Issue #121

Intended for teachers of diplomacy and related courses, here is an update on resources that may be of general interest. Suggestions for future updates are welcome.

Bruce Gregory can be reached at BGregory@gwu.edu

Bruce Gregory, American Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Practitioners as Change Agents in Foreign Relations, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). As many readers of this list know, books, articles, and websites are entered alphabetically by the author’s last name. I’m breaking with tradition to call attention to a book that examines how diplomatic practitioners adopted new ideas, tested tools and methods, and transformed American diplomacy.

I also want to acknowledge the mountain of intellectual debt I owe to so many who have made this list and book possible. The book is about American diplomacy, but it is enabled by the thinking and publications of a global community of scholars and practitioners who believe analysis of diplomatic practice, past and present, helps scholars theorize about diplomacy and diplomats adapt to change.

The book frames US public diplomacy in the broad sweep of American diplomatic practice from the early colonial period to the present. It explores how change agents in rival practitioner communities—foreign service officers, cultural diplomats, broadcasters, citizens, soldiers, covert operatives, democratizers, and presidential aides—revolutionized traditional government-to-government diplomacy and moved diplomacy with publics into the mainstream. It challenges a common narrative that US public diplomacy is a Cold War creation that was folded into the State Department in 1999 and briefly found new life after 9/11. It examines historical turning points, evolving patterns of practice, and societal drivers of an American way of diplomacy: a preference for hard power over soft power, episodic commitment to public diplomacy correlated with war and ambition, an information dominant communication style, and an outsized regard for American exceptionalism. It is an account of American diplomacy’s public dimension, the people who shaped it, and the societization and digitalization that today extends diplomacy well beyond the confines of embassies and foreign ministries.

I am pleased American Diplomacy’s Public Dimension is in the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy, founded by co-editors Kathy Fitzpatrick (University of South Florida) and Philip Seib (University of Southern California), who was succeeded by Caitlyn Byrne (Griffith University, Australia), and is now helmed by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Vivian Walker (Georgetown University and the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy). The book is available in eBook and print versions here and here.

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Karin Aggestam and Constance Duncombe, eds., “Special Issue: Advancing a New Research Agenda on Digital Disruption in Diplomacy,” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Vol. 19, (2024), Issue 1, Online publication, December 18, 2023. In their introduction to this HJD Special Issue, Aggestam (Lund University) and Duncombe (Copenhagen University) explore concepts and empirical evidence relating to ways information communication technologies manifest “digital disruption” at the micro-level of individual actors and macro-level of diplomacy’s processes and institutions. They begin with a literature review on the digitalization of diplomacy and current research in three areas: technology and diplomatic transformation, diplomatic signaling, and digital transformation. Then they frame a multi-disciplinary research agenda for the study of digital disruptions in diplomacy. Elements include the interplay between actors and systemic factors, how digital disruption reinforces and challenges practices and power structures, varieties of methodologies, and ramifications of big data analysis. They conclude with an overview of the seven articles in this Special Issue that were published online throughout 2023. Four are available through open access. Several were reviewed in earlier editions of this list. These articles are an important resource for scholars and practitioners concerned with the transformative impact of technologies on diplomacy.

“Assistant or Associate Professor (Tenure Track), Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, (24-25),” DePaul University, Chicago, IL. Open date, December 2023. Applications from diplomacy scholars will be accepted until the position is filled. This is a great opportunity for qualified candidates.

Dmitry Chernobrov, Strategic Humor and Post-Truth Public Diplomacy, November 2023, CPD Perspectives, USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Building on research relating to the uses of humor in electoral campaigns and as a tool used in resistance to authoritarian regimes, Chernobrov (University of St. Andrews) makes two arguments. First, he develops “strategic humor” as a concept described as “the use of humor by state and proxy actors to promote narratives that . . . advance state interests, deflect criticism, legitimate policy, and challenge the narratives of others.” Second, he argues an increase in the use of humorous content contributes to a “post-truth public diplomacy, reliant on outreach and popularity mechanisms, fictitious representations, emotive messaging, and exploitation of uncertainty.” His essay analyzes characteristics and advantages of strategic humor through multiple examples of its use by state and non-state actors. He devotes considerable attention to uses of humor by and in response to broadcasts by Russia’s state-funded broadcaster RT. He concludes with a brief discussion of strategic communication as an “appealing” tool of post-truth public diplomacy. Scholars and practitioners will find Chernobrov’s claims instructive, provocative, and well worth reflection and assessment.

