THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2024 39 on extensive experience in the oversight of U.S. government public diplomacy institutions and practices, Gregory offers an informed and proactive defense of PD as an essential tool of statecraft. Perhaps most importantly, American Diplomacy’s Public Dimension highlights public diplomacy’s centrality to the practice of diplomacy. Diplomacy, as Gregory defines it, is “an instrument used by states … sub-state and non-state actors to understand cultures, attitudes and behaviors; build and manage relationships; and influence thoughts and mobilize actions to advance their interests and values.” In other words, diplomacy is an essentially public function, relying on the use of information and influence strategies to further foreign policy objectives. By placing PD at the heart of diplomacy rather than relegating it to a secondary support function, Gregory makes a persuasive case for its enduring relevance. The first major scholarly work to explore early prototypes of American public diplomacy, the book reframes pivotal moments in colonial and revolutionary history, highlighting the crosscultural nature of nascent American diplomatic practices. This historical overview covers the transformative communication technologies that have driven major shifts in public diplomacy institutions and practices. Despite our current preoccupation with the digital age, diplomatic communications were similarly disrupted (and empowered) by the effects of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and television. Gregory identifies a set of unique and enduring patterns in American diplomatic practices, including an episodic focus on public diplomacy that coincides with existential threats to national interests. Those interested in institutional reinvention would do well to remember that all major shifts in PD priorities, institutions, and practices have been motivated by conflict. World War I led to the formation of the Creel Committee; World War II led to the emergence of the Voice of America; the Cold War led to the establishment of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA); and the Global War on Terror led to a series of counterterrorism communications centers within State. In keeping with what Gregory identifies as the social nature of diplomatic engagement, his book offers a definitive expansion of the community of practice, broadening the definition of a PD practitioner well beyond the diplomatic service. Although driven by rivalries, competing interests, and distinct, sometimes incompatible, operational imperatives, these “change agents,” as he calls them, make an elegant case for the robust give and take of democracy. At the same time, Gregory calls out the historical tension between “ideals and self-interest” inherent in American diplomacy, and the use of American exceptionalism as a “rationale for strategies that combine hard power—force, intimidation, and bribery—and the soft power attraction of ideals, resources, and alliances.” He makes a cogent case for the risks and costs associated with an “outsized view” of American “virtue, democracy, and capacity to steer history.” As we know all too well, nothing is more damaging to U.S. soft power than public perceptions of the gap between its values and its actions. Ultimately, this book pushes on the boundaries of diplomacy’s public dimension, providing helpful advice about the embrace of disruption, the cultivation of lateral knowledge, and the mitigation of resource constraints. Unfortunately, these are not qualities easily captured in government institutions and practices. Gregory is right about the rich and multi- tudinous history of American diplomacy’s public dimension but has little to say about how these qualities can be operationalized within a bureaucracy. Reevaluating Soft Power While Bruce Gregory creates a unifying origin story for American public diplomacy, historian Nicholas Cull offers a groundbreaking reevaluation of soft power and the projection of national legitimacy in the global media space. In Reputational Security: Refocusing Public Diplomacy for a Dangerous World (Polity, 2024), Cull argues that Joseph Nye’s conception Diplomacy is an essentially public function, relying on the use of information and influence strategies to further foreign policy objectives.
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