Today’s Public Diplomacy practitioners work in a loud, visually saturated, media-intense age when “post-truth,” “many truths,” and “alternative facts” are themes of academic, social, and political debate. They work in many different cultures at a time when the claims of identity, rather than universality and common humanity, gain sway. Issue 47 (2017) of Foam:…
“Words are sacred,” British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard once wrote. “They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world.” Or, in the words of George Washington: “The truth will ultimately prevail, when there are pains to bring it to light.” Solid bits of advice spanning three centuries. They are clearly…
Article originally published by LNP. Copyright held by Steinmann Communication, 2018 In case you have wondered what happened to this correspondent in the past couple of months, let me put your anxiety aside. I have not been banned from publication, nor have I given up writing about this increasingly topsy-turvy world. Instead it seems I…
This article first appeared in the latest issue of Claremont Review of Books Have you heard the latest? Hollywood’s hottest romance may be breaking up. You won’t find the details in the tabloids or People magazine. Instead, you must look in the business section of the few newspapers that cover events outside the United States. This is because…
How might the West respond to the explosion of false information in social and traditional media? There have been many prescriptions for inoculating a curious world against that challenge, especially since Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, lately, several other pivotal leadership polls in Western Europe. Earlier, it was the ISIS mastery…
Many Council members carry on our fascination with public diplomacy years after retiring from active duty. Do you ever wonder how different the business is today? Take a look at our new notes page for Lunch and Learn meetings, sponsored by the Council for PD practitioners. Two Foreign Service Officers, Melissa Quartell and Frankie Sturm,…
Last week I spoke to a Great Decisions discussion group in Arlington, Virginia. Great Decisions is a program sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association to encourage citizen awareness of foreign relations. The topic, “The Media and Foreign Policy,” gave me the chance to highlight the work of public diplomacy. As so much diplomacy is carried…
In a recent essay, a leading Taiwan academic saluted the work of the U.S. Information Service in Taiwan some decades ago. Recalling the American Literature Translation Series, sponsored by USIS, that made available American novels and stories in Chinese, the Director of the Institute of European and American Studies at the Academia Sinica, Shan Te-hsing,…
In a previous post I drew a happy picture of translated books and magazines in Public Diplomacy. USIA and then the Bureau of International Information Programs translated many books into foreign languages, complemented by an active magazine diplomacy. Now, the translation project is a shadow of its former self. What happened? Magazines America…
This link includes a 40-page guide – quotes and links to articles, essays, opinion pieces, and reports — on North Korea’s information environment. Intended for strategic communication and Public Diplomacy practitioners, it focuses on information, broadcasting, cyber, internet access, propaganda, the activities of defectors, policy debates, and related topics. This is a special number in…