Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Evaluating Soft Power: Toward a Comparative
Framework
Chapter 3: Japan: Culture, Pop Culture, and the National Brand
Chapter 4: Venezuela: Telesur and the Artillery of Ideas
Chapter 5: China: Cultivating a Global Soft Power
Chapter 6: United States of America: Public Diplomacy 2.0 and 21st
Century Statecraft
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Craig Hayden is assistant professor of international communication at the School of International Service at American University. He has taught at the University of Virginia’s Department of Media Studies and at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. Craig was named a Research Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in 2009. He blogs at the International Media Argument Project (www.intermap.org).
Hayden (American Univ.) offers a welcome, much-needed analysis of
what has become one of the most discussed concepts in international
relations--soft power. Joseph S. Nye's concept of soft power has
gained much attention in recent years, yet a thorough theoretical
analysis has been sorely lacking. Hayden provides this analysis by
merging this concept with the notion of public diplomacy, which he
defines broadly as purposive attempts by actors to communicate in
global media, cultural, and information spaces. In the author's own
words, the book's goal is "to develop a theoretical treatment of
soft power and public diplomacy through an interdisciplinary
investigation of what is demonstratively a transnational,
interdisciplinary phenomenon." The book succeeds in this goal. One
of Hayden's main contributions is to not only offer a fresh
analysis of US debates over the use of soft power in light of
increased anti-Americanism in recent years. He also offers a rich
comparative analysis of how soft power is deployed in the crucial
states of China, Japan, and Venezuela, demonstrating how the key
soft power notions of influence and persuasion are conceived of
differently in different national contexts. Summing Up: Highly
recommended.
*CHOICE*
Scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy are certain to
benefit from this thoughtful examination of the articulation of
soft power. Public diplomacy is driven in part by the quality of
rhetoric that is presented to global publics, and Craig Hayden does
a fine job of analyzing the significance of communication in this
important element of nations’ foreign policy.
*Philip Seib, University of Southern California*
Hayden takes a complex area of increasing geopolitical significance
and gives us a clear and direct road map. As states vie to
determine the effects of their travails, Hayden’s comparative study
is both timely and original.
*Monroe E. Price, University of Pennsylvania*
Hayden has filled a gap in the comparative public diplomacy
literature by illustrating how different visions of soft power can
produce different public diplomacy practices, programs, and
goals. His richly informed analysis of four major actors is
guided by an original theoretical framework based on the scope,
mechanism, and outcomes of soft power.
*R.S. Zaharna, American University*
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