Areas of PDC activity, including academic study, professional practice and advocacy
1. VISITING THE NEIGHBORS – OFFICIALLY, BUT VIRTUALLY: A major feature of diplomacy has been face-to-face interaction between American senior officials and their foreign counterparts. Those days — at least for the immediate future — are over during this painful time of border crossing restrictions. As Secretary of State Blinken demonstrated on February 26, 2021, you can…
A recent opinion article in The Hill argues that exchange programs are “one of America’s most effective soft power tools” and “produce a tremendous return on investment”. The piece, authored by Paula Dobriansky, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Edward Gabriel, former ambassador to Morocco, and Marisa Lino, former Assistant Secretary for International…
The new strain of the deadly disease is known in South America’s largest country as P-1. According to Reuters, the new outbreak has “a unique combination of mutations and has within a few weeks, become the dominant form of COVID in Brazil”. Brazil, with a population of 211 million, so far has the world’s second-highest…
For the first time in nearly 20 years, India and Pakistan have announced that they’ve agreed to a ceasefire across their shared border, effective February 26. Joanna Slater of the Washington Post reports from New Delhi that this is the first such announcement between the two Asian neighbors since such sporadic cross-border firings began in…
1. MATT POTTINGER, CHINA, AND “VACCINE DIPLOMACY”: Matt who? Although he is not a household name, the low-profile Pottinger probably had more influence on the Trump Administration’s “get tough on China” policy and strategic communications than anyone else. As NSC’s Asia Director and then the Deputy National Security Advisor from the very start of the Trump…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, addressing the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva February 24, reaffirmed the new Biden administration’s commitment to support human rights efforts throughout the world. It clearly is a core issue in U.S, public diplomacy in the four years ahead. He said the United States “will fully re-engage in…
Will the U.S., Western and industrialized countries with anticipated surpluses of the vaccine against the 21st century’s deadliest disease join to help provide relief for hundreds of millions of COVID-19 victims in Africa, Asia and Latin America? It’s too early to say, but there compelling reasons to do so. Worldwide, there have been more than…
1. A STUNNING DAY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: Friday, February 19, 2021 was not “just another news day” for America. If you were a U.S. diplomat, especially a public diplomacy officer, it was arguably a great day. Several things happened within just a couple of hours to significantly explain and advance U.S. policy of partnership, cooperation, engagement…
Joe Biden made his first contacts with foreign leaders, among them, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, just three days after the 46th U.S. President’s inauguration on January 20. In Trudeau’s words: “Canada and the United States will continue our partnership as we fight the global Covid-19 pandemic and…
1. FACTS ABOUT THE “LEAN” PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BUDGET: The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD) has released an important report that is essential reading for anyone interested in the state of public diplomacy as practiced today by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Called 2020 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy…