By Joe B. Johnson Bruce Wharton, the first Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy from the ranks of the career Foreign Service, has retired. Wharton has provided stellar leadership and set a fine example for public diplomacy employees since his appointment last December. No successor has been announced. Nothing indicates that Ambassador Wharton’s departure is anything other than…
By Alan Heil A SHORTWAVE CHRYSALIS TO A MULTIMEDIA BUTTERFLY: U.S. INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING THEN AND NOW Last Monday was indeed a memorable day for historians of our nation’s publicly-funded international broadcasters. In the 20th century, these scholars were challenged to understand hot and Cold Wars, and convey what they learned, largely on shortwave radio. Now they…
By Alan Heil To those who follow and admire America’s five government-funded international broadcasting networks, June 14, 2017 — Flag Day in the U.S. — will be long remembered as an extraordinary and unique memorial celebration. On that day, the Broadcasting Board of Governors held a bimonthly meeting. The largely unrecognized danger its reporters face…
VOA’s alleged mishandling of a Chinese insider’s interview shouldn’t overshadow the important work done by it and the other U.S. government-sponsored broadcasters. See my latest commentary in The American Interest: The Voice of America (VOA) celebrated its 75th anniversary in March, but it didn’t have much time to savor its diamond jubilee. Just a month later,…
In 1966 the Brookings Institution published a book by Charles Frankel entitled: The Neglected Aspect of Foreign Affairs – American Educational and Cultural Policy Abroad. Frankel argued that “in comparison with the sophisticated analysis devoted to U.S. military, economic, and diplomatic policy, little intellectual attention has been given to international cultural exchange”. Although more than…
By Joe B. Johnson I still remember a very old New Yorker cartoon showing two dogs — one at a computer, remarking to its friend: “On the Internet, no one knows I’m a dog.” That’s no longer funny in a world where robots amplify propaganda messages and can even write news stories of their own.…
Joe B. Johnson Donald J. Trump employs public diplomacy as much as any President we’ve seen. Yet his public diplomacy staff has not faced so much uncertainty in decades. The State Department, supposed leader for the United States outreach to the rest of the world, named a new press spokesperson this week: one of the…