The scene: a platform at the base of the steps to the Lincoln Memorial on the northernmost end of the National Mall. The speaker: African-American Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., America’s most prominent civil rights leader at the time and for generations to come. A quarter of a million people gathered in D.C. shortly after…
The situation in the strategically important South/Central Asian country of Afghanistan is crucial in the foreign policies of the U.S. and its NATO partners in the days ahead. In Afghanistan itself, August 19 would normally be a day of celebration: independence from British control on that date in 1919. That’s hardly the case in 2021.…
Following is the text of a letter from the Public Diplomacy Council and the Public Diplomacy Association of America to members of congressional foreign affairs committees regarding public diplomacy on the situation in Afghanistan. The Public Diplomacy Council and Public Diplomacy Association of America are non-partisan, non-profit organizations committed to promoting the professional practice,…
By Alan Heil Who would have thought two years ago that this East African country of 128 million residents would be the scene of a deadly civil war in 2021? Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. His country had ended a decades-long war with its neighbor to the north…
As the Associated Press put it in a dispatch from Beirut on August 4: “United in grief and anger, families of the victims and several thousand Lebanese gathered at the port as the country marked the first anniversary of the horrific explosion of 2020. “That blast killed at least 214 people and devastated entire neighborhoods…
By Alan Heil On August 3, the Biden administration announced it would begin distributing vaccines to 65 nations, many in Africa. Official global deaths so far have reportedly reached at least 4,255,657, a vast undercount by most estimates. VOA’s Hayde Adams interviewed U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs Akuna Cook about the…
By Alan Heil Please forgive these midsummer musings. When the Heils moved to their retirement community in the mountains of northern Maryland in 2018, we were awed by the beauty of the surrounding forestland. On a trail encircling our community, we noted 30 weathered one-holed birdhouses, modestly constructed with all the same dimensions. But there…
The Biden Administration’s nominee for a major part of U.S. public diplomacy received a favorable hearing from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Assistant secretaries for educational and cultural affairs are traditionally primus inter pares in State’s public diplomacy leadership circle. In 2019, the bureau’s budget was $700.9 million. Only the U.S. Agency for Global Media…