This paper explores the intersection of pedagogical research in communication and research on public diplomacy and engages with the notion of "knowledge diplomacy." It revises the concept of the "collaborative" central to both public diplomacy and higher education pedagogy. With both fields emphasizing the importance of "co-creation," the paper theorizes and operationalizes this concept, and argues that co-creation (as a process and a framework) is one solution to the challenge of dominance argued by the scholarship of "knowledge diplomacy." Empirically, the article engages with two cases of "grassroots knowledge diplomacy" initiated by a tertiary communication program in collaboration with diplomats.