Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

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The UK government department dealing with Foreign policy.

Propaganda organisations

organisational changes

The department of the Foreign Office engaged in propaganda and information control have gone through a number of iterations. The News Department was created in 1916 and is the longest surviving department, only abolished in 2002.[1] It focused on dealing with the media directly. Also important have been a series of departments dealing with background briefing, the World service, the British council and covert propaganda operations. These have included the following: The Information Research Department created in 1947 and tasked as an anti-communist propaganda outfit. It was joined in the post war period by the Information Policy Department focused on 'supervising the work of UK Information Officers in posts around the world'.[2] Working alongside from the late 1950s was the Information Executive Department (previously known as the Information Services Department) with responsibility for 'the complex practical problems of putting the agreed propaganda line across to foreign audiences'. [3] In addition there was the Cultural Relations Department which performed the role of supervising the British Council.[4]

Closing IRD

The organisation of propaganda changed with the closing of the IRD in 1978. Its replacement was called the Overseas Information Department which within a few years in the early 1980s became the Information Department.

The shift to 'Public Diplomacy'

It was not until after the election of the Blair government that significant changes occurred in the organisation of British propaganda. These were in train as part of the 'cool Britannia' hype of the late 1990s in concert with the Foreign Policy Centre's corporate funders. On 1 April 1998, the Blair government created Panel 2000, which was to examine British propaganda activities. It reccommended the creation of the Britain Abroad Task Force which was duly created by 2001. This was followed by the Wilton Review of March 2002 and then by Lord Carter of Coles Review of Public Diplomacy in 2004. Organisationally the Information Department ceased to be in 2001 with the creation of the Public Diplomacy Department by August of that year[5], which was then renamed the Public Diplomacy Policy Department by January 2003.[6] The Public Diplomacy Strategy Board was also set up to direct public diplomacy activities following the Wilton Review. Following Lord Carter of Coles' Review of Public Diplomacy, which was delivered to the Foreign Secretary on 13 December 2005 the Public Diplomacy Board was set up in April 2006 along with the Public Diplomacy Partners Group. They are supported by the Public Diplomacy Group within the Foreign Office, which replaces the Public Diplomacy Policy Department.

The Public Diplomacy Strategy Board is an advisory committee designed to improve the cohesion, effectiveness and impact of Government efforts to promote the UK overseas. It subsumed the work of the Britain Abroad Task Force and held its first meeting on 28 October 2002 under the chairmanship of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Board is responsible for formulating a national public diplomacy strategy to support the UK's key overseas interests and objectives.[7]

Alphabetical list of departments and organisations

See Also


People

Notes

  1. ↑ IPO Directories, September 2002; January 2003
  2. ↑ Black, J, (1975) Organising the Propaganda Instrument: the British Experience, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff., p. 15
  3. ↑ Black, Ibid. p 19
  4. ↑ Black Ibid. p. 20
  5. ↑ IPO directories, January 2001, August 2001
  6. ↑ IPO directory, January 2003
  7. ↑ [1]
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