The Military Dimension of Public Diplomacy: Public Diplomacy Activities of U.S. Combatant Commands

The issues which had been solved through hard power and traditional diplomacy until the beginning of 20th century were started to be solved through different instruments in the advancing years. One of the most popular of these is the term of public diplomacy which emerged after the Second World War as an extension of communication activities like propaganda. In the 21st century, militaries which are the most important components of hard power have started to conduct public diplomacy activities and constitute their public diplomacy frameworks. At first glance, it may seem paradoxical that an institution with weapons conduct soft power activities. However, if the essence of these activities is examined, it will be understood that these activities can serve for the soft power purposes. This research aims to answer the question of “How can militaries, which are identified with hard power, serve in activities like public diplomacy in order to advance soft power?”. This research has importance in terms of filling the gap in this realm by examining military dimension of public diplomacy and its practices. Accordingly, social media contents of U.S. military were subjected to quantitative and qualitative content analyses. Eventually, it has been concluded that U.S. military’s public diplomacy activities do not encompass all dimensions of public diplomacy and it systematically provides support to national public diplomacy activities in terms of its capability