Polish Public Diplomacy and its Transformations

This diploma thesis is a case study focused on Polish public diplomacy as a tool of foreign policy and its changes between 2005 and 2019. The way how public diplomacy is exercised in the Polish case is significantly influenced by two factors - the size of the country or rather its influence and its geographic location, which is closely connected with particular societal, political and economic features with relation to the country's history. The aim of the thesis is to find out what are the foundations of polish public diplomacy, how it has been changed within the studied period and what it tells us about public diplomacy as a tool of foreign policy and the possibility of domestic actors to influence it. There is a deep cleavage between the two main political parties, which have alternated in government since 2005, and their preferences in domestic and foreign policy. Based on the outputs of Polish public diplomacy in four spheres - nation branding, cultural diplomacy, historical diplomacy and communication channels - and in organizational framework, the thesis analyses the interconnection between public diplomacy and foreign policy and also the strategy of Polish public diplomacy, taking into account the alternation of governing parties