From the first issue of Public Diplomacy, Nicholas J. Cull (USC): Designing Out the Mess: A Historically Literate Approach to the Re-launch of U.S. Public Diplomacy; Kristin Lord (Brookings): The USA-World Trust: Bringing the Power of Networks to U.S. Public Diplomacy; Benjamin Barber on public diplomacy in the Obama Era; an interview with James K. Glassman on evaluating his tenure at State; an interview with USAID's Walid Maalouf on foreign aid as public diplomacy; and a review of American Idol after Iraq: Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age by Nathan Gardels and Mike Medavoy. From American Diplomacy, here's a prescription for the renaissance of American diplomacy. Diplomacy from Defense: With his letter to Russia, it looks like President Obama has finally taken Robert Gates' advice. Will the Obama administration reaffirm the civic mandate of the Postal Service that was damaged during the Bush years? A review of James Waller's Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. The Sea is My Brother, the first novel Jack Kerouac ever wrote, when he was a merchant mariner in 1942, will be published in its entirety for the first time (and from Bookforum, David L. Ulin on the fiftieth anniversary of Kerouac's On the Road). A review of Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary by Miri Rubin (and more and more).
