Bringing history back in: a qualitative longitudinal approach to public diplomacy

This paper offers a novel methodological perspective to public diplomacy studies discussing how to apply Qualitative Longitudinal Research (QLR) into public diplomacy. Accordingly, the paper first discusses the existing academic literature on longitudinal research in social sciences and highlights the necessity to use QLR in public diplomacy studies. Second, it offers a research design on how to conduct QLR in public diplomacy. Third, the paper discusses the historical evolution of German public diplomacy over a period of 70 years as viable case study comparing three global sports events, namely the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the 1972 Munich Olympics and the 2006 World Cup. Overall, the paper argues that QLR has an important potential to advance public diplomacy studies since it enables researcher to trace continuity and change in public engagement policies over extended periods and explain whether historical legacies are reproduced or erased over time and how this resonates with international audience.