The European Union’s public diplomacy towards Thailand

Abstract

In the globalization era, everything in this world, even ideology, is fast and easy to transfer. The numbers of communication channels are significantly increasing. Thus, the globalization and the advancement of communication technologies have broadly impacted diplomatic activities, foreign policy strategies and position of each country in stressing itself towards global society. In this changing world, public diplomacy is a key element of diplomatic strategy. This research on ‘The European Union’s Public Diplomacy towards Thailand’ has the main objectives to learn about the EU’s public diplomacy campaigns towards Thailand and to learn about the reasons for the EU to carry out such campaigns. In addition, it also aims at learning about the factors that obstruct the campaigns. The information and facts in this research are analyzed with the content analysis technique which are collected from existing documents and some authoritative sources. In addition, the data concerning Thai people’s attitudes toward the EU are obtained from the in-depth interview. The findings from the research show that the EU’s public diplomacy campaigns to Thailand concentrate on business, education, financial assistance, human rights and culture issues. These campaigns will benefit both Thailand and the EU. The benefits that the EU receives from its public diplomacy campaigns include the influences that it will have on Thailand, good reputations and images, inter-dependence between Thailand and the EU and some business advantages. It is also discovered that the EU focuses on building relationship with Thai government, policy makers, media, students, business people and those potent to be opinion leaders in the future, rather than the public. To support this, the EU is also trying to acknowledge Thai people of its good side, such as the quality of life, and unique culture, through many cultural events such as film and music festivals. Furthermore, it is shown that Thai people know the EU and has some positive perceptions towards the EU. However, the EU’s public diplomacy campaigns are not much recognized as those from other international agencies such as the ASEAN or influential nations such as the United States of America and China.