Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency

Nicholas J. Cull is a professor of Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.

• Audit of an Empire: USIA and American Public Diplomacy in 1988 Beyond the Cold War: The Administration of George H.W. Bush Downsizing: Bill Clinton's First Term End Games: Bill Clinton's Second Term Conclusion: The Tragedy of US Public Diplomacy

"In his scholarly and careful but always engaging and readable account of how the end of the Cold War precipitated the fall of the United States Information Agency, Nicholas J. Cull has not only given an account of the strengths and defects of public diplomacy in the first Bush administration and Clinton's two terms, but has also offered a deeper exploration of the role of government-sponsored information and culture in the modern world. I can think of no better way for citizens and public officials to explore such crucial questions than in Nick Cull's invigorating company." Benjamin R. Barber, senior research scholar, Graduate Center, City University of New York and author of Jihad vs. McWorld "In this excellent study about the unraveling of the USIA, Nick Cull once again shows the importance of studying the history of public diplomacy. He is a great storyteller with a keen eye for telling details and individuals' contributions to the shaping of US public diplomacy. He makes a convincing case for independent cultural agencies in the execution of public diplomacy." Jan Melissen, director of research, Clingendael, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Netherlands "Nicholas J. Cull continues to produce authoritative, fascinating, and well-documented works on American public diplomacy in general and the USIA in particular. This book is required reading for any scholar, student, or official interested in the fields of American foreign policy, public diplomacy, and international communication." Eytan Gilboa, director of the School of Communication and the Center for International Communication, Bar-Ilan University, Israel