Foreign Affairs Professional Reading List

The Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and the President of the American Foreign Service Association have co-sponsored the creation of a Foreign Affairs Professional Reading List to serve as a resource for Foreign Service and Civil Service employees of the foreign affairs agencies. AFSA, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and the State Department's Ralph J. Bunche Library, Office of the Historian, and Office of E-Diplomacy have compiled the list, with help from regional and functional bureaus. The list seeks to identify useful books and websites to serve as a point of departure for career-long, self-directed professional development. 

Public Diplomacy 

Dizard, Wilson P. Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the United States Information Agency. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2004. A useful, clear, and compact account of a vitally important aspect of U.S. foreign policy. [E840.2.D59 2004]

--- Digital Diplomacy: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Information Age. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001. [E840.D5 2001eb]

Kiehl, William, ed. America's Dialogue with the World. Washington, DC: Public Diplomacy Council, 2006. Essays on strategic communication, cultural diplomacy, technology, exchanges and other subjects relating to the changing nature of U.S. public diplomacy. [E895.A43 2006]

Nye, Joseph. Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. Makes the case for using the “soft power” of U.S. public diplomacy abroad. [JZ1480.N94 2004]

Tuch, Hans N. Communicating with the World: U.S. Public Diplomacy Overseas. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. A seasoned practitioner vividly explains how diplomatic missions abroad practice public diplomacy. [JX1706.T78]