Overview

Written by a leading scholar of public diplomacy, Boundary Spanners of Humanity introduces a pan-human vision of communication that can revolutionize how we collaborate to solve global problems. Never before has humanity enjoyed better technological capabilities for interconnection than today. Ironically, rather than benefiting from the global pool of human resources and intellectual wealth to solve shared problems, nations are experiencing public discord and global divisions. Boundary Spanners of Humanity tackles the challenge of how to enhance global collaboration by introducing three pan-human logics of human communication and public diplomacy that can transform how we view diversity in an interconnected world. R.S. Zaharna begins by asking why the very tools needed for global collaboration-communication and public diplomacy-are undermining our efforts to work together. Her research reveals how contemporary communication is based on a nineteenth-century mindset of separateness that divided people into mutually exclusive cultural and national categories. That mindset reinforces human divisions and erodes global collaboration. In a radical break from conventional models, Zaharna introduces a vision of humanity-centered public diplomacy featuring three complementary logics of communication. Zaharna's innovative approach stems from decade-long, interdisciplinary research that spans from ancient cosmologies to emerging neurobiology. She draws on a rich array of global examples from ancient and indigenous precolonial diplomacies to spontaneous online communication during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide insights into overlooked aspects of emotion, empathy, spirituality, and synchrony in how nations and people communicate in the global arena. Ambitiously conceived, this book will bring a new, global understanding of how to conduct public diplomacy for the world's boundary spanners-those who would find commonality among our many divisions-and collaborate on humanity's shared global problems.

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9780190930271

Table of Contents

Reviews

We are living in an age where our problems are much more effectively globalized than our solutions. Zaharna's new book provides a sensitive, authoritative, and eminently practical route out of this growing dilemma: a more culturally-aware approach to communications and diplomacy. It would be a wonderful thing if this book became required reading for the coming generations of diplomats and politicians, as well as scholars and students. It certainly deserves it. * Simon Anholt, author of The Good Country Equation * An original and valuable work which rethinks the links between communication, culture, and diplomacy. The great joy of this book is its eclecticism and the comprehensiveness of Zaharna's 'world tour' with the multiple insights she brings. The result is consistently illuminating and fun to read in equal measure. A book to celebrate. * Nicholas J. Cull, author of Public Diplomacy * Zaharna's pioneering new book shows us how a cross-cultural, humanist approach to communication and public diplomacy leverages the impact of diversity and connectivity in addressing some of the world's biggest challenges. This masterful work shifts our view of public diplomacy as a state-centric function to a human-centric enterprise. * Kathy R. Fitzpatrick, author of The Future of U.S. Public Diplomacy * Zaharna doesn't just write eloquently about boundary spanners of humanity. She is one. This world is in desperate need of more people to guide us like my friend who wrote this book. * Nancy Snow, Coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy *

Author Information

R.S. Zaharna is Professor of Communication at the American University in Washington, DC, and Faculty Fellow with the Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California.

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