Organizations involved in public diplomacy other than the Public Diplomacy Council
Vartan Gregorian, an internationally-known teacher and president of New York’s Carnegie Corporation, passed away unexpectedly on April 15 shortly after being hospitalized with a stomach pain. He was 87 years old. Dr. Gregorian was an honorary board member of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, and earlier served for nine…
The USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy sponsored a “global conversation on how the US election is being explained to the world” on December 15 — the day after the United States’ Electoral College voted Joseph Biden as President-elect. Prof. Adam Clayton Powell III, chaired an eclectic panel of media experts from locations…
1. MERIDIAN GOES VIRTUAL OVER GLOBAL HEALTH DIPLOMACY: Kudos to Meridian International Center for pulling off its groundbreaking, 5 ½-hr virtual event on October 23, 2020. Approximately 1,000 people around the world engaged in the nonprofit’s ninth annual Meridian Summit convened and produced by Meridian President and CEO Ambassador Stuart Holliday, former Coordinator of State’s…
1.U.S. TECH GIANTS: ARE THEY TOO BIG? Few players have a greater influence on the digital economy — or on international communication or exchange or the work of public diplomacy professionals — than the four so-called “Big Tech” companies: Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. As powerful, private firms with a truly global reach, they are…
In a Council on Foreign Relations cautionary report August 24, the Council puts it baldly: “The U.S. government responds to scores of disasters each year, coordinating closely with state, local, and foreign partners. However,” the account warns, “more frequent and severe storms, fires, and floods are straining resources.” The United States has been a leader…
The Amazon, snaking across Brazil, is among the world’s largest rivers. Roughly halfway between the borders of Colombia and Peru is the city of Manaus, one of the most tragic victims of COVID-19 in the developing world. Tyler Hicks, a New York Times photographer, spent weeks vividly reflecting the sad plight of Manaus, and many…
1. COMMISSION REPORT STIRS CONTROVERSY OVER HUMAN RIGHTS: United States diplomats have always been committed to human rights internationally, but how that commitment is practiced in terms of specific foreign policy and countries and communicated through credible PD efforts can be contentious. The new 60-page report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, personally established by…
My late father used to call particularly bad decisions ‘prismatic mistakes’, by which he meant they were wrong from every angle. We can only call DHS’s July 6 decision about foreign students and online coursework a prismatic blunder. It’s hard to see a way in which the U.S. benefits from sending international students home if…
This article appears in the July-August 2020 issue of Foreign Service Journal. Posted here with permission from the Journal, this version includes endnotes. The text was submitted to the editors on April 30 and finalized on June 8; this version also includes notes to sources published through July 9, 2020. By Donald M. Bishop…
1. CALLING OUT CHINA: In case you haven’t noticed, official statements on U.S policy towards China have recently become much, much tougher. For proof, go no further than the June 24 speech delivered in Phoenix by National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien. It was a stinging critique of the Chinese Communist Party as a threat…