A short history of American Public Diplomacy, with a discussion of the definition of PD and of "soft power."

1. History of U.S. Public Diplomacy
Tim Standaert
Foreign Service Institute
April 2014

2. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Some Basic Questions
• What is Public Diplomacy and what is its
purpose? Is it simply propaganda, or
something else?
• How effectively do we use Public
Diplomacy to protect and further our
nation’s interests? To what extent can
the U.S. government (USG) or other
democracies really influence the
opinions of foreign publics with Public
Diplomacy? Is it enough to “tell
America’s story,” clearly explaining US
policies, society, and values?
• In its Public Diplomacy efforts, should
the USG aim for the elite in foreign
countries, or the average citizen/broad
masses?

3. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• Is information more important than
cultural programming, e.g., exchange
programs, libraries, performing arts,
etc? Or vice verse? Or are they apples
and oranges?
• How do you coordinate the Public
Diplomacy of various government
agencies, e.g., State, USAID, Peace
Corps, U.S. military, U.S. Congress, etc?
• How do you also involve academia,
cultural institutions and foundations,
business, private citizens, educational
institutions (public and private), and
other non-governmental partners?
What share of the work of PD should be
“outsourced”?

4. U.S. Public Diplomacy:
Continuing debates/tensions/questions
• How can “hard” and “soft” power
complement each other?
• How does new technology impact the
conduct of Public Diplomacy?
• Which PD tools are the most effective?
How do you measure the effectiveness of
Public Diplomacy anyway? What are the
“metrics”? How important are the
numbers anyway?
• Are we spending the right amount of
money on PD?
• Is the U.S. good at PD? Are other nations
better? How can we do it better?

5. Public Diplomacy
Definition
• PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: The efforts by a country’s government to communicate
and interact openly and directly with foreign audiences – academics, NGOs,
businesses, institutions, and even the general public – to deepen mutual
understanding and to promote/protect national interests.

6. Public Diplomacy
Aims
• The aims of a country’s Public
Diplomacy activities are to:
– 1) influence how foreign
citizens perceive that
country, correcting
misperceptions about its
policies and values, battling
stereotypes, etc;
– 2) promote greater mutual
understanding, keeping in
mind that this should be a
two-way street;
– 3) indirectly impact official
relations with the foreign
government in a way that
serves the country’s national
interests.

7. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
According to Joseph Nye, author of
Soft Power, there are 3 dimensions to
PD
1) Daily communications:
Explaining decisions and
policies to the media, the
public, elites, etc.

8. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
2) Strategic Communications: Focusing on simple themes, with
symbolic events and activities planned over the year, relying to some
extent on individuals and groups outside government.

9. Strategic Communications

10. Public Diplomacy
Three Dimensions
3) Lasting relationships: With key individuals, institutions, and
organizations, through exchanges, conferences, seminars, etc.

11. U.S. Public Diplomacy
Embassy Country Team Structure

12. Soft Power
• Term coined by Joseph Nye,
former U.S. Assistant Secretary
of Defense, Dean of Kennedy
School of Government (Harvard
University), etc.
– Watch Nye’s TED talk on
global shift in power at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/
lang/eng/joseph_nye_on_g
lobal_power_shifts.html
• Definition: The ability of a
country or organization to
shape the preferences of
others, i.e., to get them to
behave in a way that supports
interests, without overt tangible
benefits coming to them, i.e.,
without threats (sticks) or
payments/ inducements
(carrots).

13. Soft Power
• Three vehicles: According to Nye, soft power rests largely on: 1) a
country’s or organization’s culture, both high and low; 2) its political
values; and 3) its foreign policy.

14. Soft Power
Audience
• Soft power depends on the existence of willing interpreters and
receivers in a country or in group.

16. Soft Power: Culture, Political Values,
Foreign Policy

17. Soft Power: Culture, Political
Values, Foreign Policy

18. Soft Power:
Bush, Africa and HIV/AIDS
• President's Emergency Plan For
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Bush
commited $15 billion over five
years (2003–2008, much of it
going to Africa.

