His Excellency Enrique Ruiz Molero, Ambassador of Spain in Canada and Dr. Eugenio Matos, G. Guest speaker on Public Diplomacy
His Excellency Enrique Ruiz Molero, Ambassador of Spain in Canada organized the first conference on Public Diplomacy in Ottawa. The activity took place in the Spanish diplomatic mission on March 4, in cooperation with the International Public Diplomacy Council.
For the occasion, the guest speaker was the public diplomacy expert Dr. Eugenio Matos G, having as central theme “Public Diplomacy in the XXI Century”. The introductory words presenting Dr. Matos and the conclusion were given by Ambassador Ruiz Molero, who considered public diplomacy as a contemporary tool of the highest interest for Spain foreign policy. He also congratulated the speaker for his timely speech. The activity was directed to the diplomatic corps accredited to Canada, to the media and special guests.
The keynote lecture was very well analyzed by Dr. Matos, which included a synopsis that corresponds to the first semester of the master’s degree in public diplomacy in North America and Europe. Matos provided references from international authors and Spanish researchers from the Royal Institute Elcano, from the Complutense University, from Valencia, Salamanca, Malta, among others. It was explicit in historical evolution, information and communication techniques, soft and hard power, contemporary cultural diplomacy, new actors in this new science, about the cutting-edge techniques for the organization of diplomatic events, the impact and exploitation of the media, on the most effective methods for the selection and evaluation of diplomatic agents, social networks and their recommendations for optimal performance.
Dr. Matos concludes his brilliant academic presentation based on more than thirty years of uninterrupted exercise in public diplomacy. He makes his reflections from the perspective of an applied philosophy of cost-effectiveness, taking as an example the very efficient projects of the South African Embassy in Ottawa, of the brilliant diplomatic career of S.E. Sofía Cerrato, Honduran ambassador to Canada, Dean of GRULAC, former president and current vice president of ODA, among other models.
Dr. Eugenio Matos G. is a lawyer, an alumnus from the Faculty of Law School of the University of Ottawa with masters in Europe and China. He was a violinist for the National Symphony Orchestra of Santo Domingo and the Chamber Orchestra in Den Haag, the Netherlands. He is the first internationally recognized Dominican expert in public diplomacy with important awards, such as the Merit Prize in Public Diplomacy awarded by the University of Ottawa Law School, on the occasion of the ¨Canadas´s Ambassadors of the Year Awards Ceremony 2018¨.
