The Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency - American Public Diplomacy, 1989–2001

At a time when issues of international engagement are again at the fore of foreign policy, this book tells the story of how America's apparatus for public diplomacy came to be in disarray. Using newly declassified archives and interviews with practitioners, Nicholas J. Cull has pieced together the story of the final decade in the life of the United States Information Agency. It is both a sorry tale of political neglect and missed opportunities and an account of what America's public diplomats were nevertheless able to accomplish. Key methods examined include Voice of America radio, exchanges, and cultural diplomacy. Major episodes include the transition of Eastern Europe to democracy, the role of public diplomacy in the First Gulf War and Kosovo Wars, the US interventions in Somalia and Haiti, and the build-up to the attacks of 9/11.