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.
The Egypt Speech: Obama’s Watershed Moment
President Obama’s Cairo speech will define not only his approach to the "Muslim world" but his administration's aspirations for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict and bringing Iran in from the cold...raised expectations will be difficult to meet, and the risks from negative effects from what he will (and will not) say are real.
Obama’s New Way
The first test of Obama's new public diplomacy comes with his Cairo speech that will seek to break through the destructive mindset that formed after 9/11. "The whole Muslim world will be watching," says Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Obama, surely, will seek a new partnership with the Muslim world based on shared obligations.
What’s up with that “Global Engagement Directive”?
A new desk at the NSC, the "Global Engagement Directive," will take the lead in public diplomacy, international communications, foreign aid and other areas of engagement...[and] respond to the core imbalance in resources between the State Department and Defense Departments
Beware of Pakistanis Coming for Nefarious Reason: U.S. to India
"As India engages with Pakistan on levels other than terrorism and security, it can have a salutary effect on the entire relationship," Gregg Sullivan, director of press and public diplomacy for the State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asia, in a Facebook webchat on Indo-US relations.
Fund-Raising Still Has Its Perks in the Obama Era
The latest [ambassador] selections are a reminder that there are limits to just how much change the new president intends to bring...Susman [appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James] served on a government advisory commission on public diplomacy during the Reagan administration.
Embassy Envy
About two-thirds of ambassadorships currently go to career diplomats. The rest go to the president's friends, colleagues, and political donors...The swankiest gigs, according to former ambassadors, are the Scandinavian countries…as well as Luxembourg and the Caribbean islands. But for the most part, any Western European country will do.
The U.S. Foreign Offices
Are the nominees selected so far by the Obama Administration gifted in the arts and practice of public diplomacy? Among the 30-some nominees put forward to date, there are clearly some potential winners.
Do We Really Need Ambassadors?
But today, for the purposes of most really important diplomatic exchanges there is almost always a better conduit than the ambassador and for the ones that aren't that important, do we really need someone in a special ceremonial post? Or someone who doesn't understand the country or diplomacy?
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