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Wars of Ideas

Hearts, minds, and the continuation of diplomacy by other means.

Jan 25, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 18 • By MARTHA BAYLES
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Toward a New Public Diplomacy

Wars of Ideas

Hillary Clinton in South Africa, 2009

edited by Philip Seib
Palgrave Macmillan, 272 pp., $30

The State Department defines public diplomacy as “engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences.” Because this can be done by governments or by private actors, the chief virtue of this book, edited by Philip Seib, director of the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, is its generous scope. Along with U. S. international broadcasting, military strategic communication, and cultural diplomacy, it also contains chapters on outsourcing; the new social media (Web 2.0); the views from Russia, China, and Egypt; and the role of religion.

As hinted in the subtitle, public diplomacy does not consist wholly of persuading or pressuring foreigners to go along with U. S. policy in the short term. Some forms of public diplomacy work better in the long term and at arm’s length from policy, especially when that policy is unpopular. At the same time, it borders on wishful thinking to suggest that public diplomats will ever be able to “redirect” foreign policy. The longer they live overseas, the better they get at their jobs. But in most cases, this also means the less clout they have in Washington.

In the opening chapters, William Rugh, former ambassador to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, wrestles with Joseph Nye’s useful but cloudy concept of “soft power”; and
Nicholas Cull, author of the definitive history of the U.S. Information Agency, crams a century of bureaucratic churning into 26 pages. Because most Americans are barely aware of how public diplomacy works, such an introduction may be necessary. But there’s no getting around the eye-glazing
nature of this material.

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