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Conference
The United States and Public Diplomacy: Toward an International History
 Organizers: Peter Hahn, Professor and Chair of the History Department; Robert McMahon, Ralph D. Mershon Professor of History; Brian Etheridge, Assistant Professor of History, Louisiana Tech University; Kenneth Osgood, Assistant Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University
Co-sponsored by the American Foreign Policy Center, Louisiana Tech University
Friday-Saturday, April 20-21, 2007
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201
Image credit: American Historical Association
The United States and Public Diplomacy: Toward an International History will bring together the latest scholarship on the history of public diplomacy from a variety of disciplines, with an eye toward publication of an edited book intended to introduce scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and the general public to public diplomacy studies.
While at times a slippery term, public diplomacy denotes activities designed to shape, manipulate, or otherwise influence public opinion to facilitate the achievement of foreign policy objectives. Its practitioners have harbored ambitions ranging from advancing particular ideologies such as Nazism or communism, to spreading cultural values and products, to simply fostering goodwill between nations.
Practitioners of public diplomacy have also used a range of methods to achieve their objectives, including
• The creation of films, pamphlets, and other propaganda; the suppression of cultural products deemed injurious to their interest.
• The employment of local people and firms to disseminate their message.
• The building of coalitions with state and non-state allies to achieve their public diplomacy objectives.
In particular, this conference will explore the ways public diplomacy reflects ideas and beliefs that inform security policy. Public diplomacy serves as an ideal nexus through which scholars can observe and analyze the interplay of culture and diplomacy, domestic and international politics, and security concerns and civil liberties.
Conference Schedule
Friday, April 20, 2007
9 a.m. -- Opening Remarks
Peter Hahn, The Ohio State University
Brian Etheridge, Louisiana Tech University
9:30-11:30 a.m. -- Session 1: Inventing Modern Public Diplomacy
“U.S.-Soviet Political Warfare, 1941-91”
Mark Kramer, Harvard University
Comment: Nicholas Cull
“ ‘Foreign Relations, Domestic Affairs’: New Ways of Thinking about the Impact of Public Opinion during the 1940s”
Justin Hart, Texas Tech University
Comment: Seth Center
“Naming the Dark: Crises Managed and Opportunities Missed in the Truman Administration’s Third World Public Diplomacy, 1947-50”
Jason Parker, Texas A&M University
Comment: Jessica Gienow-Hecht
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Lunch
“New Directions for the Foreign Relations of the United States Series: Documenting the History of Official Cultural Diplomacy”
Adam Howard, U.S. Department of State
1-3 p.m. -- Session 2:
Presenting the United States to the World
“Designing a Full and Fair Picture -- Interplay Between Central Ambitions and Local Conditions in Public Diplomacy: U.S. Cultural and Informational Diplomacy in Norway in the 1950s”
Helge Danielsen, University of Oslo
Comment: Giles Scott-Smith
“Thar’s Propaganda in Them Thar Hills: Appalachian Culture and the Changing Nature of U.S. Public Diplomacy, 1964-72”
Michael Krenn, Appalachian State University
Comment: Mark Kramer
“Winning the Cold War at Twenty-Four Frames per Second: USIA Film as Public Diplomacy”
Nicholas Cull, University of Southern California
Comment: Neal Rosendorf
3-3:30 p.m. -- Break
3:30-5 p.m. -- Session 3: Non-State Actors in Public Diplomacy
“The American Producer and the Spanish Dictator: Samuel Bronston’s Special Relationship with the Franco Regime, 1957-73”
Neal Rosendorf, Long Island University
Comment: John Tully
“The (Ir)relevant Debating Society?: The United Nations and Public Diplomacy”
Seth Center, University of Virginia
Comment: David Snyder
“Searching for the Successor Generations: Exchange Programs, Networks of Influence, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1980s”
Giles Scott-Smith, Roosevelt Study Center
Comment: Héctor Perla
Saturday, April 21, 2007
9-11:30 a.m. -- Session 4: Presenting the World to the United States
“Cultural Diplomacy and Civil Society: Historical Trajectories in International History since 1800”
Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main
Comment: Michael Krenn
“Irish Americans and the Anglo-American Security Relationship: An International Effort”
John Tully, Central Connecticut State University
Comment: Justin Hart
“A Small Chorus on a Great Stage: The Netherlands Information Bureau and the Disharmonies of Dutch Public Diplomacy, 1941-55”
David Snyder, Grand Valley State University
Comment: Helge Danielsen
“Transnational Public Diplomacy: Salvadoran Revolutionary Efforts to Counter U.S. Public Support for Reagan's Central American Policy”
Héctor Perla, Ohio University
Comment: Jason Parker
11:30 a.m.-12 p.m. -- Closing Remarks
Kenneth Osgood, Florida Atlantic University
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