The role of public diplomacy in statecraft; professional ethics; organizational principles; arguments for using public diplomacy
Exchange of persons programs “are a lot like dark matter.” That was Dr. Allan Goodman’s assertion at the “Hard Case for Soft Power” panel discussion at American University. They’re hard to see, but critical to U.S. “soft power.” Goodman and four other speakers filled a large conference room at the SIS on Monday, February 25…
Picture this: You’re navigating a strange landscape, getting to know the local inhabitants, meeting immediate needs while pursuing long-term aims. You must find your way with a mixture of adroit strategy, effective tactics and tact. How to do it? If the landscape were overseas, many readers of this site – professionals in cross-cultural engagement –…
In an essay entitled “The Middle East: Regional Disorder,” Columbia University Professor Lawrence G. Potter warns of the impact on global security of catastrophic developments in that troubled region. It’s a prime reason for U.S. and international public diplomacy, in all its forms. Writing in the 2019 edition of the Foreign Policy Association’s annual Great…
Former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia James B. Smith – he served in Riyadh from 2009 to 2013 — was interviewed by Checkpoints, the alumni magazine of the U.S. Air Force Academy, his alma mater. The interview was conducted long before the current debate – occasioned by the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — over…
Two years ago this week, Mexican-U.S. relations took a deep dive, when Mexico’s former President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a meeting in Washington with incoming President Donald Trump during Mr. Trump’s first week in office. The dispute centered on Mr. Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for construction of a planned wall along unfinished sections of…
It was October 15. 2015. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, recently renamed the U.S. Agency for Global Media, heard some sound advice about the power of the five taxpayer-funded multimedia networks it leads. “To state the obvious,” guest speaker Adam Clayton Powell III told the Board, “not everything is true, some things are provably false.…
Public Diplomacy officers in the Foreign Service meet many educators – from Ministers of Education and Presidents or Vice-Chancellors of major universities, down to deans, principals, professors teaching courses relating to the U.S., and English teachers. During my career, I had countless telephone calls like this one: Educator: “Mr. Bishop, it was wonderful meeting you…
If you participate in social media, you are being spun. And that’s a problem for government communicators, especially in public diplomacy. LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, published just two months ago, has been termed by Amazon Press as “the best book of 2018”. The book’s co-authors, noted scholars of 21st century new media Peter W.…
JBJohnsonJoe B. Johnson consults on government communication and technology after a career in the United States Foreign Service and seven years in the private sector. He is an instructor for the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, where he teaches strategic planning for public diplomacy. Read More
This article, first published in 2012, notes that “Although the United States has its own glorious history of hosting world’s fairs…we have had a spotty participation record in recent decades”. The author, Beatrice Camp, served as Consul General during the Shanghai Expo 2010 and later as Washington coordinator for the Milan Expo in 2015. After…