By Terah U. DeJong
The USC Center on Public Diplomacy, a partnership between USC Annenberg and the USC School of International Relations, has launched PD, the world’s first publication devoted exclusively to the field of public diplomacy.
“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” said Nicholas Cull, director of the Master of Public Diplomacy program at USC, who advised the team of graduate student editors from the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars at USC.
“Because of the transformation of the world through communications and through democratization, publics have an increasingly significant role in the foreign policy process,” Cull said. “This magazine is a way of conceptualizing and documenting these changes.”
PD is being launched at a time of increased focus on the field, as illustrated by President Barack Obama’s decision to give his first interview on Al Arabiya and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s references to “smart power” during her confirmation hearings.
“Based on what was said during the election campaign, public diplomacy is going to be an important part of the Obama approach to the world,” Cull said.
The first issue, available at publicdiplomacymagazine.org, and in a limited print run, includes an interview with outgoing Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman, as well as a special “Memos to Obama” section.
The publication was conceived as a hybrid between a journal and a magazine, with contributions from both scholars and practitioners, said editor-in-chief Anoush Rima Tatevossian.
“We’re hoping that this will be an internationally recognized common forum,” she said.
Based on the response so far, the magazine has identified a real need. “We’ve already been getting emails and calls from people hoping to contribute,” Tatevossian said.
“The magazine is really going to help develop the field because it blends theory and practice,” said G. Matthew Bonham, co-director of the public diplomacy program at Syracuse University, the second university after USC to establish a public diplomacy program.
“And of course it’s great that it’s the students who are doing it, because it really addresses the needs of future practitioners,” Bonham added.
Building a community of public diplomats has been central to USC’s efforts since it started the program in 2005 as a joint effort of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the School of International Relations at the USC College.
“We have always wanted to encourage a critical mass of activity—courses, seminars—but also student-organized activity,” said Adam Clayton Powell III, USC’s vice provost for globalization, who attended the magazine’s launch on Feb. 17.
Others in attendance were diplomats representing the Czech Republic, Finland and Taiwan.
“You can certainly see how much enthusiasm there is here,” Powell said. “The launch of this publication is such a wonderful step forward.”
Powell said that when the program was founded, some questioned the wisdom of being located so far from Washington.
But nowadays, people inside the Beltway frequently cite the L.A. location of USC’s program as an asset, given the city’s proximity to Asia and its status as a global metropolis.
This was affirmed last year when USC received the U.S. State Department’s prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy.
At a ceremony last year, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commended the University. “In the area of academic institutions, we recognize the [USC] Center on Public Diplomacy for having evolved into the world's premier research facility in this field,” she said.
PD is another step towards building USC’s public diplomacy programs and initiatives.
“I think it’s another manifestation of the leadership of USC in this field,” Cull said. “And it’s especially meaningful to me that this has been driven by the students.”
The student editors hope that the publication will help establish public diplomacy more firmly in the foreign policy process.
“Public diplomacy is often conceived as something of an afterthought—that it’s public relations,” said Lorena M. Sanchez, PD’s senior issue editor.
“But as Edward R. Murrow famously said, public diplomacy has to be in on the takeoffs and not just the crash landings. Getting scholars to interface with practitioners is one way we hope to encourage that shift.”
PD will be published twice yearly. Future issues will focus on areas such as public diplomacy in emerging nations and the role of non-state actors, according to managing editor Desa Philadephia. Each issue will also contain case studies, best practices and books reviews.
Highlights from the first issue include:
- “Designing Out the Mess: A Historically Literate Approach to Rebooting U.S. Public Diplomacy” by Nicholas Cull, director of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy program
- “Improving the International Marketplace of Ideas” by Helle Dale of the Heritage Foundation
- “Brand America or America the Beautiful? Public Diplomacy in the Obama Era” by Benjamin Barber, author of Jihad vs. McWorld
- Interview with Walid Maalouf, USAID’s former director of public diplomacy for Middle Eastern affairs
- Interview with James K. Glassman, former under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the U.S. State Department.
PD is published online and in print with support from the Master of Public Diplomacy program at USC, the USC School of International Relations, and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
