This quantity outlines 20 years of reforms on the international & Commonwealth workplace (FCO), British Council and BBC international provider – the so-called Public international relations companions. among 1995 and 2015, the FCO and its companion firms in selling British effect in another country have brought significant adjustments to how, the place and with whom international relations is carried out. This distinct research hyperlinks significant organisational reforms to the altering political, technological and highbrow contexts of the day. via distinct case stories over a 20-year interval, this learn demonstrates how and why British international relations advanced from a secretive establishment to 1 figuring out its goal as a world suggestion chief via suggestions reminiscent of public international relations, electronic international relations and smooth strength. it truly is wealthy with unpublished records and case experiences, and is the main specific examine of the FCO and British Council within the modern interval. From Cool Britannia to the new nice crusade through the 2012 Olympics and diplomats on Twitter, this publication charts the speculation and perform in the back of a twenty first century revolution in British international relations. This paintings may be of a lot curiosity to policymakers and advisors, scholars and researchers, and international coverage and conversation specialists.

“From the heady past of Cool Britannia to the current days of the good crusade in terms of the Royal marriage ceremony, London Olympics and a number of different gambits in Britain's evolving try and attach to foreign publics, this book is the fundamental account of the interior workings of a necessary element of contemporary British international coverage: public international relations. James Pamment is an astute, succinct and fascinating Dante, bringing his readers on trip throughout the policy processes backstage. We see the general public international relations equivalents of paradise, purgatory and the inferno, although Pamment leaves us to decide that's which.”

Nicholas J. Cull, writer of ‘The Decline and Fall of the USA info supplier: American Public international relations, 1989-2001’.

“A reward to practitioners who are looking to do the activity higher: required studying for someone going right into a senior task on the British Council, the united kingdom international & Commonwealth place of work and enlightened thinkers at 10 Downing road, HM Treasury and Ministries of international Affairs worldwide. Authoritative, scholarly and actual, Pamment moves an exceptional stability among the salient information and the overarching picture. He additionally does a significant carrier to these folks who lived it; our toils make extra feel for what he has performed - putting them in a ancient and conceptual context.”

John Worne, Director of approach & exterior kinfolk, British Council, 2007-2015