The idea to create this book was triggered by the feeling that the debate about public diplomacy after September 2001 had mainly taken place in the press and that the time was ripe for students of diplomacy to look at this phenomenon. In the early stages of the book it became clear how much confusion still surrounded public diplomacy (that is, the relationship between diplomats and the foreign publics with whom they work) with public debate on the concept being particularly intense in the United States. Between ‘9/11’ and the outbreak of war in Iraq, public diplomacy was beyond any doubt the hottest item in the US foreign policy establishment. Most American think tanks produced advisory reports on public diplomacy, some of them more helpful than others, but so far there has been remarkably little academic literature on post-Cold War public diplomacy. Those interested in it are confronted with an overload of press coverage, comment and analysis as well as instant advice for policy-makers. What is missing, however, is a lack of analysis of deeper trends, and a perspective on how official communication with foreign publics should be seen in the context of wider diplomatic practice. There are, of course, many ways to look at public diplomacy, and students of diplomacy are fortunately by no means the only academics interested in it. It seems probable that the vantage point of students of global communication, historians of propaganda or international relations’ theorists leads to views on public diplomacy that differ from those of students of diplomacy. In this book the practice of diplomacy is the starting point for the majority of the contributions.