A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.

Don’t Devalue Exchange Programs in Immigration Reform

While most of the current attention is focused on fixing what is broken with the U.S. immigration system, there are any number of existing elements that work well. One of them is the J-1 Exchange Visitor program. For more than 50 years, millions of young adult cultural visitors from around the globe have participated in America’s Exchange Visitors Program, and have returned to their home countries with a greater appreciation for, and understanding of, American culture and values.

Tags: united states, Cultural Diplomacy, government pd, public diplomacy, us department of state, immigration reform, j-1 scholars

Advancing Public Diplomacy in the Virtual Student Foreign Service

For those of you who may not be familiar with the VSFS, it is a U.S. Department of State program that allows students to intern virtually with the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) domestic offices and overseas posts as well as others offices within the U.S. government. Although it makes getting coffee for the office a little difficult, it harnesses the interconnected reach and utility of technology and provides a rich experience for the intern and the office alike.

Tags: united states, government pd, public diplomacy, new technology, us department of state

Top German Cabler Inks New Deal With BBC

Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland is make BBC World News available for free to subscribers across major parts of Germany. The channel will now be available in more than 35 million households across Germany. Kabel Deutschland operates cable networks in 13 German federal states and supplies its services to approximately 8.5 million households.

Tags: media, europe, united kingdom, germany, bbc

How Study and Volunteer Work in The UK Led to International Experience

Both my academic and professional careers were hugely influenced by my volunteering experiences. I have always worked with ethnic minority communities, who have often been marginalised from the wider and dominant culture of society. I have actively participated in projects focused on advocating for the rights of women who had no recourse to UK public funds and were experiencing domestic violence. This influenced my decision to apply my knowledge of social work principles, techniques and practices to complex cases and community issues in international development.

Tags: united states, government pd, public diplomacy, cultural exchange, united kingdom, british council, atlas corps fellow

Myanmar Vows to Free All Political Prisoners

The president of Myanmar has promised to release all political prisoners by the end of this year and said he thought a nationwide ceasefire was possible in the coming weeks for the first time in six decades...Activists had protested his two-day talk with British Prime Minister David Cameron, taking issue with the Asian nation's human rights record.

Tags: government pd, united kingdom, myanmar, burma, aung san suu kyi, david cameron, thein sein, political prisoners

Fiddler on the Roof in Kurdistan

For two weeks, American Voices offered performing arts lessons to 300 Iraqis from across the country. Classes were taught in the areas of jazz, piano, classical symphony, theater and hip hop & breakdance. I was essentially the Assistant Director of the YES Academy, and a veritable public diplomacy camp counselor. We also held smaller mini-YES Academies for close to a week in both Baghdad and Kirkuk -- the latter of which I ran as well.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, israel, islam, iraq, kurdistan, judaism, paul rockower, american voices, ramadan

Music That Transcends Borders

At its core, the Latin Alternative Music Conference is a gathering of dedicated underdogs, rallying behind music that envisions a polyglot, multicultural, border-hopping 21st-century culture but faces stubborn barriers, in the United States, of language and radio formats. The term “Latin alternative” makes room for pop, indie-rock, electronica, hip-hop, punk and hard rock, all loosely connected by a willingness to push past divisions of genre and geography.

Tags: united states, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, non-state pd, cultural exchange, music diplomacy, mexico, latin america, new york, latin grammys

U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News to Americans

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

Tags: united states, media, international broadcasting, government pd, public diplomacy, us department of state, foreign policy, smith-mundt act, broadcasting board of governors

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