What China loves about Germany: soccer, cars and Hitler

Talking to a Chinese taxi driver is always interesting as they know what is rotten in the Middle Kingdom and speak up candidly. Sometimes these conversations are also interesting for students of public diplomacy, especially when concerned with the image and impression of a country. Read More

Arts Fuel Cambodia’s Rebirth: Lesson Lost on Governments

The revival of Cambodia’s rich and unique cultural heritage has fueled the country’s impressive recovery from the Khmer Rouge’s genocide of 1975-79. This message rang unmistakably true as the Season of Cambodia (SOC) has dazzled New York audiences in museums, universities, galleries, and performing arts centers over the past month. Both the US and the Cambodian governments stand to learn from this game-changing lesson for post-conflict development strategy, but neither government seems to have noticed. Read More

Public Diplomacy’s Impact and Prospects

A perennial question about public diplomacy is, “Does it work?” Congress quite rightly asks that whenever budgets are being scrutinized, and public diplomacy practitioners do their best to provide definitive answers. This can be difficult because only a late harvest will discover all the fruit of public diplomacy. Student exchange programs, for example, may have greatest effect decades later, when the former students have become government officials. Read More

BBG: Creating New CEO Requires Congress to Transfer ‘Certain Authorities’ from the BBG Board

WASHINGTON -- Last month the White House and the Broadcast Board of Governors proposed legislation as part of BBG’s FY2014 budget request to Congress that would create a new Chief Executive Officer who would supervise all U.S. Read More

Rhetoric of Power

According to a recently released report, India is among the top-10 most powerful countries in the world. This is a first-of-its-kind study of "national power" by leading strategic experts and scholars from the Foundation for National Security Research (FSNR) in New Delhi. Read More

Beijing Film Festival: Technically Dazzling, Ultimately Disappointing

BEIJING – The 3rd Beijing International Film Festival was a public diplomacy showcase this week for Chinese cinema at its best. Banners throughout the capital promoted the festival, the awards ceremony and, not least, the film-selling market in a country that now proudly proclaims itself as the world’s leader in movie theater revenues, ahead of the U.S. And yet, and yet… Read More

Reconceptualizing Diplomatic Norms in the Digital Age

APDS Blogger: Alex Laverty Jon Stewart, Bassem Youssef, & U.S. Embassy, Cairo: Reconceptualizing Diplomatic Norms in the Digital Age Read More

One Day’s News Shows Effects of New Media

As an indication of how online media are becoming ever more dominant in our world, consider two newspaper front pages (the ink-on-paper versions) on Wednesday, April 24. Read More

Economic Sanctions as Temper Tantrums

Harsh international sanctions against Iran are pointless and even counterproductive, members of the Iran Project argued this week in a new report. Read More

BBG Proposes Creating New CEO, Editor in Chief

WASHINGTON – All of U.S. international broadcasting could soon report to a new czar at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, under a plan contained in BBG’s budget request for FY 2014. Read More

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