Routledge is seeking reviewers for a public diplomacy edited by Phil Taylor and Nancy Snow. The Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy

provides a comprehensive overview of public diplomacy and national image and perception management, from the efforts to foster pro-West sentiment during the Cold War to the post-9/11 campaign to "win the hearts and minds" of the Muslim world. Editors Nancy Snow and Philip Taylor present materials on public diplomacy trends in public opinion and cultural diplomacy as well as topical policy issues. The latest research in public relations, credibility, soft power, advertising, and marketing is included and institutional processes and players are identified and analyzed. While the field is dominated by American and British research and developments, the book also includes international research and comparative perspectives from other countries.

If you are interested in receiving a copy to review, email me and I’ll put you in touch with the publisher.

Disclosure: I have a chapter in this book, “Operationalizing Public Diplomacy”

The Kilcullen Doctrine by Mark Safranski, ZenPundit.com, May 28, 2009

Tribal and even “civilized” rural people, often find ways of making social status distinctions that relate to behaviour and character rather than or in addition to the mere accumulation of material possessions (Col. Pat Lang has a great paper on this subject, “How to Work with Tribesmen“). We can shorthand them as “honor” cultures and they provide a different set of motivations and reactions than, say, those possessed by a CPA in San Francisco or an attorney in Washington, DC. People with “honor” are more obviously “territorial” and quick to defend against perceived slights or intrusions by unwelcome outsiders. This is a mentality that is alien to most modern, urbanized, 21st century westerners but it was not unfamiliar all that long ago, even in 19th and early 20th century, Americans had these traits. Shelby Foote, the Civil War historian, quotes a captured Southern rebel, who responded to a Union officer who asked him, why, if he had no slaves, was he was fighting? “Because you are down here” was the answer.

Mark draws from John Nagl’s superb review at RUSI and Mark’s own brilliance and deep knowledge of history.

Read Mark’s whole review of Dave Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. Also, buy Dave’s book.

See also:

• Guest Post: PSYOP for everyone