US Public Diplomacy and Democratization in Spain: Selling Democracy? A book event with Francisco J. Rodríguez Jiménez, Research Professor, University of Salamanca (Spain) Amy Bliss, Director, Cultural Programs Division, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State (discussant) When the post-war relationship between Spain and the United States began, Hitler's old ally was an unlikely candidate for U.S. influence. The Cold War changed all this. Soon there were U.S. bases on Spanish territory and a political conjuring trick was under way. This new volume examines the public diplomacy strategies that the U.S. government employed to accomplish an almost impossible mission: to keep a warm relationship with a tyrant without drifting apart from his opponents, and to somehow pave the way for a transition to democracy. The book's focus on the perspective of Soft Power breaks new ground in the understanding of U.S.-Spanish relations. In so doing, it offers valuable lessons for understanding how public diplomacy has functioned in the past and can function today and tomorrow in transitions to democracy. Francisco J. Rodríguez Jiménez is a Research Professor at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Formerly, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at IERES, George Washington University. His previous publications include: Mujeres universitarias en España y América Latina. (Limoges, 2015), co-edited with Cuesta and de Prado; Estrategias de Diplomacia Cultural en un Mundo Interpolar (Madrid, 2015), co-edited with Gavari; II República, Reforma Agraria y Represión (Sevilla, 2013, written together with Riesco and Pintor); and ¿Antítodo Contra el Antiamericanismo? (Valencia, 2010). Monday, September 14, 2015 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm Voesar Conference Room 1957 E St. NW, Suite 412 Please RSVP at http://go.gwu.edu/jimenez Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies • IERES The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University 1957 E Street, NW • Suite 412 • Washington, DC 20052 Tel (202) 994-6340 • Fax (202) 994-5436 • [email protected] • www.ieres.org