For the past 50 years, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has been developing capacities of individuals, organizations, and institutions to enhance global decision-making and support country-level action for shaping a better future.

Alan Hunt CMG, FCIM, FRGS (UK) is a former Ambassador and Director of the University of Oxford Foreign Service Programme. His career in the British Diplomatic Service included postings in Tehran, Jedda, Panama, Madrid, Oslo, Buenos Aires (where he played a central role in the restoration of diplomatic relations after the Falklands conflict) and Düsseldorf (where he was Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment Promotion in Germany). During postings in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London he handled international oil policy and relations with East Africa and Southern Europe, was Senior Civilian Directing Staff Member at the Royal College of Defence Studies and Director Overseas Trade. His final posting was as High Commissioner in Singapore.

My thanks go to Rabih Haddad and Emily Fraser for their unstinting encouragement in the writing of this book, and to Evelyne de Mevius and her colleagues, Franz Thiel, Tomas Zak and Nancy Yacoub, for their rigorous and thoughtful editing: any errors or omissions are my responsibility, not theirs.

Many excellent books have been published on public diplomacy, the best of which offer powerful analysis and valuable strategic advice. While it is arguably invidious to select any one of these publications, Jan Melissen’s The New Public Diplomacy: Between Theory and Practice* is a seminal work, strongly recommended to anyone seeking an introduction to the world of public diplomacy. So too are Joseph Nye’s books and articles on soft power. Special mention should also be made of the outstanding work conducted at the University of Southern California, where the Annenberg School is a rich repository of research and writing on public diplomacy. (Full details of these, and other relevant publications, can be found in the further reading section of this book.)