Full Spectrum Diplomacy and Grand Strategy: Reforming the Structure and Culture of U.S. Foreign Policy

Full Spectrum Diplomacy and Grand Strategy: Reforming the Structure and Culture of U.S. Foreign Policy, by John Lenczowski, offers a solution to one of the greatest weaknesses in U.S. foreign policy that has exacerbated the unprecedented anti-Americanism of recent years-the U.S. Government’s inability to conduct the ‘full spectrum’ of diplomatic arts and to integrate them with the other arts of statecraft at the level of grand strategy. The analysis presents a critique of how the Department of State’s focus on traditional, government-to-government diplomacy comes at the expense of public diplomacy. ‘Public Diplomacy’ is defined in the broadest sense as including all those arts that involve relations with, and influence over, foreign publics and opinion leaders, including: cultural diplomacy, exchanges, information policy, strategic communications, psychological strategy, political action, political warfare, and wars of ideas. Author John Lenczowski, one of the first modern advocates for the strategic integration of all the instruments of national power, calls for the development of an ‘influence culture’ in U.S. foreign policy, and provides a road map for the reform of the structure and culture of American diplomacy. While addressing contemporary U.S. foreign policy, this study presents lessons in statecraft and grand strategy that are applicable for all times and places. Full Spectrum Diplomacy and Grand Strategy thus raises issues that are relevant not only to diplomats, but to practitioners of intelligence, counterintelligence, military strategy, and economic statecraft.