Propaganda and Foreign Policy: Positive Necessity or Necessary Evil

From the time that human beings organized themselves into social administrative units, propaganda has always been an important tool of communication and control, used by both ruling elite and counter-groups. The development of the nation-state, democracy and literacy steadily increased the spread and range of propaganda, while the advent of World Wars One and two dramatically demonstrated its importance - if not always its efficacy - internally and externally. In recent decades the advances in communications technology, coupled with yet more international conflicts and societal upheavals, have again highlighted the importance of the use of this tool - wielded by both state and non-state organizations - in the international arena. This book explores the dimensions of propaganda, in both theory and practice, using specific examples such as the Bolshevik campaigns or the propaganda during the Gulf War to illuminate its possibilities and limitations as a foreign policy tool.

Part 1: Propaganda in Theory 1. Introduction to Propaganda: Conceptions and Misconceptions 2. Sources of Propaganda and Counter-Propaganda in Modern Society: Image-Building and Destruction 3. The Role of Propaganda in Modern Society: Elite Tool and Societal Cement 4. Propaganda in New and Established Regimes: Necessities, Luxuries and Legitimacy 5. Propaganda in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes: Morality versus Utility? 6. Foreign Policy and Propaganda: Potential and Limitations Part 2: The Practice of Propaganda 7. Propaganda from New Regimes: The Bolshevik and Khomeyni Regimes Compared 8. The US in Vietnam and the USSR in Afghanistan: Democratic and Authoritarian Propaganda at War 9. The USSR and Eastern Europe: Propaganda Failure or the Triumph of the West? 10. The Gulf War and Propaganda: Lessons from the Past, Problems for the Future? 11. South Korea and North Korea: Tigers and Dinosaurs?