CPD University Fellow Publishes New Book on Public Diplomacy and the USIA

CPD University Fellow Nicholas J. Cull recently published The Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency: American Public Diplomacy, 1989-2001. Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book picks up where Cull’s previous work, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989, ended and tells the story of how America's institutional apparatus for public diplomacy, the United States Information Agency, failed to prove its relevancy in international affairs in a post-Cold War era to American policy makers, becoming the first U.S. institution to be fully dissolved.

Using newly declassified archives and interviews with practitioners, Cull pieces together the story of the final decade in the life of the USIA. It is both a sorry tale of political neglect and missed opportunities and an account of what America's public diplomats were nevertheless able to accomplish. Key methods examined include Voice of America radio, exchanges, and cultural diplomacy. Major episodes include the transition of Eastern Europe to democracy, the role of public diplomacy in the First Gulf War and Kosovo Wars, the US interventions in Somalia and Haiti, and the build-up to the attacks of 9/11.

The book is available for purchase here.

To find out more about Cull's book, "The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989," please click here.

On January 24, 2013, Professor Cull will be giving a book talk as part of the CPD Conversations in Public Diplomacy series. Please follow this link for more information.