The Center on Public Diplomacy at USC Annenberg hosted Barry A. Sanders, who discussed his new book, "American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination," and how the world views the United States. The book focuses on images that people around the world have about the United States and how they formed those images, which can be helpful for diplomats. "Public diplomacy at its core is an effort to affect what people think about a country or about policies that a country has," Sanders said. "It seems to me that if you are going to try to affect someone's ideas, you need to have some understanding of how they came by them." People accumulate images based on experiences and what others tell them about their experiences, but people also add images to their memories that they have made up. Some of these predispositions "that start out as admiration and end up as disappointment" hurt America's image. "So from the public diplomacy point of view you need to focus on these emotional reactions, these ones of disappointment, these ones of frustration, of thwarted ambition, those have a tremendous danger for us in terms of the world's view," Sanders said. He said diplomats should focus on people outside the United States who are persuadable and sell them on the things most people worry about America. Sanders pointed out five of these aspects: steadfastness, openness, acting in the interest of others, compassion and hypocrisy. Center on Public Diplomacy