Paper for Panel “New Forms of Public Diplomacy”

Politische Gespräche, Europäisches Forum Alpbach, 26. – 29. August, 2007

Günter Bischof
Chair and Marshall Plan Professor of History and Director, CenterAustria, University of New Orleans

    In order to assess new forms of U.S. public diplomacy, one needs to know whether the old public diplomacy worked and how it was practiced. My argument here is that American Cold War “people to people” networking was probably the most successful part of the U.S. public diplomacy posture. The American style of public/private partnerships was unique – some argue it even helped bring down the iron curtain in 1989. After the Cold War ended, the U.S. took a turn towards isolationism and privileging economic over public diplomacy. Only after the 9/11 disaster and Bush’s unleashing of preemptive war in Iraq, which brought about a precipitous decline of American prestige in the world and an upsurge of anti-Americanism, did the Bush White House rediscover the necessity of public diplomacy. The public diplomacy strategy fashioned by Karen Hughes, seems to be harkening back to Cold War models of state/private networks, citizen diplomacy, buttered up by “virtual diplomacy” utilizing the new digital media.

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