Anticipating today’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Public Diplomacy Council President Sherry Lee Mueller shared a quote over the weekend: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all of us indirectly.” Contained in Dr. King’s “Letter from a…
Hope. That is the word that rang in my mind throughout the night of the International Student House (ISH) Global Leadership Awards Dinner. Hope, as I walked through the doors of the United States Institute of Peace, my first large-scale event since the start of the Pandemic. Hope, that despite the pandemic, life is continuing…
As the Associated Press put it in a dispatch from Beirut on August 4: “United in grief and anger, families of the victims and several thousand Lebanese gathered at the port as the country marked the first anniversary of the horrific explosion of 2020. “That blast killed at least 214 people and devastated entire neighborhoods…
1. “GLOBAL TRENDS 2040” — TOWARDS A SCARY FUTURE? Intelligence reports — the rare ones that are unclassified and officially made public — aren’t always very helpful in explaining an issue or concern. They usually are cryptic and sanitized, and not very readable. But let me highly recommend one released April 8, 2021 by the National Intelligence…
Is it possible that the U.S and European allies are giving Iran space to cooperate with a United Nations review of Tehran’s nuclear activities? According to two Wall Street Journal correspondents, Laurence Norman in Brussels and Sune Engel Rassmussen in London, time is of the essence and would make it possible to: revive a dialogue…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, addressing the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva February 24, reaffirmed the new Biden administration’s commitment to support human rights efforts throughout the world. It clearly is a core issue in U.S, public diplomacy in the four years ahead. He said the United States “will fully re-engage in…
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. 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…