Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy

by Philip Seib

Proponents of American public diplomacy sometimes find it difficult to be taken seriously. Everyone says nice things about relying less on military force and more on soft power. But it has been hard to break away from the longtime conventional wisdom that America owes its place in the world primarily to its muscle. Today, however, policy makers are recognizing that merely being a "superpower" - whatever that means now - does not ensure security or prosperity in a globalized society. Toward a New Public Diplomacy explains public diplomacy and makes the case for why it will be the crucial element in the much-needed reinvention of American foreign policy.

268 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Philip Seib is a Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy and Professor of International Relations.

Seib's research interests include the effects of news coverage on foreign policy, particularly conflict and terrorism issues. He is author or editor of numerous books, including Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy; The Global Journalist: News and Conscience in a World of Conflict; Broadcasts from the Blitz: How Edward R. Murrow Helped Lead America into War; Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War; New Media and the Middle East (2007); The Al Jazeera Effect (2008); Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy (2009); and Real-Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era (2012). Seib is also the editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication, co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy and co-editor of the journal Media, War and Conflict, published by Sage.

Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2007, Seib was a professor at Marquette University and before that at Southern Methodist University.

[source: http://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/comm... ]