19. Soft Power:
Bush and Iraq

20. Soft Power:
Sometimes Beyond Government’s Control
• The central government, at least in liberal, democratic countries,
cannot (and should not) control all levers of soft power, e.g.,
television, movies, music, sports, products, companies/firms,
groups and individual citizens, etc.
• These other agents can have a positive or negative impact on a
country’s soft power.

21. Soft Power
Negative impact of Bhopal
•A subsidiary of Union Carbide was operating
a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.
•Night of December 2-3, 1984: A leak of gas
and chemicals from the plant killed perhaps
3000 within the first week and 8000 more
since, plus over 550,000 injuries, including
almost 40,000 temporary or partially
disabling and almost 4000 severely and
permanently disabling.
•8 ex-employees were convicted in 2010.

22. Selection of Ambassadors: Politics
and/or Soft Power

23. History of U.S. Public Diplomacy

24. International Background: Europe
• French Revolution: Appealing directly
to foreign publics to promote a
revolutionary ideology.
• 1883: In wake of defeat in Franco-
Prussian War, France creates Alliance
Francaise to repair national prestige,
promote French language and
literature.
• Italy and Germany soon follow suit.

25. Early U.S. Public Diplomacy
• The U.S. lacked any organized, official
Public Diplomacy of any sort until the
early 20th century.
• However, informal people-to-people
connections, Americans did exist:
– Diplomats, e.g., “Founding Fathers”
Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin,
etc;
– Missionaries: schools, libraries,
hospitals;
– U.S. students and scholars travelled
to Europe in the 19th century.
• Tremendous influence of German
university structure on America’s.

26. Boxer Rebellion
•1900 Boxer Uprising in China
•Qing Empire defeated, fined $333
million.
•U.S. share of indemnity: 7.32%
(plus interest)
•U.S. “Open Door” Policy toward
China – general opposition to
“spheres of interest”
•U.S. sets up program in 1909
using indemnity funds for
education.

27. Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
•In China:
•1909-1929: 1300 Chinese
students prepared to study at
American universities, most at
Tsinghua College, established in
Beijing in 1911.
•1929: Tsinghua College
expanded into a university, with
4-year undergraduate and post-
graduate school.
•In America:
•1926: China Foundation (later
the China Institute) founded in
New York. 5 groups of scholars
educated in U.S. before 1937
Japanese invasion of China.

28. Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
(continued)
•Graduates:
•philosopher Hu Shih (later
Chinese ambassador to US);
•physicist Chen Ning Yang (Nobel
Prize-winner);
•mathematician Kai Lai Chung;
•linguist Yen Ren Chao;
•rocket scientist TsienHsue-shen.
•UK, France, Japan later follow suit,
set up similar programs.
•Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholars
Program became model for Fulbright
Program (established in 1946).

29. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• One week after U.S. enters war in
April 1917, President Woodrow
Wilson creates the CPI (Executive
Order 2594).
• Main purpose: Build U.S. public
support for the war. But also had
offices in 9 foreign countries to
counter German propaganda.

30. First World War:
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
• CPI headed by George Creel, editor of
The Rocky Mountain News.
• Over 20 divisions and bureaus.
• News articles, movies, lectures,
posters, signboards, wireless cable
service, foreign press bureaus, film
division, leaflet-filled balloons.

31. First World War:
Committee on Public
Information (CPI)
• News Division: Official Bulletin,
an 8-pages (later 32 page)
paper, with positive news,
distributed to all US
newspapers, post offices,
government offices, military
bases.
• Films Division: Three feature-
length films released.
• Division of Pictorial Publicity:
posters.
• Other activities: Lectures,
signboards, leaflet-filled
balloons.

32. CPI Shuttered (1919)
• Criticism of CPI at home.
Psychological warfare? Propaganda?
(Creel said no, instead an honest
attempt to counter German
disinformation.)
• CPI ends domestic work with
Armistice in November 1918,
Congress ends funding for foreign
operations in June 1919, formally
abolished by Wilson in August 1919.
• No formal USG Public Diplomacy
operation or office for another 19
years, with Germany posing a threat
again...

