Public Diplomacy and Political Warfare

IWP 637
Four credits

This course examines the history, theories, and methodologies of public diplomacy and political warfare through the 20th Century, and especially during the Cold War, with an eye toward applying lessons to the development of 21st Century public diplomacy and political warfare strategies. The course emphasizes psychological strategy, in which US policies should be calculated to achieve a desired psychological effect. The objective of the course is to help prepare the student to integrate public diplomacy and political warfare with other tools - traditional diplomacy, foreign aid, intelligence collection and covert operations, and military and economic foreign policy - and to condition the student to approach the issue with confidence.

Further course details, including the list of assigned books, are contained in the course website: publicdiplomacyonline.com.

Semester Available

Spring Semester

Pre-requisites

Foreign Propaganda, Perceptions and Policy

Related Courses

The Art of Diplomacy

Counterintelligence in a Democratic Society

Ideas and Values in International Politics

Intelligence and Policy

Mass Media and World Politics

Information Operations and Information Warfare

Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future

Special Note

Registration for this course requires the approval of the professor.

Principal Professor

J. Michael Waller

Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of International Communication, IWP {read more}

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FEATURED FACULTY

David M.L. Klocek

Professor of Political Science

U.S. Intelligence in the Cold War and Beyond

Secret intelligence is the "missing dimension" of Cold War history, as it is of most diplomatic history. This course analyzes a selective history of the U.S. intelligence community in the Cold War in order to assess its overall role. On the basis of declassified intelligence records and eyewitness accounts of former senior intelligence officers, the course focuses on what the intelligence community collected, knew, and estimated, and how intelligence reporting did or did not affect U.S. national security strategy and policy.

Principal Professor

David L. Thomas