The Origins of Public Diplomacy in US Statecraft

This chapter looks specifically at how the US government worked with private groups to engage publics overseas for specific political reasons by looking at two episodes of US public diplomacy during a major turning point for the United States as a nation and its place in the world in relation to other nations at the turn of the nineteenth century. The first episode looks at the year leading up the Spanish-American War, and President William McKinley’s decision to form an ad hoc committee of business leaders, religious leaders, and elements of the American Red Cross to organize and administer humanitarian relief to the reconcentrados in Cuba. The second episode looks at the Fourth International Conference of American States and the resolution to develop education exchanges. This case not only tells the story of the early relationship between private entities and the US government with foreign engagement efforts, but also the deliberate use of engagement in US statecraft to achieve foreign policy goals, moving closer toward institutionalizing the practice of foreign public engagement as a mechanism of statecraft.