Lessons from the Past - USC Center on Public Diplomacy

28 Public Diplomacy
4. <strong>Lessons</strong> <strong>from</strong> Five Cases of Success
When handled well public diplomacy can be essential to <strong>the</strong>
success of a foreign policy. Each element in <strong>the</strong> taxonomy has its
success story, which carries broader lessons for <strong>the</strong> wider operation
of public diplomacy.
4.1 Listening: Re-Branding Switzerland, 1997–2007
Scenario:
In 1996 a number of factors converged to draw international
attention to <strong>the</strong> issue of <strong>the</strong> Swiss banking system’s willingness to
handle Nazi gold during World War Two, and presumed retention of
gold stolen <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> victims of <strong>the</strong> Holocaust. In <strong>the</strong> United States,
Senator Alfonse D’Amato began hearings on <strong>the</strong> issue, while a
Holocaust survivor named Gizella Weisshaus initiated a class-action
suit for restitution. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
published a report claiming that $500 million in gold had been
deposited in Swiss banks by persons unknown during <strong>the</strong> war. The
Swiss stepped up <strong>the</strong>ir ongoing investigation of <strong>the</strong> issue and early in
1997 established a fund to compensate victims of <strong>the</strong> Holocaust who
had lost assets during <strong>the</strong> war, but it was widely perceived as too little
too late. At <strong>the</strong> same time Switzerland seemed increasingly isolated
<strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> European mainstream by being outside <strong>the</strong> European Union.
Swiss prestige and influence were in serious decline. The country’s
Federal Department for Foreign Affairs reluctantly accepted
that Switzerland faced a serious crisis in its international image.
Switzerland already had an inter-agency mechanism which was
supposed to manage its international image, called <strong>the</strong> Coordinating
Commission for <strong>the</strong> Swiss Presence Abroad (COCO). Founded in
1976 with 20 members, COCO was constituted within <strong>the</strong> foreign
affairs department. With a staff of just five people, a budget of CHF
2.4 million, and an approach that seemed rooted in <strong>the</strong> venerable
Swiss tradition of <strong>the</strong> volunteer militia, it seemed inadequate to <strong>the</strong>
crisis of <strong>the</strong> late 1990s.