Academic Seminar: International Affairs and Public Diplomacy

GOVT-305-02, Academic Seminar: "International Affairs and Public Diplomacy," course given for Georgetown University's "Semester in Washington" program, January 13-May 15, 2010

Instructor: John Brown

Executive Summary (Version 1.1, 1/12/10)

There are many approaches to the study of “International Affairs,” a term that encompasses countless activities, ranging from issues dealing with human rights to nuclear non-proliferation. Our course focuses on one aspect of this complex topic -- public diplomacy -- in order to provide us with a concrete example of what “International Affairs” entails.

In the twenty-first century public diplomacy -- first coined as a term in the mid-1960s in the United States -- is playing an increasingly important role in the world today.

Public diplomacy is used not only by the US State Department -- which defines it as “engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences” -- as a tool of foreign policy, but also, increasingly, by other organizations -- governmental and non-governmental -- globally, which characterize it in their own specific ways.

The purpose of our course is to examine the nature, history, purpose, use, and morality of public diplomacy, as well as its relationship to international affairs, and especially to traditional diplomacy and propaganda.

Important note: Our course is not a “training course” in how to get a job with the US federal government (or any other government), domestically or overseas; rather, it is an effort to expand our understanding of America’s and other countries’ role in the world.

Our course is divided into four parts:

-- PART I: The history of public diplomacy, with a focus on how the United States has implemented it throughout the years (mid-January to late February);

--PART II: U.S. public diplomacy today, with an emphasis not only on how it is currently carried out by the State Department (including by diplomats in the field), but also with a consideration of its role in the international activities of other U.S. government USG agencies, such as the Defense Department and AID, and how it is seen by Congress (late February to early April);

--PART III: Public diplomacy as a global phenomenon, with an examination of how other countries, through their embassies and media/cultural programs, use it in their dealings with the United States and other parts of the world (early April to mid-April);

--PART IV: Non-governmental organizations and public diplomacy, with an overview of citizen diplomacy and public diplomacy as an academic disciple (mid-April to May).