With over 30 years in international communications, and a focus on areas including propaganda, intercultural affairs, and strategic communication, Dr. Nancy Snow has been instrumental in advancing public diplomacy scholarship in the US and internationally. The three-time Fulbright award recipient (Germany, Japan, Greece) is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and at the Institute of International Relations (IDIS) in Athens. Here, Snow talks to Business Partners about Greece, her work, and the fields of communication and public diplomacy.
Could you share details about your current research project as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Greece?
I came to the world’s crossroads to advance public diplomacy, strategic communications scholarship, and dialogue in times of crisis and opportunity. My subfields of international relations are not part of the Greek academic curriculum, so I have a bit of a messianic function in helping to spread the value of global and intercultural communications in a country of classic and modern democracy. Likewise, as a devotee of global capitals from Washington, Beijing, and Tokyo, I’m excited to explore the city brand of Athens and its movement toward cultural heritage preservation management.
Greece has a rich cultural and historical background. How does this environment influence your research interests or methodologies? Are there any aspects of Greek culture or society that you find particularly relevant to your work?
Yes, indeed. Greece is well known for its island tourism, beauty, cuisine, and filotimo. Still, its popularity as a destination has recently been bumping up against cultural and historic preservation and heritage efforts that require sustainable development values. Like Japan, where I live part-time, Greece is confronting over-tourism. Imagine if Greece were to welcome tourists under the social contract “We all are Greeks.” Would it not possibly change the attitudes and behaviors of visitors to make them more conscious of their roles as stewards of this shared place? Another observation: Greece is located in a strategic part of the world where great powers partner with this Mediterranean power that is raising its voice internationally. The Port of Piraeus is predominantly owned and entirely operated by the Chinese state-owned COSCO Shipping. My counterparts here tell me Greece works well with its Chinese counterparts under a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. That reality is a nation-brand story for the world—how to promote evolving, mutually beneficial relations in the era of great powers competition. In East Asia proper and US-China relations, competitive values often predominate, and zero-sum games play out. However, we need more cooperative and collaborative efforts to rise above negative stereotypes and aggressive competition postures. My goals are to achieve a strategic partnership between my existing institutional affiliations in the US, Japan, China, and beyond with the institutions that have welcomed me here, namely Panteion University and the Institute of International Relations.
Women communicators should not be on the sidelines of policy discussions
How do you envision your collaboration with Panteion University and the Institute of International Relations contributing to your research goals?
I am under contract with the Naval Institute Press to complete what may be my magnum opus: Battleship Diplomat: The Enduring Soul of Mighty Mo. It is about the last and most famous battleship of the United States, which saw action in WWII, hosted the Japanese surrender to end that war, and saw action again in Korea in the early 1950s and the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s. It now serves as a living museum in Pearl Harbor. She represents the prelude to the Truman Doctrine and Cold War with her famous Mediterranean diplomatic cruise in the spring of 1946. My father was aboard the ship during its port-of-calls, including Istanbul and Athens. I have already made headway in contacting maritime historians and archivists who are assisting me in accessing the Greek language accounts of this historical period. I aim to share with my colleagues the power of narrative and storytelling in war and peace, particularly in the power of redemption. Who could have imagined that a warring ship involved in the Battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima would be such a popular tourist destination today for the Japanese people?
As an educator, what are some of the key challenges you see facing the communications field today?
The field is taken for granted. We often adhere to our theories and grand strategies in politics and policymaking without thinking of the communications toolkit necessary to make ourselves understood and to understand. I have worked in international communications for thirty years. I view it through a gendered and national context: Women are often drawn to the communications fields where many of us thrive. However, women communicators should not be on the sidelines of policy discussions, including defense, security, and foreign policy dialogues. I recognize powerful women here in Greece, including deities, whose guiding lights offer a wisdom and peace orientation that is needed, desired, and longer lasting. In Japan, I’ve been told by male executives about extremely competent Japanese women working at international organizations in New York, Brussels, or Geneva whose leadership skills were underutilized in their home country. These gender diplomats have unique experiences to share in an often masculinized environment of politics and policy.
What are some emerging trends or developments in the field of public diplomacy that scholars and practitioners should be paying attention to?
Pay attention to neglected scholarship areas: international and digital broadcasting, the rising power of national voices on the global stage (e.g., China, Türkiye); and international educational and cultural exchange. Greece is quietly reemerging on the worldwide stage after its brutal economic crisis. It is ripe for public diplomacy scholarship. Likewise, person-to-person exchange is for more than just participation. Its power to inform and influence needs to be better studied. Student and professional exchanges between the US and China have been at their lowest in decades, mainly since COVID-19 and pandemic diplomacy and economic conflicts emerged. I have faith that despite our differences, we can pledge to establish a longterm commitment to engaging people in countries that live under different political systems. Isolation from one another is terrible for our health and leads to a slippery slope toward disagreements that lead us into war. We must use the power of people exchange to discover areas of joint agreement and accommodation. This keeps me up at night, but I am also eager to face every day with the Rilkean devotion to living the questions of human endeavor.
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Dr. Nancy Snow is Professor of Communications Emerita at California State University, Fullerton. She is a foundational faculty who helped advance public diplomacy in curriculum and practice at two flagship graduate programs, the University of Southern California Annenberg School and Syracuse University Newhouse School, and has held visiting senior professorship positions with numerous institutions around the world including universities in China, Israel, Japan (Keio, Sophia), and Malaysia (UiTM). Snow has published fifteen books, is an advisor to the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Foundation, and serves on the editorial advising boards of the Journal of Public Diplomacy (South Korea), Public Diplomacy Magazine (USC), and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence journal, Defence Strategic Communications (Latvia). She is Strategic Communications Director at the International Security Industry Council of Japan, a think tank on defense, security, and national interest issues.
