The evolving relationship between nation-states and sub-national actors makes public policy a meaningful inside-out approach in public diplomacy (PD) research. This multi-level participation and complexity have also drawn attention to “flagship” as a particular mechanism that systematically coordinates and manages PD activities. Public diplomacy flagship, such as the Fulbright Program and the British Council, is an orchestra of various programs that serves the national agenda as well as personal and organizational goals. Yet, we seem to know little about the decision-making process of why the programs are selected and how they are fitted into a flagship. This article attempts to address this question from a public policy perspective. Viewing PD activities in various kinds as “tool options,” this article presents an adaptive model of tool selection to unpack the decision-making in public diplomacy flagships. Acknowledging the influence of human factors and the risk of over-generalization, the model aims to present one possibility among many and focus on the underlying relationships between the tools and their roles in a flagship. With examples from the Fulbright Program, the British Council, and Confucius Institute, this article explains how different users can adapt the model for their analytical, evaluative, and comparative purposes.

民族国家和次国家行为者之间不断发展的关系使公共政策成为公共外交 (PD) 研究中一种有意义的由内而外的方法。这种多层次的参与和复杂性也引起了人们对“旗舰”作为系统协调和管理 PD 活动的特殊机制的关注。公共外交旗舰，如富布赖特计划和英国文化协会，是一个由各种计划组成的乐团，为国家议程以及个人和组织目标服务。然而，我们似乎对为什么选择这些程序以及如何将它们安装到旗舰产品的决策过程知之甚少。本文试图从公共政策的角度来解决这个问题。将各种类型的 PD 活动视为“工具选项，”本文提出了一种工具选择的自适应模型，以解开公共外交旗舰中的决策过程。承认人为因素的影响和过度概括的风险，该模型旨在呈现众多可能性中的一种，并专注于工具与其在旗舰中的作用之间的潜在关系。本文通过富布赖特计划、英国文化协会和孔子学院的示例，解释了不同的用户如何根据其分析、评估和比较目的调整模型。