Abstracts Assignment

Abstract 1: Terrorism, Public Relations and Propaganda (2006) by Nancy Snow

In Terrorism, Public Relations and Propaganda, Nancy Snow examines the elusive concept of public diplomacy and how it relates to the American narrative, American foreign relations and subsequently, anti-American sentiment. As evidenced by various documents such as the Smith-Mundt Act, Snow illustrates just how indistinguishable the numerous definitions of public diplomacy are from that of propaganda to elucidate how to varying degrees, all governments exercise a certain level of influence and discretion in order to maintain a certain image of themselves among their own citizens and around the world. According to Snow, the Unites States’ particular brand of public diplomacy is ineffective at best, if not dubious. She reveals how the politics of exceptionalism and denial underlay the euphemistic pretenses of public diplomacy as she suggests how its presumed objective of global communication and mutual understanding is compromised by the very methods employed by its practitioners—namely through a superficial, public relations-style marketing approach of America: The Product, as opposed to engaging in any serious attempts to bridging cultural gaps. Ultimately Snow contends that any real change through public diplomacy must be executed through the agency of ordinary people with “citizen diplomacy and international exchanges” (p.157), and looks optimistically to global communication as a tool to enhance inter-cultural understanding at a period in history when it could not be more imperative to do so.


Abstract 2: Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera and Middle East Politics Today. Mark Lynch (2006). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.


In Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera and Middle East Politics Today, Marc Lynch postulates how modern technology and global communication have revolutionized public opinion in the Arabic World to such an extent that the Arabic States’ ability to engineer and sustain the illusion of unanimous public consent is being undermined. Consequently, States and political leaders are having to adhere to an unprecedented level of accountability for their policies and actions as this serge of information and communication technologies provides a platform for a plurality of voices and opinions—long repressed in region wherein democracy does not thrive. Ultimately, Lynch interprets this as the New Arab Public which, provided the right conditions, may or may not usher in a new era in Arab politics. The main problem to be addressed, however, is that of mobilization. For, as rich in potential for democratic action the new Arab public is, it currently has no vehicle through which it may actualize its ideas, as totalitarian and autocratic States still preside. Lynch insists that if the New Public is to bear any fruitful democratic progress whatever, the United States must desist in its unfounded suspicions and begin to engage with the New Public’s composite, clashing voices—unified in the cry for change and to be heard. Thus, studies such as Lynch’s play an indispensible role in the quest to encourage intercultural dialogue and understanding.