Deborah Cohn, “Crafting the ‘Image of America’: The USIA/University of Pennsylvania Certificate in American Studies (1960-1968,” Diplomatica 3 (2021), 95-115. In this cultural diplomacy case study, Cohn (Indiana University) assesses the history and limitations of a government-sponsored academic certificate in American studies, an initiative developed for use with foreign nationals by the US Information Agency in the 1960s by professor Robert Spiller at the University of Pennsylvania. She discusses collaborative efforts by scholars and practitioners to promote a field of academic study in a cultural diplomacy domain that included the Salzburg Seminar in American Civilization and other activities. Her nuanced analysis places the program in the larger and often problematic context of ways Americans in government and civil society leveraged academic fields in support of the nation’s interests during World War II and the Cold War. She also discusses the program’s shortcomings: its inability to attract candidates; insufficient evaluation of its impact, especially on individuals who failed its exams; tensions between “academic cold warriors” and officials responsible for awarding the certificate; and “key discrepancies between the ‘image of America’ as distinctive, static, and a global leader that scholars and officials alike wanted to project, on the one hand, and what was likely to be most interesting to international audiences during a period of racial strife within the US, the Vietnam War, and decolonization movements.” This excellent, deeply researched article provides insights into US cultural diplomacy’s past with important implications for current practice.

Nicholas J. Cull, Reputational Security: Refocusing Public Diplomacy for a Dangerous World, (Polity, 2024). Nick Cull (University of Southern California), one of public diplomacy’s leading historians and conceptualizers, has added a new book to his impressive shelf of publications. It develops his idea that “Reputational Security” is more suitable than soft power as a framing term for today’s era of renewed great power conflict and transformational global challenges. He offers a variety of reasons. It overcomes what he perceives is a mismatch between soft power as understood by public diplomacy practitioners and his understanding of the world, past and present, as a historian. Whereas “soft power” has come to be seen by many as an “optional extra” for the statecraft of top tier countries, “Reputational Security” has value in linking the realms of image and foreign public engagement to statecraft’s highest priority, national defense. It “more explicitly reflects the damage that could come to states whose image has slipped.” Soft power, he argues, has focused on the reputation of single actors. “Reputational Security” is a better fit for an age where the biggest challenges are “fought collectively.” Cull does not intend his concept as a replacement for soft power. Instead, he contends, it is “an alternative way to think” about communication and collective reputation in very different circumstances. His book explores these themes in chapters that discuss why “Reputational Security” is a special concern for diplomatic actors in the 2020s; the reputational challenges of new technologies, disinformation, and counter propaganda; the emergence of diaspora diplomacy; cultural diplomacy and cultural relations; and the war in Ukraine. His book should spark energetic and illuminating debates in academic and practitioner settings on both the practical applications of his concepts and the extent to which “Reputational Security” constitutes a more suitable frame than soft power. See also Cull’s presentation on Reputational Security followed by comments and Q&A moderated by Vivian Walker on the Public Diplomacy Council of America’s First Monday webinar (57 minutes), January 8, 2024.

Journal of Public Diplomacy, Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2023. Congratulations toJPD, on completing its third year as a peer-reviewed journal devoted to publishing theoretical and empirical research and providing a venue for dialogue and debate on public diplomacy. Launched by founding editor-in-chief Kadir Jun Ayhan and published by the Korean Association of Public Diplomacy, its new co-editors-in-chief are Kyung Sun Lee, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates and Zhao Alexandre Huang, Université Paris Nanterre, France. Articles in the current issue, all open access, include:

Weronika Rucka, Rozane De Cock, and Tim Smits (Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven), “Nation Branding in Times of Refugee Crisis: Digital Media Practices of Belgian and Swedish Governmental Institutions.”

Lisa Gibson (Washington and Jefferson College), “The Impact of Citizen-led Facebook Public Diplomacy: A Case Study of Libyans’ Views of the US.”

Jami Fullerton (Oklahoma State University), John P. Schoeneman, Jr. (Southern Methodist University), and Alice Kendrick (Oklahoma State University), “Nation Branding and International Media Coverage of Domestic Conflict: An Agenda-setting Study.”

