Professional practice of public diplomacy; tradecraft as opposed to academic study
Interested in citizen diplomacy? Due to globalization, the internet, and long-term democratization trends, citizen diplomacy is likely to grow in the future, becoming a more important part of public diplomacy and international affairs. Citizen diplomacy entails citizen-to-citizen communication and collaboration across borders for political, economic, religious, cultural, educational, or other public purposes. Government funding and…
“One of the great American fallacies is the notion, prevalent among people in all walks of life, that all we need to do is to explain ourselves, our policies, and our way of life to foreign peoples and they will love us — or at least will understand and sympathize with our point of view.” …
A capacity crowd welcomed Croatia’s Ambassador to the United States Pjer Simunovic at a presentation on the value of cultural and educational exchanges for both the United States and partnering nations worldwide. He was joined by a panel of experts gathered for a First Monday Forum event March 2 at the George Washington University School…
That pithy reminder popped out near the conclusion of a January 23 public hearing as the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD) issued its 70th annual report on the fine art many P.D. specialists spend their lives fostering —effective international dialogues and exchanges here and abroad: genuine two-way communication in many forums. Three members…
Public Diplomacy Council member David I. Hitchcock, a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Information Agency for 35 years, wrote a short and clear description of how the Public Affairs Section in Tokyo in the 1980s developed a “plan of action” to advance a U.S. foreign policy goal. Since that time, U.S. Public Diplomacy has…
The disinformation, propaganda, and malign narratives that now trouble international relations reach beyond the traditional Public Diplomacy frames of “mutual understanding,” “winning hearts and minds” and “soft power.” They are tools of “sharp power,” defined by the National Endowment for Democracy as “authoritarian influence efforts” that “pierce,…
In June 1970, the Marine Corps Gazette published the text of a talk, “Effective Press Relations,” given to students at the Command and Staff College earlier that year by legendary USIA officer Barry Zorthian. As Public Affairs Officer at the American Embassy in Saigon from 1964 to 1968, he set up the Joint United States…
Lou was one of the most thoughtful, dedicated, and politically savvy public diplomacy professionals of his generation. Louis T. Olom (1917-2019), a career civil servant, will be remembered for his many contributions to public diplomacy during the years in which it was gradually gaining acceptance as a field of professional practice in US diplomacy. Lou’s…
John Lansing, who has headed the five U.S. overseas taxpayer-funded networks since 2015, will become president and CEO of National Public Radio on October 1. The five U.S. networks are: Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Middle East Broadcasting Network in Arabic, (MBN) and Radio-TV Marti in…
In a live telecast on C-Span August 5, Radio Free Asia Director Libby Liu addressed a roundtable of public diplomacy specialists and focused on RFA’s U.S. government-funded multimedia network’s broadcasts to the Peoples Republic of China. RFA broadcasts on television, radio, and a variety of online channels to six East Asian countries: Cambodia, China, Laos,…