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Resumo

'Public diplomacy' is a term increasingly used among policy makers and academics, yet its meaning is ambiguous and contested. Advocates proclaim it as a new approach to statecraft entailing a participatory approach of shared meaning‐making between politicians and the public markedly different from the elitist, Machiavellian inter‐governmental practices of traditional ('Westphalian') diplomacy. The European Union (EU) has embraced these ideals, proclaiming public diplomacy a cornerstone of European external relations policy. We examine these claims in the context of theEU's delegations to Australia and New Zealand. Using three ethnographic case studies, we highlight discrepancies between official discourses on public diplomacy and its practice. The participatory ideals ofEUpublic diplomacy, we argue, are undermined by theEU's preoccupation with image and branding, public relations and marketing techniques, and continuing reliance on traditional 'backstage' methods of diplomacy. We conclude by outlining the implications of these paradoxes for both anthropological research andEUexternal relations.

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