The USC Center on Public Diplomacy use the construct of “brand experience” to explore and examine how countries pursue nation branding at Expo Shanghai and how Chinese visitors experience the branded country pavilions.

This project assessed the impact of arts, culture, and media in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the goal of developing recommendations for U.S. public diplomacy policy towards each country.

CPD examined the Confucius Institutes in the United States as a platform for Chinese cultural diplomacy in the context of U.S.-China relations and higher-education management.

Through a series of events and publications, this project contributed to a global understanding of the merits and challenges of science diplomacy.

This project has examined extant research on the topic of public diplomacy evaluation. It focused on various approaches to evaluation taken by the private sector, especially in the field of public relations, and by foreign governments (the UK in particular). 

This study explored the lack of "mutual understanding" in the U.S. public diplomacy mandate; that is, ignoring the need to increase the understanding of foreign nations and peoples among Americans themselves. It sought to find what must be done to advance mutual understanding between U.S. and foreign publics in the future.

This research examined the use of public diplomacy strategies by the Russian federation and the West in order to extend or maintain a soft-power presence in what has become known as the "Russian near abroad" or Russia’s sphere of "privileged interest."

This project evaluated the effectiveness and value of Celebrity Diplomacy. Particular emphasis was placed on the United Nations. The project convened a workshop on the theme of Celebrity Diplomacy in April 2009.