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…
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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,…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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A few years ago, Walter Russell Mead, professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and editor at large of the American Interest, proposed a “strategy to counter democracy’s global retreat.” “Produce inexpensive, good translations of Burke, Locke and other thinkers, and spread the texts widely,” he urged. His call to action should be…
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“A lie can travel halfway around the world,” Mark Twain once wrote, “while the truth is putting its shoes on.” In this new media age, one wonders what the famed author might have thought about the truth’s instantaneous global, multimedia reach during the recent ten-day eruption of anti-government protests in Iran. The latest…
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As a consequence of President Eisenhower’s historic 1953 UN General Assembly speech, “Atomic Power for Peace’” the world-wide promotion of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy became the young U.S. Information Agency’s first major mission. I had been managing a U.S. Mission-sponsored Atoms-for-Peace exhibition at the Berlin Industrial Fair. It included a huge replica of…
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“The last three feet,” according to the late famed journalist and USIA Director Edward R. Murrow, is a classic catchword in public diplomacy statecraft. A common misperception is that U.S.-funded international broadcasters transmit signals from thousands of miles away and are largely removed from their listeners, viewers and online users. Virtually unknown: the extraordinary reach…
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