In October 2001, as coalition forces entered Afghan­istan, Radio Free Afghanistan broadcast a message to a nation and a people who had long been hostile to any foreign presence. The message—that the mission was not to undermine Afghan religion and culture, but to rout al-Qaeda—was heard. Coalition forces encountered little resistance beyond al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Like other Americans of Afghan descent, Omar Qudrat was paying close attention to this act of what is now known as “public diplomacy”—a term for the many ways in which governments communicate not just with officials but with the people of those nations.

Last summer, Qudrat became one of 15 members of the first class of Syracuse University’s new public diplomacy degree program. In the two-year program—a collaboration between Maxwell and SU’s Newhouse School—students earn master’s degrees in public relations and in international relations. Course work includes news reporting and writing, public relations theory, and international relations history. Students complete course work on campus and in Washington, D.C., and spend part of the program’s second summer in Geneva, Vienna, Strasbourg, or Washington. The goal is to understand the culturally and technologically complex milieu in which they will operate, and to master techniques of communication and persuasion.

Traditionally, public diplomacy has taken the form of government-sponsored informational programming and cultural exchange. However, according to Matthew Bonham, chair of international relations and co-director of the new program, the field has broadened. Public diplomacy is also practiced by non-governmental organizations and corporations that have international audiences. And, like public relations and marketing communications, the field of public diplomacy now includes audience awareness. Good communication, Bonham says, “should involve listening to the public . . . and taking the views of others seriously.”

Traditional means such as Radio Free Afghanistan have only a limited reach. “Most Afghans live in rural areas. A lot of Afghans don’t even have radios,” Qudrat says. During the Soviet era, American operatives brought leaflets in by horse and mule. They studied how to approach people of influence in the country. “Rather than having a young American foreign service officer approach the tribal elder,” Qudrat says, “you have an Afghan who is of a certain age, someone [the elder] would be more inclined to listen to, go and speak about the topic.”

Also important is understanding the impact of 21st-century technology on diplomacy and communications. Minyan Yin is a member of the public diplomacy class who, growing up in China, saw “new technology open doors to the outside world,” she says. If new technologies have managed to penetrate the previously closed culture of China, she says, clearly their potential for public diplomacy is great, in China and elsewhere. Yin says while she might ultimately work through the United Nations, she plans to begin her career in the private sector. She will intern this summer with an international public relations firm based in New York City.

Public diplomacy is achieved, as well, through cultural exchange. In 1971, for example, the U.S. national table tennis team received a surprise invitation to China; this case of “ping pong diplomacy” was followed by an opening of formal diplomatic channels between the two countries. Or take “jazz diplomacy,” in which a Cold War-era international tour of Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra helped diffuse tensions in many nations hostile to U.S. influence.

Prior to entering the public diplomacy degree program, Tony McGovern was a professional oboist. “For me, the most palpable testament to the power of public diplomacy is the proliferation of Western-style orchestras around the globe,” he says. “In parts of the world where Western art house music has historically been a foreign project, alien to most ears, you’ll find audiences becoming increasingly receptive.” McGovern points to Venezuela’s El Sistema youth orchestra as an example.

McGovern, president of the International Relations Student Association, appreciates the spirit of cultural exchange. He helped to organize a cultural fair on campus this spring, where he saw his international Maxwell colleagues “culling diverse ideas from various cultures and coming together for project-oriented goals,” he said. “What I found, not surprisingly, is that cultural differences matter little.

“I see public diplomacy working the same way,” he says. “When working with disparate publics, as long as there is a recognition of and sensitivity to cultural differences, you’re bound to be successful, so long as the right pieces are in place.”