Is the traditional perception of Public Affairs outdated?

Modern organizations demand more of Public Affairs Professionals than a good network among current politicians, and we are seeing a transition in expectations from a firefighter function to a business enabler. But the lack of common ground both in our profession, but also in the interaction with other professions, causes a lot of frustrations and problems for Public Affairs Professionals.

If we can't even as a profession agree on a definition, how can we then expect other professions to understand what we do and don't do – and how we create value for organizations?

The guest on this episode is the "lobby-professor", Arco Timmermans, Public Affairs researcher, writer, and speaker.

Together we look under the hood of Public Affairs, and among other things talk about:

• How Arco approaches the field of Public Affairs in his research
• Differences between PA and PR
• Cultural shifts and the meaning of polarization in the public and political debate
• Why businesses cannot stay in reactive mode – and they will lose to the proactive
• Medias negativity bias towards lobbying
• Why there aren't that many national Public Affairs associations
• Comparing PA with diplomacy, discretion is key
• Does the DNA of PA make it impossible to create more transparency and thereby openness to what do and can do?
• How do we speak the language of the organization? Should we even learn it?
• The lack of resources spend on Public Affairs education and training

From Plato over Machiavelli and into the future, we discuss the state of Public Affairs today.

Hope you will enjoy the episode as much as we did.

Check out www.anderskopp.com for more resources about Public Affairs.

Host: Anders Kopp

Producer: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard

Links to articles or research mentioned in the episode:

Arcos article "Bringing science to practice: Designing an integrated academic education program for public affairs": https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/research/research-output/governance-and-global-affairs/bringing-science-to-practice-designing-an-integrated-academic-education-program-for-public-affairs

The Public Affairs Manager Survey 2026, by Anders Kopp: https://anderskopp.com/the-public-affairs-manager-survey/