R.S. Zaharna – författare

Written by a leading scholar of public diplomacy, Boundary Spanners of Humanity introduces a pan-human vision of communication that can revolutionize how we collaborate to solve global problems. Never before has humanity enjoyed better technological capabilities for interconnection than today. Ironically, rather than benefiting from the global pool of human resources and intellectual wealth to solve shared problems, nations are experiencing public discord and global divisions. Boundary Spanners of Humanity tackles the challenge of how to enhance global collaboration by introducing three pan-human logics of human communication and public diplomacy that can transform how we view diversity in an interconnected world. R.S. Zaharna begins by asking why the very tools needed for global collaboration-communication and public diplomacy-are undermining our efforts to work together. Her research reveals how contemporary communication is based on a nineteenth-century mindset of separateness that divided people into mutually exclusive cultural and national categories. That mindset reinforces human divisions and erodes global collaboration. In a radical break from conventional models, Zaharna introduces a vision of humanity-centered public diplomacy featuring three complementary logics of communication. Zaharna's innovative approach stems from decade-long, interdisciplinary research that spans from ancient cosmologies to emerging neurobiology. She draws on a rich array of global examples from ancient and indigenous precolonial diplomacies to spontaneous online communication during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide insights into overlooked aspects of emotion, empathy, spirituality, and synchrony in how nations and people communicate in the global arena. Ambitiously conceived, this book will bring a new, global understanding of how to conduct public diplomacy for the world's boundary spanners-those who would find commonality among our many divisions-and collaborate on humanity's shared global problems.

Over the past decade, scholars, practitioners, and leading diplomats have forcefully argued for the need to move beyond one-way, mass-media-driven campaigns and develop more relational strategies. In the coming years, as the range of public diplomacy actors grows, the issues become more complexly intertwined, and the use of social media proliferates, the focus on relations will intensify along with the demands for more sophisticated strategies. These changes in the international arena call for a connective mindshift: a shift from information control and dominance to skilled relationship management.Leading international scholars and practitioners embark on a forward-looking exploration of creative conceptual frameworks, training methods, and case studies that advance relational, networking, and collaborative strategies in public diplomacy. Light on academic jargon and rich in analysis, this volume argues that while relationships have always been pivotal to the practice of public diplomacy, the relational dynamics are changing. Rather than focus on specific definitions, the contributors focus on the dynamic interplay of influence in the public diplomacy environment. That environment includes state and non-state actors, public and private partners, competitors and collaborators, new and old media, and is conditioned by power, ethics, and cultures.This book is an essential resource to students and practitioners interested on how to build relationships and transform them into more elaborate network structures through public communication. It will challenge you to push the boundaries of what you think are the mechanisms, benefits, and potential issues raised by a relational approach to public diplomacy