BOOK PREVIEW
CITIZEN DIPLOMATS: PATHFINDERS IN SOVIET-AMERICAN RELATIONS–AND HOW YOU CAN JOIN THEM
By Gale Warner and Michael H. Shuman
Citizen Diplomats tells the dramatic stories of nine Americans who have taken personal initiatives to promote citizen relationships between the United States and the Soviet Union. They range from 13 to 87. Their walks of life include law, nursing, journalism, business, farming, medicine, education, psychology, and junior high school. Aware that leaders alone are unlikely to melt the Cold War, these Americans have acted on their beliefs that the risk of nuclear confrontation between the superpowers is too high for citizens to wait passively on the sidelines and merely hope for the best.
Citizen Diplomats begins with an introduction to the field, including an overview of citizen diplomacy strategies, a history of government policies toward people-to-people exchanges, and responses to common criticism. In-depth narrative profiles of nine new diplomats follow:
Sharon Tennison – an “ordinary housewife and mother” and grassroots citizen diplomat.
Bernard Lown – co-founder of the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Christopher Senie – organizer of “Bike for Peace,” a Soviet-American ride from Moscow to Washington
Armand Hammer – industrialist and promoter of Soviet-American Exchange Program
James Hickman – director of the Esalen Institute Soviet-American Exchange Program
Norman Cousins – author, private diplomat for three U.S, presidents, and founder of the off-the-record Dartmouth Conferences
Cynthia Lazaroff – founder of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Youth Exchange Program and leader of Soviet-American wilderness expeditions for teenagers
John Chrystal – Iowa farmer and agricultural exchange pioneer
Samantha Smith – the late Maine schoolgirl who became a world celebrity for her direct approach to peacemaking
A final section gives brief sketches of 50 other new diplomats and provides an annotated guide to citizen diplomacy organizations that will help interested readers become “new diplomats” themselves.
Editor’s Note: The book preview was written by Gale Warner.