33. Franklin Roosevelt, the Good Neighbor
Policy, and Internationalism
•Uneasy relations with Latin America
before FDR – neglect, exploitation,
and/or intervention: War with Mexico
(1848), unfair business deals, Panama
Canal, etc.
•Good Neighbor Policy
•FDR’s speech at Pan American
Union (1933): need for mutual
understanding
•Montevideo Inter-American
Conference (1933): Announcement
of lower tariffs, plans to establish
cultural exchanges. (Buenos Aires
1936, Lima 1938.)

34. Establishment of State Department’s
Division of Cultural Relations (1937)
•By 1937, U.S. (and Britain and France)
aware of threat German and Italian
propaganda and cultural diplomacy
•US State Department sets up Division of
Cultural Relations in 1938 to promote
exchanges, English language study, set up
libraries and reading rooms, translate
books, provide, technical assistance, etc.
•Note: Focus is on Latin America only
at first.
•But in pre-war period, Congress still does
not want to fund fully.

35. Second World War:
Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs
• August 1940 (before US entry into WW2),
FDR names millionaire Nelson A.
Rockefeller to position. Committed to art
and education.
• Responsibilities: Coordinate cultural and
commercial relations with Latin America.

36. Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs
Activities
• Rockefeller’s contributions:
– Promotion of American high
culture, including modern art
(though very controversial
Washington!)
– Positive portrayal of Latinos in
Disney movies, e.g., Saludos
Amigos, Three Caballeros
– Assistance to Mexico’s
railroad industry
• But Rockefeller also mixed in
business, propaganda (paying for
placement of positive stories in
newspapers), and intelligence-
collecting. (Bad formula.)

37. Second World War:
Office of War Information (OWI)
• 6 months after Pearl Harbor,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
(FDR) establishes Office of War
Information (OWI).
• OWI’s goal: Explain US policy to
domestic and foreign
audiences, public and media
through movies, leaflets,
magazines, and RADIO.
– Soviets had begun radio
broadcasts in 1926.
– Germany, Japan, Britain,
Holland follow suit.
– “Voice of America” (VOA)
inaugurated July 1942.

38. Public Diplomacy
Post-War Germany and Japan
• How to “reorient” society?
• Weeding out Fascist textbooks, revising
curriculum, radio programs (and
eventually television), etc.
• Exchange programs.
• Performing arts, e.g., Tokyo Symphony.
• Protection of art and other cultural
treasures, e.g., Kaiser Friedrich
collection.
• Establishment of Amerika Hauser
(libraries) throughout Germany. (Warm
places to read in the awful winter of
1946-47.)

39. Public Diplomacy
Post-War Germany and Japan
• Rebuilding the media, other parts of
civil society.
• English language training. Book
translations.
• Censorship of films, including samurai
epics in Japan that ostensibly fueled
militarism.
• No demands for restitution or
indemnities.
• VERY EXPENSIVE!

40. Cold War
• Rivalry between USSR and
U.S./West in many areas,
including Public Diplomacy
• Culture: The arts, exchanges,
exhibits, etc.
• Libraries, books, etc.
• Information: Voice of
America, Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty
• Obstacles/challenges for U.S.:
– racism/segregation
– McCarthyism/Red Scare

41. Establishment of USIA (1953)
• 1953: Establishment of
U.S. Information Agency.
– USIA takes books,
libraries, English
language, and
broadcasting.
– Exchanges remain
responsibility of State
Department until 1977.
– 1999: USIA merged
into State Department.

42. End of Second World War
Fulbright Exchange Program
• Sen. William Fulbright
(Democrat – Arkansas)
• Himself a Rhodes Scholar
• 1946: Sponsored legislation
to begin exchange programs.

43. Exchanges
Fulbright Program
•First handful of exchanges with China and Burma.
•First massive wave of Americans go to France and Italy.

44. Exchange Programs:
Ukraine
•20000 Ukrainians (1992-2011),
including 9000 on academic and 11000
on professional exchanges, including:
•700 on Fulbright Programs
(Master’s Degree students, young
faculty, scholars, etc)
•Over 950 on the Muskie Program
(Master’s Degree)
•Almost 850 on the Global
Undergraduate Program
•Over 650 secondary school
teachers
•Over 5000 secondary school
students (Future Leaders
Exchange, or FLEX, Progam)
•Plus, over 400 American students and
scholars came to Ukraine on the
Fulbright Program (1992-2011).

