American Center America No Kokusai Bunka Senryaku

[Machine Translation] In recent years, there has been a rapidly growing interest in public diplomacy around the world. It is a matter of how to make one's own country understood by others (other countries) in the national interest, how to set up a way of perceiving the world, and how to control the discourse. This is not only a question of what diplomacy and politics are, but also a more fundamental question of what it means to "understand" other countries and cultures. The author focuses on the American Center for Public Diplomacy, a major player in public diplomacy in the U.S., and investigates the changes in its philosophy and activities over the past half-century since its founding. The book examines the struggle between various discourses on public diplomacy as "the politics of culture," and creates a stir in cultural studies and understanding of the United States. This is an ambitious study that synthesizes the results of research conducted over the years by an up-and-coming scholar who has garnered a great deal of attention.

近年、世界各国で急速に高まるパブリック・ディプロマシーへの関心。それは、いかに国益に適うように自国を他者(他国)に理解させうるか、いかに世界認識の仕方を設定できるか、言説を支配できるかということに関わる事柄である。そこには、外交とは何か、政治とは何かという問いにとどまらず、他国や文化を「理解」するとはどういうことかという、より根源的な問いが含まれている。著者は、米国のパブリック・ディプロマシーの主たる担い手である「アメリカン・センター」に着目し、創設以来約半世紀にわたるその活動理念や活動実態の変遷を究明。パブリック・ディプロマシーをめぐるさまざまな言説のせめぎ合いを「文化の政治学」として考察し、文化研究、またアメリカ理解に一石を投ずる。注目を集める気鋭の研究者による年来の研究成果を総合する意欲的考察。