Latest Must-Reads in Public Diplomacy: January 2024

CPD Faculty Fellow Bruce Gregory has compiled a list of the latest must-reads in public diplomacy. Known affectionately at CPD as "Bruce's List," this list is a compilation of books, journal articles, papers and blog posts on a wide variety of PD topics.

Highlights from the latest list include publications on topics spanning American diplomatic practice, strategic humor and post-truth public diplomacy, and reputational security.

Bruce Gregory, American Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Practitioners as Change Agents in Foreign Relations, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).  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.

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.  

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.  

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.

The full list for this edition of Bruce's List can be found here.