Dongnu Guo, (Griffith University & Center for Australian Studies, China University of Mining and Technology), “How China Constructs Cultural Self-Confidence.”

Alfredo Zeli (Beijing Foreign Studies University), “Book Review Essay.” Paweł Surowiec and Ilan Manor, eds. Public Diplomacy and the Politics of Uncertainty, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Pablo Sebastian Morales (London School of Economics and Political Science), “Book Review Essay.” Vanessa Bravo and Maria De Moya, eds., Latin American Diasporas in Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Antonio Alejo (University of Granada), “Book Review Essay.” Alisher Faizullaev, Diplomacy for Professionals and Everyone, Brill, 2022.

Natalie Grincheva and Elizabeth Stainforth, Geopolitics of Digital Heritage, (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Grincheva (University of the Arts Singapore and University of Melbourne) and Stainforth (University of Leeds) analyze how large-scale data aggregators are transforming the ways cultural heritage is stored and shared by galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and other providers. They explore the geopolitical motives and agendas of digital heritage aggregators at different levels of governance in four case studies: the city-state Singapore Memory Project, the National Library of Australia’s Trove, and the regional and global digital platforms of the European Commission’s Europeana and Google Arts & Culture. Their multidisciplinary approach offers thoughtful ideas on digital geopolitics, soft power, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, and the reciprocal effects of what actors do and how production of digital heritage shapes their political agendas. Their book is a critical assessment of the benefits of digital aggregation and the challenges of politically and economically driven projects: politicization, commodification, and sustainability issues resulting from dependence on benefactors’ and stakeholders’ political interests and ambitions.

Kyle A. Long, Global American Higher Education: International Campuses for Competition or Cooperation? December 2023, CPD Perspectives, USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Long (George Washington University) examines the under-studied role of international campuses of US universities—some branch campuses, some independent, and some micro-campuses in partner institutions. They enroll approximately 720,000 students; a large majority are in China. His study provides historical context and addresses several research questions. What is the scope of America’s higher education institutions outside the United States? How have they evolved, and what are their characteristics? What is their significance for American public diplomacy and soft power? And how can they be strengthened? Long provides an excellent literature review and empirical data set. He addresses interesting conceptual issues, such as whether and how “soft power” should be distinguished from “knowledge diplomacy.” Long concludes that his research provides a baseline for understanding the global landscape of America’s institutions of higher education with a number of important issues still to be addressed.

Francisco Rodríguez-Jiménez, Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla, and Benedetta Calandra, eds., U.S. Public Diplomacy Strategies in Latin America During the Sixties: Time for Persuasion, (Routledge, 2024). Rodríguez-Jiménez (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Lisbon), Gómez-Escalonilla (National Research Council of Spain), and Calandra (University of Bergamo) have compiled an excellent and needed compendium by accomplished scholars on the “cultural Cold War” in the Western Hemisphere. As Gilbert A. Joseph (Yale University) notes in his Preface, the under-recognized activities of “‘diplomats,’ broadly construed” — government agencies, foundations, scholars and scientists, writers, artists, musicians, and athletes — are a welcome supplement to accounts that focus on military juntas, leftist guerrillas, and CIA-backed coups. Contributors examine varieties of public diplomacy strategies, methods, and initiatives. Some place them in the context of “‘hard’ imperial power and an unbroken, complacent attitude of U.S. exceptionalism.” Chapters include:

Rodríguez-Jiménez, Calandra, and Gómez-Escalonilla, “US Public Diplomacy Strategies in Latin America in Recent Historiographical Debates.”

Gómez-Escalonilla, “Modernizing Latin America! Cuban Revolution, Alliance for Progress, and Development Decade.”

Alan McPherson (Temple University), “US Public Diplomacy Responses to Anti-Americanism in 1960s Latin America.”

Nicholas J. Cull (University of Southern California), “US Public Diplomacy in Latin America: The Regional Quest for Reputational Security, 1917-1968.”

Patrick Iber (University of Wisconsin, Madison), “The Cost of Freedom: The Congress for Cultural Freedom in Latin America.”

Andrés Sánchez-Padilla (Saint Louis University, Madrid), “Development by the Book: US Book Diplomacy and the Latin American Cultural Cold War.”

Fernando Quesada (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo) and Calandra, “Exploring the Liberal Transformation: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Green Revolution in Chile.”

