The role of public diplomacy in statecraft; professional ethics; organizational principles; arguments for using public diplomacy
In late August, the world noted the one year anniversary of the beginning of Myanmar’s brutal expulsion of more than 700 thousand Rohingya residents from the western part of their country, until recently known as Burma. Those expelled now crowd into a flood-threatened temporary refugee camps at a site called Cox’s Bazar in neighboring Bangladesh.…
At the meeting of the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Board of Governors this week our Council’s president, Adam Clayton Powell III, weighed in on a question up for debate these days: in today’s world, are things getting better or worse? The world is getting better, and American investments and values are the reason, he…
During my time at the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia was preparing itself to join NATO as well as the European Union. The U.S. Congress was interested checking out the Latvians and the other prospective Alliance members, so our embassy experienced a pretty steady procession of senators and congressmen, as well as spouses and aides,…
Next Wednesday (August 22), the Broadcasting Board of Governors overseeing five U.S.-funded international networks will announce it is re-christening itself the U.S. Agency for Global Media. That will be a significant event in the nearly quarter of a century since the BBG was established by the Administration and Congress in 1994. “New Name, Same Mission — Come…
A State Department video caught my eye today. “How to spot disinformation” gives five tips to recognize disinformation in one’s news feed. The video fleshes out each of the tips, which are: Identify the sources Look beyond the headline Recognize satire Check the references Consider your own bias The International Information Programs Bureau has produced…
JBJohnsonJoe B. Johnson consults on government communication and technology after a career in the United States Foreign Service. He is an instructor for the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, where he teaches strategic planning for public diplomacy. Read More
Nontraditional U.S. Public Diplomacy: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Deborah L. Trent, Ph.D., originally published by the Public Diplomacy Council in 2016, is now available online. Soon after 9/11, the late Representative Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, saw something was awry in America’s Public Diplomacy. “Few would assert,” he said,…
This year marks 30 years since the Council’s establishment, and one way we are celebrating is to offer a digital version of our most recent volume, Nontraditional U.S. Public Diplomacy: Past, Present, and Future. Its online promotion is courtesy of our partner, the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy. Spanning the World War One era to 2016, the book’s 11 case…
Should ambassadors tweet? Perhaps Robert Gates implied the answer should be “no.” The memoir by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, published in 2015, remains required reading for everyone who worked at the embassies, consulates, and Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book allows readers to…
Since last year there has been an effort at the Voice of America to expand into “investigative reporting”. The best response by VOA’s stakeholders to this effort should be a firm and unequivocal No. Why? Just look at VOA’s website. Every day this government agency distributes stories to audiences around the world that are not…