Sowing the Seeds of Diplomacy on Hard American Ground

Diplomacy is a neglected field in American higher education. Both practitioners and academics have repeatedly cast the seeds to grow the discipline in the United States, but with limited germination. Although diplomacy curricula are rare, courses do exist. Following a review of 75 syllabuses and lengthy interviews with many of their authors, this article's author finds that academics and practitioners teaching the limited number of diplomacy courses make very different choices in content and pedagogy. Drawing on over 25 years of diplomatic practice followed by twenty years teaching at the college level, she evaluates why the main institutions of American society do not support diplomacy as either a profession or a field of study. The article argues that the few 'resident gardeners' rarely stray from their own plots to 'fieldscape' together in hard American ground.