The war of words without the war: Radio Moscow, the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service and the Voice of America in the old and new international order

One of the more visible--and audible--characteristics of the post-World War II bipolar system was the "war of words" which states conducted through their official broadcast services. What will happen to government broadcasting in the new, post-Cold War order? This study examines that question through three of the most prominent services of the East-West conflict: the Soviet Union's Radio Moscow; Great Britain's the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service (BBC) and the United States' Voice of America (VOA). This inquiry is not confined to reviewing these services' positions after 1989; instead it returns to when "public diplomacy" became a significant phenomena in world politics in the early part of the twentieth century, as well as to the pre-Cold War introduction of all three radios. Only in this larger framework will the most recent developments become meaningful.;The dissertation is divided into three parts. Part One presents a historical, political and legal overview of public diplomacy through international radio broadcasting. Part Two surveys Radio Moscow, the BBC and the VOA before and during the Cold War. Since 1929 Moscow has applied its radio in a fixed manner--as an ideological pulsar--simply readjusting its sights when foreign objectives warranted and expanding the service as Soviet global influence grew. In contrast, the BBC was the least defined by ideological conflict in general and the Cold War in particular. It was established before the onset of East-West tension and for reasons which were not confined to ideological threats as such. In the United States, free enterprise values and fear of "government propaganda" precluded Washington from launching the VOA until World War II. Only the burgeoning superpower rivalry saved the "Voice" after the war, and it subsequently became one of the world's largest.;Part Three surveys the status of all three official stations from 1989 onward. Radio Moscow has suffered the most in this next context, while both the VOA and the BBC are actually stronger than at some points during the Cold War. What these changes signify for the future of public diplomacy through international radio is explored in the conclusion.