After a comprehensive survey, VOA veteran analyst Matthew Baise reports that the nation’s largest publicly-funded network has attracted more than 7.8 million page views on the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in China and other countries since January 18. According to Baise, the Voice’s coverage “has been diverse, tailored to target audiences, and highly successful.” …
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As of February 17 the Coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, had killed 1,868 people in the Peoples Republic, according to the PRC National Health Commission. Chinese state television reported that Liu Zhiming, the director of the Wuhan hospital specifically assigned to deal with Corona, has succumbed to the virus, the seventh health worker there to…
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In six days, February 3-8, there have been two successful relief flights for critically injured Yemenis in a devastating civil conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. These are the first such civilian evacuations since 2016 in the five-year-long war. On February 3, eight seriously wounded patients and their families were airlifted to Egypt…
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Lately I’ve been reflecting on ethics in government. Have you? Ethics definitely apply to public diplomacy, but how? The guidelines that I can find remind me of a very old joke, usually told by an aging male. “When we got married, I made it clear to my wife that I would handle the important decisions…
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A capacity crowd attended Dr. Joseph Nye’s Walter Roberts Endowment lecture on January 28 at George Washington University’s School of International Affairs in Washington. He shared the stage with Tara Sonenshine, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, who asked penetrating questions preceding those from the audience of diplomats and students attracted by the…
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That pithy reminder popped out near the conclusion of a January 23 public hearing as the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD) issued its 70th annual report on the fine art many P.D. specialists spend their lives fostering —effective international dialogues and exchanges here and abroad: genuine two-way communication in many forums. Three members…
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“Don’t talk to strangers,” is the advice we’ve all heard growing up from our parents. However, for a young girl from rural Illinois talking to strangers would lead her to countless unexpected moments of spontaneous citizen diplomacy and a rewarding career in public diplomacy. Dr. Sherry Mueller disobeyed her mother’s advice as she boarded a…
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The American poet Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982) was the Librarian of Congress during the Roosevelt administration from 1939 to 1944. In a career that bridged literature, the academy, and government, he later became Assistant Director of the Office of War Information, Assistant Secretary of State for Public and Cultural Relations, and a member of the U.S.…
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After the first dozen days of the New Year, events in the Middle East appeared to be deteriorating daily in a procession of grim setbacks. Can this be reversed in the second dozen days of a new decade? There appears to be no substitute for honest, at times painful dialogue — with other powers informing…
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In the last decade, authoritarian regimes have increasingly used their print, broadcast, and social media to control or restrict their own citizens’ access to news and information – in order to shape or channel the opinions of their populations. The same regimes use the media to influence international opinion, often propagating outright lies and falsehoods. …
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