45. Posters, Magazines, Publications:
Cold War and Today

46. Broadcast Media
Cold War and Today

47. Jazz Diplomacy
Cold War
• Parallel developments: Cold War, Jazz
Diplomacy, U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
• 1954: President Eisenhower convinces
Congress to fund cultural exchanges as part
of the Cold War battle of ideas and
ideologies.
• During thaw following Stalin’s death, U.S.
and USSR agree to bilateral cultural
exchanges at Geneva Summit (1955).
• Purpose of Jazz Diplomacy during Cold War:
– Promote better understanding of
American society, including musical
heritage.
– Part of bilateral cultural exchanges with
Soviet Union and other nations.
– Weapon in U.S. cultural competition
with Soviets.
– Also helps U.S. combat “image” problem
with racism and segregation.

48. Jazz Diplomacy
Cold War
• Early jazz ambassadors :
– Dizzie Gillespie: East Pakistan,
Turkey, Syria, Greece, Egypt,
Lebanon, Yugoslavia (1956);
Uruguay, Ecuador (1956).
– Benny Goodman: Asia (1956).
– 1957: Louie Armstrong cancels
State Department tour of Soviet
Union to protest President
Eisenhower’s slow response to the
school desegregation crisis in Little
Rock, Arkansas. But later that
same year, goes on tour of Latin
America. Also goes to Africa
(1960-61).
– Dave Brubeck: Poland, East
Germany, Turkey, South Asia (India,
Afghanistan), Middle East (1958).
– Etc…
• One criticism of this an other cultural
programming: expense.
Jazz in Ukraine:
•Benny Goodman (June 1962): First visit to Soviet
Union by an American jazz group, between the
Berlin Crisis (August 1961) and Cuban Missile
Crisis (October 1962).
•Earl “Fatha” Hines (1966)
•Duke Ellington (1971)

49. Jazz Diplomacy
Cold War

50. Jazz Diplomacy
Today

51. American Ballet:
Visits to Ukraine During the Cold War
• American Dance Performances in Kyiv:
– 1960: American Ballet Theater
– 1962: New York City Ballet
– 1963: Joffrey Ballet (President
Kennedy assassinated while troupe in
Ukraine)

52. Cold War
American Exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow
• During thaw following Stalin’s death, U.S. and USSR agree to cultural
exchanges at Geneva Summit (1955).
• Soviet exhibit in New York City (June 1959)
• American exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow (July 1959)
– Importance of the young exhibit guides
• YouTube video on Nixon-Khrushchev "Kitchen Debate” (GWU)
• "Nixon, Khrushchev And A Story Of Cold War Love” (NPR)

53. Cold War
1959 American Exhibit at Sokolniki in Moscow

54. Libraries, Reading Rooms, Books:
Cold War and Today
• Books/Libraries were a CPI focus starting
in 1917.
• Rockefeller revived idea again in Latin
America in 1942, reopening reading
rooms and building 3 major libraries.
(First: Mexico City.)
• Mexico, Iran, Pakistan, etc.
• McCarthy era purges of USIS libraries
• Through the decades, USG support for
libraries rose and, particularly after end
of Cold War, fell.
• American Corners – established first in
Russia (IRO Eric Johnson), concept then
spreads.
• How important are books and IIP
publications today?

55. Libraries in Ukraine
• “America House” (old-style library) set up in Kyiv,
eventually transferred to a local university
(National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy).
• The U.S. Embassy maintains an Information
Resource Center (IRC) and additionally assists
libraries throughout Ukraine.
• As of 2011, Embassy had established Window on
America Centers (same as American Corner) in
almost every oblast center, and has set up over 140
free Library Electronic Access Project (LEAP)
internet centers all over the country, including (in
2011) three special centers for the blind in Kyiv,
Kherson and Rivne.
• Click here to see the impact of one LEAP center on
a small Ukrainian village.

