Further memorandum submitted by the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
8 November 2002
Over the course of this year we have been looking
at how we can best project the United Kingdom overseas and to
use public diplomacy tools to support policy goals.
A strong and positive image abroad can have
a major impact on our ability to influence others, on the attractiveness
of the UK to investors, tourists, scientists and students, and,
ultimately on Britain's prosperity. We also need to ensure that
our views on controversial issues are widely heard in other countries
not least inside the EU. In the past, we have been too reliant
on traditional government-to-government contacts. We must make
a greater effort to win support overseas from others involved
in the debate on major international issues—the media, NGOs,
pressure groups and public opinion more widely.
Against this backdrop, we launched an internal
review of the public diplomacy activities of the FCO, British
Council and BBC World Service in the spring concluded that the
Government needed an overarching public diplomacy strategy to
provide a framework for collective efforts overseas aimed at projecting
and promoting the UK. It recommended establishing a Public Diplomacy
Strategy Board to develop this strategy and provide a co-ordinating
mechanism for joined-up activity among the main bodies.
The Strategy Board met for the first time in
late October under the chairmanship of Michael Jay. It is due
to meet four times a year. Other Board members include Liz Symons
and representatives from the British Council, British Trade International,
the BBC World Service, the British Tourist Authority, the Department
for International Development and the administrations of Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland. There are also a small number of private
sector representatives—both to ensure that what we are doing
is coherent with the activities of British business and to allow
us to benefit from the best practice available in the private
sector. These include John Sorrell, co-Chair of the former Britain
Abroad Task Force, the work of which has been subsumed by the
Strategy Board.
Among the objectives of the new Board will be
to identify geographical and sectoral priorities for our public
diplomacy work; to help our efforts to become more professional;
and to advise us on the development of a programme of specific
overseas campaigns in key target countries. In 2003, China is
to be the focus of a major UK campaign.
The establishment of the Public Diplomacy Strategy
Board marks a new phase in our efforts further to improve the
cohesion, effectiveness and impact of our public diplomacy. I
have every confidence that it will deliver.
Rt Hon Jack Straw MP
Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
November 2002
| 
