The members of the Public Diplomacy Council
This spring, the Public Diplomacy Council (PDC) welcomed a new category of Rising Professional members into its ranks. Over the past three weeks, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Rangel Fellow Mojib Ziarmal Ghaznawi, Wes Davison, and Shannon McNaught. This fourth installment of my Q&A series features yet another multifaceted Rising Professional member who…
1.TURMOIL IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT? “Diplomacy in Crisis: The Trump Administration’s Decimation of the State Department,” a Democratic staff report prepared for the use of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, was released July 28, 2020. The highly critical document’s chapter titles indicate the report’s concerns: “Vacant Posts and Frequent Turnover: An America Less Present…
This spring, the Public Diplomacy Council (PDC) welcomed a new category of Rising Professional members into its ranks. Last week, Wes Davison reflected on his experiences as a citizen diplomat in Poland, Ukraine, and Colombia. With this third installment of my Q&A series, I hope to further reveal the breadth of PDC members’ expertise. I was…
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…
This spring, the Public Diplomacy Council welcomed a new category of Rising Professional members into its ranks. Last week, Mojib Ziarmal Ghaznawi discussed his calling to the Foreign Service and his love for playing the flute as a captivating launch to my Q&A series. I was inspired by Olivia Chavez’s interview with Dr. Sherry Mueller…
1.UNITED STATES REJECTS CHINA’S SOUTH CHINA SEA CLAIMS: Amidst the increasingly public escalation of charges and name-calling between the United States and China over a long — and growing — list of bilateral concerns, the United States issued very tough guidance on the long-simmering maritime disputes over South China Sea water and seabed rights. On…
Today’s news of President Trump’s ‘termination’ of the Fulbright program for China and Hong Kong brought a memory of a different approach to difficult bilateral relations. (See his Executive Order which among other items commits to “take steps to terminate the Fulbright exchange program with regard to China and Hong Kong with respect to future…
This spring, the Public Diplomacy Council welcomed a new category of Rising Professional members into its ranks. Over the next several weeks, PDC blog readers will have the opportunity to get to know some of these new members via my Q&A series. I was inspired by Olivia Chavez’s interview with Dr. Sherry Mueller (“Wanted: Young…
1. STEPS TOWARD LONG-OVERDUE CHANGE: In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, racism continues to grab the attention of much of the country and even the wider world. Let me cite just a few recent media efforts that might be of interest to PD professionals. A little-noticed move that…
An Intergenerational Dialogue When newly elected PDC President Sherry Lee Mueller and newly hired PDC Fellow Olivia Chavez first met, they both were unsure what their new responsibilities entailed but they knew one thing; they wanted to work together and learn from each other. What follows is an excerpt from our conversation on multigenerational leadership,…