Reconnecting the Past and Present

Abstract

Schindler identifies three broad problems confronting US public diplomacy today related to its conceptual understanding, organizational place in the US, and ideological underpinnings for US foreign relations and foreign policy. These problems impede the use of public diplomacy in US statecraft. Schindler suggests the problems or obstacles facing public diplomacy today are rooted in America’s past. In connecting these issues of public diplomacy to the past of the USA, Schindler outlines how an in-depth study using six examples of early US public diplomacy could provide context for public diplomacy today as well as a general framework to improve its integration in US statecraft, identifying patterns as well as catalysts and inhibitors which contribute to the evolution of US public diplomacy.