The Ghost under the Brooklyn Bridge

This week workers at the Brooklyn Bridge chanced upon a forgotten room containing supplies stockpiled against a nuclear attack. Dates on the materials were evocative: 1957 - the year of Sputnik; 1962 - the year of the Cuban missile crisis. This discovery is an oddly evocative interruption from the high point last long war into what future historians will doubtless see as the opening phase of the era-defining conflict. It is like a ghost in a Shakespeare play -- reminding us of Read More

The Incredible Shrinking Voice of America

In the classic 1957 film "The Incredible Shrinking Man," the character played by actor Grant Williams is enveloped by curious fog while anchored on his small boat. Within days, his clothes begin to loosen and he gets smaller by the hour. "I was continuing to shrink, to become…what? Would others follow me?" he wondered. Yes, others would follow. The Voice of America would follow. Read More

The Ethical Dilemma of Blogging

An estimated 28.8 million bloggers publish on the Internet, while by comparison there are only a paltry 2,500 U.S. daily and Sunday newspapers published. As blogging grows and matures, it needs to confront an ethical issue, as its senior ink-to-paper colleagues have, where free trips and other gratuities are offered by those who would likely expect a return on their investment. Read More

“Good Night and Good Luck”

The flight purser came back to where Fred Friendly was seated to tell him that his friend Edward R. Murrow had died an hour earlier. The plane had just cleared the Irish coast on a flight from London to New York, and the news about Murrow had been radioed from Shannon control with instructions to tell Friendly. It was April 27, 1965. Read More

The Failures and Possibilities of Au Pairs as Public Diplomats

Cultural and educational exchange programs are effective public diplomacy tools because they enrich both those who go abroad and the societies they visit. Right? That good intention may not be the primary motivation behind the au pair childcare program the United States facilitates. This mismanaged program is being exploited and turned into more of a profitable business than cultural experience. Read More

Google’s Digital Diplomacy

It was bound to happen. The iconic flagship of our voyage into the digital age has run up against the hard realities of state power and international relations. Internet naiveté is giving way to global realpolitik. Now that Google is in a major flap over its deal with the Chinese government to censor itself, what will become of Google’s “foreign policy?” And what, if anything, should the American government do? This case simply foreshadows the complexities of designing “foreign policy” in the digital age. Read More

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