Areas of PDC activity, including academic study, professional practice and advocacy
Anticipating today’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Public Diplomacy Council President Sherry Lee Mueller shared a quote over the weekend: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all of us indirectly.” Contained in Dr. King’s “Letter from a…
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, puts it bluntly. “As people see unaccountable rulers (those not empowered in free elections) prioritize their own interests over that of their publics,” he contends, “a popular demand for rights-respecting democracy remains strong.” The second week of 2022 appears to have been crucial in determining whether or…
As Americans struggle to regain our balance from the twin terrors of hyper-partisan infighting and the global Covid pandemic other countries are watching — and drawing conclusions about their future strategic and economic interests. Looking abroad, President Biden has emphasized rebuilding our global leadership and the advancing American strategic and economic interests through partnerships, a…
Sidney Poitier, according to New York Times’ writer Wesley Morris, was “as crucial in the odyssey of freedom and equality for African-Americans as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther Jr.” Mr. Poitier died on January 8. He was 94 years old, and no cause of death was reported at the time. As Mr. Morris…
As America publicizes an extensive list of financial, technology and military sanctions against Russia to deter an invasion of Ukraine, the Administration is leaving one of its most potent tools in the shed. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius noted in the January 7 Washington Post that the U.S. would like to turn Ukraine into a…
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) focuses on four foreign policy news stories to follow this year. “Any one of them,” the CFR website says, “could turn into the dominant news event of the year — or fade away. We’ll know in 12 months which will sizzle and which will fizzle.” The top four are:…
INSPIRING EXAMPLE #1: With the New Year now here, a Dec. 22 Washington Post lead editorial, “A Victory for Democracy,” praised Chile’s recent presidential election as a model for others to consider in 2022. The winner was 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a member of Chile’s Congress and former organizer of student protests. But what impressed the…
A New York Times obituary summed it all up in this headline reporting the death of Archbishop Tutu on December 26, followed by tributes from around the world to the renowned patriot of peace. The archbishop was 90 years old when he passed away in Cape Town, South Africa. His advocacy of non-violence during the…
Internationally, there were a few positive developments, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. In a CFR article entitled “The Ten Most Significant World Events in 2021,” James M. Lindsay cites several milestones amidst a series of setbacks. Among them, the seemingly unending global struggle to contain COVID-19. Among the leading pluses of the year,…
“It’s a world supplied with precisely the right amounts of gravity and atmosphere,” Washington Post columnist David von Drehle wrote on November 24, “enough water and sunlight but not too much of either.” “Scientists have gazed thousands of light-years in search of another such place, and still, this is the only one for sure, a…