By Jim Murphy MP, Minister for Europe, Foreign & Commonwealth Office

There are two responses to globalisation. One is to run and hide and the other is to engage.

Our vision is of 'engagement': with the British public, with other governments and, increasingly, with publics overseas. It is engagement with publics overseas that is the theme of this publication, building on the principles set out by Lord Carter in his review of public diplomacy for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in December 2005.

For foreign and domestic policy goals are becoming interdependent and global, and there are broad constituencies beyond governments who not only have an interest in achieving them but whose everyday decisions and actions will determine whether they can be met.

In parallel, technological change is making it possible for governments and publics to engage, in their own countries and globally, more rapidly and directly than ever before.

In this new context, public diplomacy must become an integral part of policy-making and delivery. Governments must go beyond simple messaging, towards dialogue and cooperation, in collective effort to find solutions to the global challenges exemplified by climate change, violent extremism or poverty.

My aim in commissioning this collection of essays, which is freely available online, is to generate debate and stimulate thinking on this issue in a way which will inform and inspire policy-makers. The individual chapters and case-studies represent a range of views and insights from practitioners and experts. None has the final word on the subject. But all reinforce the relevance, importance – and potential – of public diplomacy in a world subject to the forces of globalisation. I am very grateful to them for their contributions.