Propaganda is a form of persuasion that carries several RISKS when used in diplomatic exchanges: --- 1. As MacOswald said earlier at 13:09, it can backfire on you as your counterpart can develop hard feelings toward you when realizing she/he has fallen to your use of propaganda, but there are additional reasons why the use of PROPAGANDA in diplomatic exchanges brings risks for your and your country:

1. You can lose credibility as a source of information and as a legitimate diplomatic agent deserving your counterpart's trust when with-holding vital information;

2. Your counterpart could feel disrespected (or even insulted) thinking you consider her/him an easy pray for your use of appeals either to emotion or to simplistic thoughts or the manipulation of her/his psychology or a crude manipulation of symbols, and

3. With your behaviour you are inviting your counterparts to invoke in their exchanges with you heuristic devices, to set rationalization traps or to use other propaganda devices on you.

As a diplomat you should be aware of the choices you made of persuasion tactics.

It is better for you as a diplomat to persuade by actively contributing to a full informed sophisticated discussions by the parties, based on reasoned causal analysis at the diplomatic table and sharing information as you know it.

Reasoning based on: Pratkanis, Anthony R. & Elliot Aronson, AGE OF PROPAGANDA. The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion, W. H. Freeman and Company, USA, Seventh printing, 1999, chapter 37, pages 9 and 262-265.

Source author: Eric Suzán Reed esuzan@sre.gob.mx