Public diplomacy is a craft, not a personality trait. It rests on work that can be named, learned, and assessed. This table organizes that work into sixteen competencies, with the plays that put them into practice and the foundations that support them.
Each cell describes an outcome a practitioner can achieve and names the methods used to do the work. Select a cell to see the skills and knowledge that support it.
Maintain a current, accurate read of the environment and the people in it. Notice when either changes.
Identify the problem that matters most and define what success looks like.
Turn what you see and hear into analysis that helps a reader make a decision.
Chart a credible route from problem to outcome, including what could derail it.
Decide where to put effort, then align money, people, and time with that choice.
Identify who matters, how they make decisions, and what may move them.
Turn an institution's goodwill into a commitment to act.
Secure terms both sides can accept while doing the groundwork needed to advance your interests.
Carry an agreement into implementation and keep it working after the signing.
Shift how a broad audience understands an issue, consistently and over time.
Build and maintain a network that gives you access and candid answers through rotations.
Bring parties with different interests behind a shared outcome, then keep the coalition together.
Navigate a position through your own government, including clearances, competing equities, and limits on your authority.
Give a team direction it can believe in, including the local staff who remain when you rotate out.
Keep the workload within what the team can carry in routine weeks and all-hands surges.
Learn whether the work is producing the intended result, then change course while there is still time.
Gold corner tags show which State Department public diplomacy competencies informed the model. Use the table to see what to learn, how to practice it, and where to grow next.
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