Public Diplomacy and Legitimacy in the Age of Transparency
At a recent conference, David Weinberger argued that the future of the news industry is in transparency. Read More
Toward a More Imaginative U.S. Public Diplomacy
Barack Obama may be the best exponent of American public diplomacy since Benjamin Franklin, inspiring a newly hopeful attitude about the United States in many parts of the world. But beyond the president himself U.S. public diplomacy lacks coherence and impact. Read More
“Uncle” Walter and the American Image
"Uncle" seems almost condescending — I don't mean it so. Read More
PD in Pakistan, and Why Al Qaeda Knows Something the U.S. Could Learn
One of the mysteries of our day is that American hard power has been so ineffective for so many years in apprehending Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri), leaving the group free to use public diplomacy to speak to Muslim publics — especially to a Pakistani nation that distrusts the United States. Read More
Obama Team Effectively Utilizes Online Social Networking for Public Diplomacy
Through the use of new technology, President Obama has made it clear that when he speaks in Ghana this Saturday, July 11, he intends to move from monologue to dialogue as the U.S. State Department opens up venues for greater public participation in the conversation. Read More
A Tale of Two Posts
Today, a tale about what journalism has become, with implications for all those concerned with the weakening firewall between “news” and “message.”
It’s a tale of two Posts — Washington and Huffington.
A revolution is underway in the news media, one neatly illustrated by how these two competitive news gathering organizations — the Washington Post and Huffington Post — have themselves made news in recent days. And, I’ll warn you, if you don’t already know, it’s the Washington Post that comes out looking bad. Read More
From the Good Neighbor Policy to the Fundacion Amistad: A Useful Historical Reminder for Obama
Cultural historians mostly discourage making cross-history comparisons of important events, since they take place in fundamentally different contexts and the parallels that are drawn are rarely meaningful or useful. With that caveat, I will argue how President Obama's administration might best utilize the soft power of cultural diplomacy by recalling a similarly pivotal moment from March 4, 1933. Read More
May Bad-Mouthing Continue: Iran and the Voice of America
Each time the Iranian Islamic dictatorship condemns the Voice of America by name for broadcasting news of anti-government demonstrations into that country, it can only mean more dollars for the VOA's Persian News Network — and VOA in general — at budget time on Capitol Hill. Read More
When Silence is Golden in PD
An unyielding belief in strength over suppleness — constantly deploying the full force of both the sword and the mouth — may lie at the core of that old warrior Sen. John McCain's criticism that President Obama has been too passive in reacting to Iranian protests against that country's controversial elections. Read More
Public Diplomacy’s Glass Ceilings
Women in public diplomacy have long been confronted with a glass ceiling in Washington. It seems that their male counterparts in PD now see such a ceiling as well. Read More
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