The USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School was established in August 2003 as a partnership between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences' School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. It is a joint research and professional training organization dedicated to furthering the study and practice of public diplomacy as it is practiced internationally.

Since its inception, the Center has become an ambitious and productive leader in the public diplomacy research and scholarship community. The Center has benefited from unique international, interdepartmental, bi-partisan support from the academic, corporate, governmental and public policy communities. And it has become the definitive go-to destination for practitioners and worldwide international leaders in public diplomacy, while pursuing an innovative and cutting-edge research agenda.

In 2008, USC received one of four inaugural Benjamin Franklin Awards for Public Diplomacy from the U.S. State Department in recognition of the university's teaching, training and research in public diplomacy.