APDS Conference:  Public Diplomacy at the Front Lines

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to co-sponsor the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars (APDS) annual conference on the new and traditional frontlines of public diplomacy.

Conference Schedule
8:45AM–9:00 AM - Welcome & Introductory Remarks
• Nicholas J. Cull, Professor of Public Diplomacy and Director of the Master's of Public Diplomacy Program, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

9:00 AM-9:30 AM - Morning Keynote
• David Ensor, Director of Voice of America

9:30 AM-11:00 AM - Panel 1: The New Frontlines of Public Diplomacy: Public Diplomacy’s Domestic Dimensions
Public diplomacy in the traditional sense has historically been focused on influencing and engaging with foreign audiences. Yet the home audience has always been important to a nation’s public diplomacy efforts, ever more so as communications technologies make national borders less and less impermeable. Practitioners of public diplomacy must consider the advantages and disadvantages of diverse and often times, conflicting interests of home and foreign audiences in their practice.

Panelists
• Nicholas J. Cull, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism (chair)
• Pamela Starr, Associate Professor of International Relations, USC
• Zhou Xinyu, Research Fellow, Center for Public Diplomacy Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
• R. S. Zaharna, Associate Professor, American University

11:00 AM-12:30 PM - Panel 2: Public Diplomacy in Conflict Zones: PD at the Frontlines
Public diplomacy has been described as a vitamin, which can help to address tensions before they bubble into wider conflict. Yet even where conflicts arise, there is much that public diplomacy can do to foster engagement between conflicting parties and set the grounds for peace. Governments and diplomatic agents must consider a wide range of public diplomacy tools and strategies to effectively mediate and resolve such different shades of conflict.

Panelists
• <a data-cke-saved-href="http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/about/bio_detail/naomi_leight/" href="https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/%3Ca%20href%3D"http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/about/bio_detail/naomi_leight/">http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/about/bio_detail/naomi_leight/" title="Naomi Leight target=" _blank"="">Naomi Leight, Assistant Director, Research & Publications, USC Center for Public Diplomacy (chair)
• Manuel Castells, University Professor, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
• Uri Resnick, Deputy Consul-General, Israeli Consulate General in Los Angeles
• Behar Xharra, Balkans Analyst, Navanti Group

12:30-1:30 PM - Lunch Discussion and Practicum Expo
(Lunch catered by Lemonade) Master of Public Diplomacy Students present their research in a poster session during the lunch break.

1:30PM- 2:30PM - Afternoon Keynote: Conflict Management & Counterterrorism Strategy: A Conversation
• Philip Seib, Director, USC Center on Public Diplomacy (chair)
• Ambassador Alberto Fernandez, Coordinator, Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, U.S. State Department

2:30-4:00 PM - Panel 4: Diasporas and Consular Diplomacy: The View from the Trenches
Consulates have a vast array of interactions on a daily basis with not only their host country’s public, but with their own diaspora – and nowhere more than Los Angeles, home to the largest populations of diaspora in the country. In the views of many public diplomacy practitioners, it is here in consular affairs that the foundations for sound public diplomacy are practiced. Foreign governments, specifically consular officers, must determine which public diplomacy strategies are most effective in engaging their diasporas in a meaningful way.

Panelists
• Robert Banks, Former U.S. Public Diplomat in Residence 2009-2011, USC Center on Public Diplomacy (chair)
• Tolga Arslan, Vice-Consul, Turkish Consulate General in Los Angeles
• Hon. Maria Hellen Barber De La Vega, Consul General, The Philippines Consulate General in Los Angeles
• Hon. Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, Consul General, Mexican Consulate General in Los Sacramento
• Hon. Cyril Sibusiso Ndaba, Consul General, The South African Consulate General in Los Angeles

Closing Remarks: Sarah Myers & Aleksandra Ristovic

Please R.S.V.P. to apds@usc.edu.

This conference is presented by the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars and additional co-sponsors include:
Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD)
Annenberg Masters Student Association (ASMA)
USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
USC Master of Public Diplomacy Program
USC Center for International Studies
Tomas Rivera Policy Institute