Decision - Making in Foreign Policy and the Role of Public Diplomacy in Decision-Making process

By considering the foreign policy as a "system" the decision-making process turns out a "sub-system" whose investigation can significantly influence the foreign policy. Numerous studies and researches have been done about various political events such as decision-making processes (one example is David Easton’s work on the development of system concept). Despite the traditional view of diplomacy as "an instrument for executing foreign policy", there are some more modern views that offer the concept of "public diplomacy" and define it as "influencing public views in order to shape and execute foreign policies including aspects which go beyond the traditional diplomacy". The main question of the research is whether public diplomacy-in the above sense-can have any effect on the decision-making process in foreign policy. The author tries to discuss aspects of public diplomacy impact on decision-making process in foreign policy and ultimately offer a model of it by giving a definition for "public diplomacy" after revising the present opinions and utilizing "the multi-dimensional model of public policy-making".