56. English Language Programs
• Language as a PD tool.
• Examples:
– Pre-revolutionary Iran:
• self-funding
• 2 X full-time contract teachers
• 100k studies annually in 6 cities
– Ukraine
• RELO
• 3 X ELFs
• Access Microscholarship Program
(2009-10)
– Russian-leaning cities:
Luhansk (east) and Sevastopol
(Crimea)
– Kyiv (school integrating
differently-abled students into
classroom)

57. Peace Corps
• Peace Corps (PC) founded in 1961
• Part of responsibility for English
language teaching shifts away from
State. But opportunity for synergies
exist.
• Peace Corps in Ukraine
– Largest PC program in the world (as
of 2011). All PCVs evacuated in
2014.
– 3 areas of activity:
• Teaching English as a Foreign
Language (TEFL)
• Community Development (CD)
• Youth Development (YD) Peace Corps
– http://ukraine.peacecorps.gov/proj
ects.php
– PC Volunteer (PCV) website:
http://www.pcukraine.org

58. Educational Advising
• Almost 1700 Ukrainian students are currently studying in the U.S. at
American universities.
• A network of 4 EducationUSA advising centers provides assistance
to Ukrainians on the application process and the search for financial
assistance.

59. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural
Preservation (AFCP): Ukraine
Over the years, the AFCP has funded a number of projects in Ukraine to help
conserve, preserve, and/or promote or display the following:
•Fabrics in the Chekhov House-Museum (Yalta);
•16th century Golden Rose Synagogue (Lviv);
•Papers of Taras Shevchenko, rescued from archives in New York City (Kyiv);
•MykytynskaSich fortifications in Nikopol (Dnipropetrovsk oblast);

60. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural
Preservation (AFCP): Ukraine
• St. Nicholas wooden church in Kolodne
(Zakarpattiya);
• Crimean Tatar music, manuscripts and
handicrafts;
• Studion Icon Collection (Lviv);
• 12th century KhystynopolskyApostol
manuscripts (Lviv).

61. Other Programs
Ukraine

62. Other Programs
Ukraine

63. Other Programs
Ukraine

64. Other PD Programs
Ukraine

65. Technical Assistance as a Form of PD
• Technical assistance and education
had been responsibility of State since
1938 establishment of Division of
Cultural Relations.
• Transferred from State to forerunner
of USAID in 1948 as part of Marshall
Plan.
• USAID formally established in 1961.

66. Technical Assistance as a Form of PD
• Some countries “graduate,” no
longer needing USAID assistance.
• Russia kicks out USAID (2012).
• Ukraine example:
(http://ukraine.usaid.gov)
• Economic Growth
• Democracy/Governance
• Health and Social Issues
• Combating trafficking in
persons.

67. Cautionary Tale: Ramparts Scandal
•Prominent pacifists and leftists take part
Peace Conference in March 1949 in NYC,
urging peace with Soviet Union.
•Congress for Cultural Freedom
(KongressfürKulturelleFreiheit) founded
in 1950 in Berlin.
•Aim: Gather liberal and socialist
intellectuals – from U.S., Germany,
France, etc – to counter
Communism.
•Produced many intellectual and
cultural magazines.
•Cultural diplomacy effort, relatively
successful in countering Soviet
propaganda.
•However, Ramparts magazine
exposesscandal in 1966/67: CCF had
been funded all along by the CIA.

68. QUESTIONS?

69. Bibliography
Arndt, Richard T., The First Resort of Kings: American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century.
Asgard, Ramin, “Excerpts from US-Iran Cultural Diplomacy: A Historical Perspective,”
International Institute of Iranian Studies Annual Conference (Toronto, July 31 to August
3, 2008).
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2009/07/20090716172735xjsnom
mis0.8587109.html#axzz2zTBS21FZ
Asgard, Ramin and Barbara Slavin, “U.S. Iran Cultural Engagement,” Atlantic Council, June
2013. http://riirpolitics.com/sites/default/files/sac130627usiranculture_0.pdf
Cull, Nicholas J., The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American
Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989.
Davenport, Lisa E., Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era.
Hixson, Walter L., Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945-1961.
Prevots, Naima, Dance For Export: Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War.
University of South California’s Center for Public Diplomacy:
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/
Von Eschen, Penny M., Satchmo Blows Up the World.
Wagnleitner, Reinhold, and May, Elaine Tyler, eds., Here, There and Everywhere: The
Foreign Policy of American Popular Culture.