Professional practice of public diplomacy; tradecraft as opposed to academic study
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…
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…
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…
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…
“One Individual, One Community at a Time” Imagine an American non-profit, non-partisan organization that reaches out to improve lives in cities, towns and villages around the globe. President Dwight Eisenhower first had that dream in 1956. It has now enhanced mutual respect and understanding through worldwide exchanges for more than seven decades. Roger-Mark De Souza,…
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
Remarks of Donald M. Bishop Public Diplomacy Council First Monday Forum “The History and Future of Public Diplomacy” November 6, 2018 My colleagues on the panel will, I am confident, touch on the large issues that engage Public Diplomacy in the Foreign Service, serving America’s goals in the world – issues like democracy, exchanges, culture…