CPD Director pens “Public Diplomacy, New Media and Counterterrorism” for CPD Perspectives

In the second paper released in 2011, CPD Director Philip Seib advocates for public diplomacy tools to be incorporated into counterterrorism strategies.

Seib focuses on how governments, particularly the United States, have attempted to incorporate public diplomacy into post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts. Some strategies have proven more successful than others and the government has much to learn about best practices, techniques to utilize new media, and strategies used by non-governmental organizations. Seib writes, “extremists who embrace violence have done a better job of mastering these media… conventional diplomacy operates on too narrow a wavelength to compete in this way, but well-designed public diplomacy can reach large numbers of the political public and can challenge terrorism at its base.” In an era when all people, including governments and terrorists, have instant access to media to influence the public, the government and those that want to stop terrorism must work diligently to deter audiences from falling prey to alarmingly sophisticated terrorist messaging.

To read this paper in its entirety, click here.

CPD Perspectives is a periodic publication from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and highlights scholarship intended to stimulate critical thinking about the study and practice of public diplomacy.