André Gounot (University of Strasbourg), “Sports in the Anti-Cuban Diplomacy of the US: The Example of the Regional Games of San Juan, 1966.”

Victoria Phillips (Wilson Center), “Political Partnering: The Dance of US Diplomacy in Latin America.”

Elizabeth Schwall (University of California Berkeley), “Dancing Across the Sugar Curtain: Choreographing Critiques of the United States in Cuba.”

Símele Soares Rodrigues (University Jean Moulin, Lyon), “American Leads Materially. Why Not Culturally?’: US Fine Arts in Brazil, 1948-78.”

Rodríguez-Jiménez, “Perceptions and Misperceptions in Inter-American Relations.”

A companion book in Spanish is El americano imposible. Estados Unidos y América Latina, entre Modernización y Contrainsurgencia (Sílex Ultramar 2023).

Harilaos Stecopoulos, Telling America’s Story to the World: Literature, Internationalism, Cultural Diplomacy, (Oxford University Press, 2023). In this imaginative and deeply-researched volume, Stecopoulos (University of Iowa) bridges the domains of Cold War studies, American literature, and US cultural diplomacy. His book examines activities of leading writers in state-sponsored overseas visits in the decades after World War II with the primary intent of showing how their cultural diplomacy contributed to the making of US postwar literature. Chapters focus on Archibald MacLeish, Ralph Ellison, Robert Lowell, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many others. These “cultural ambassadors,” sent abroad by the US government to tell “America’s story,” Stecopoulos observes, were often critical of the United States, a consequence seemingly at odds with the interest-based intent of their sponsors. As Louis Menand and others point out, however, critiques of US policies by America’s writers in Cold War cultural diplomacy advanced the goals of discerning US government sponsors who wanted to project the pluralism of American society and show the Soviet Union that dissent was tolerated in the United States. Stecopoulos’s book merits attention for its scholarship and insights into the ways power and culture are intertwined. It also points to the considerable diversity in the multidisciplinary study of diplomacy’s public dimension. (Suggested by Deborah Cohn)

US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting: Focus on FY 2022 Budget Data, December 19, 2023. The Commission’s 75th anniversary report, prepared by executive director Vivian Walker and her colleagues with support from staffs at the Department of State and US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), is the premier resource for recommendations and granular budget and program information on US public diplomacy. Readers looking to prioritize the value of this 217-page report should look first to its 25 recommendations to the White House, Congress, State Department, and USAGM at pp.13-16. These brief policy, program, and structural recommendations are at the heart of the Commission’s mandate. They warrant elaboration and follow up by the Commission, assessment by government officials, lawmakers, public diplomacy practitioners, and knowledgeable analysts in civil society. The Commission’s report is a gold mine of current and historical empirical data on US public diplomacy activities carried out by the State Department, USAGM, and US missions abroad. Excellent graphics and formatting enhance the report as a research tool. To celebrate its 75 years as a bipartisan, presidentially appointed advisory panel—with a statutory responsibility to advise the president and State Department and report to Congress and the American people—the Commission invited current and former commissioners, executive directors, practitioners, and partners to reflect on the panel’s past and future. Their comments can be found at pp. iii-xv.

US Government Accountability Office, “Cyber Diplomacy: State’s Efforts Aim to Support U.S. Interests and Elevate Priorities,” GAO-24-105563, January 11, 2024. In contrast to earlier GAO reports on cyber issues—“Cyber Diplomacy,” GAO-20-607R, September 2020, and “Cyber Diplomacy,” GAO-21-266R, January 2021—this report is more descriptive than prescriptive. It examines activities the State Department is undertaking to advance US interests in cyberspace and the Department’s reports of their impact. It also discusses State’s creation of a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy in April 2022 and the extent to which this organizational change helped or created challenges in achieving its cyber diplomacy goals. The report is a useful overview of objectives, projects, organizational responsibilities, and operational challenges. It makes a brief reference to a Strategic Planning and Communications Unit responsible for an array of planning, public diplomacy, media, and legislative affairs activities. Challenges include clarification of roles and hiring staff, communication within State on issues relevant to almost all aspects of diplomacy, lack of an agreed definition of cyber diplomacy, and the diverse ways governments, multilateral actors, civil society, and the private sector organize to deal with cyber issues.