Areas of PDC activity, including academic study, professional practice and advocacy
Oil rich Saudi Arabia, despite its great wealth, seems oblivious to the potential damage to its global public diplomacy because of its sustained continuing violation of human rights of its own citizens. Young Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) is considered the supreme ruler of the kingdom with his elderly father, King Salman, playing a secondary…
In a crisis where military forces are deployed, information operations and public diplomacy specialists must be integrated into planning and operations from the first day. This was the conclusion of a case study of mass atrocity prevention and response – OPERATION PALLISER, the British intervention in the Sierra Leone civil war in 2000 – by…
During World War II, the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS) monitored broadcasts from around the world, providing valuable intelligence on conditions in other nations for U.S. national leaders. Organizationally, FBIS was part of the Federal Communications Commission. The founding president of Bennington College, Robert Devore Leigh (1890-1961), left the academy to direct FBIS through 1944.…
The Public Diplomacy Council has taken on some outstanding new members over the last few months. As the national organization dedicated to the advancement of the public diplomacy profession, we believe that effective public diplomacy is indispensable to successful national security. For that reason, the Council promotes improved professional practice, academic study of the field,…
What is U.S. “soft power” in a digital world? A key facet is the ability to form international friendships, person-to-person and organization-to-organization, in the 21st century. This enhances, in a very human way, “hard power,” the ability to affect militarily the fate of societies and nations around the globe. Here in Washington, soft power advocates…
Air Force Colonel John Boyd (1927-1999), “the fighter pilot who changed the art of war,” was a key military thinker in the last decades of the 20th century. His energy-maneuverability theory revolutionized fighter tactics, and his famous “Patterns of Conflict” briefing has deeply influenced two generations of military strategists. Public Diplomacy is an instrument of…
The formal rollout March 5 on Capitol Hill of an around-the-clock Persian Service led by the Voice of America in cooperation with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a landmark advance in reform of this country’s international broadcasting. The new broadcast stream to Iran and the Iranian diaspora is called VOA 365. First, some background on…
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 –…
“Metrics,” “data,” “evaluation,” and “results, not outputs” have proven to be real challenges for Public Diplomacy and strategic communication. So has demonstrating that a program, activity, or campaign “moves the needle.” Yesteryear Foreign Service Officers at U.S. Information Service posts religiously tallied “placements.” From time to time, USIA’s research office commissioned surveys. At the dawn…