax Indica, 2012) that India’s attraction is a strategic asset only if the state learns to tell its story.
Assessment
- Strengths: low cost, a step change in digital reach, and early adoption.
- Weaknesses: a small staff, limited budget and short officer tenures; in practice it leaned towards messaging rather than the dialogue that defines public diplomacy.
- The merger: in January 2014 the PD Division was merged with External Publicity into a single XP and PD Division. This kept transmission capacity but subordinated the relational ambition to publicity, showing that India adopted the tools of public diplomacy more readily than its theory.
- The record since: the International Day of Yoga (2014), Vaccine Maitri (2021), the G20 presidency (2023) and the all-party delegations after Operation Sindoor (2025) show public diplomacy maturing as a practice across government. Yet India ranked only 32nd in the Global Soft Power Index 2026, and its image remains contested in the neighbourhood.
Conclusion
Setting up the PD Division was a correct and significant step: it recognised that a rising power must win hearts as well as governments. Its absorption into External Publicity shows that the function survived while the dedicated institution did not. India’s foreign policy would gain from rebuilding a listening-oriented public-diplomacy capacity, adequately staffed and funded and linked to the ICCR and the diaspora.