Why the U.S. Needs to Harden its Soft Power

On October 15, 2014, CPD together with the Annenberg School of Journalism hosted a special live streamed event titled, “Why We Need to Harden Our Soft Power,” in which Richard Stengel, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, discussed U.S. public diplomacy in the 21st Century with particular emphasis on the role of media in PD.

Under Secretary Stengel’s main focus was on new communication technologies and the opportunities and challenges that the information age brings to diplomats. Coming from a journalism background, as the former managing editor of Time, Stengel drew from the similarities in the two fields (journalism and public diplomacy) to shed light on some of the current global crises including ISIL and Ebola. He stressed the importance of non-state actors and urged the younger generation to utilize the horizontal nature of new communication and media platforms to increase people-to-people ties. He also emphasized that the United States needs to revamp its pop culture to become more relevant and attractive to the rest of the world.

The full transcript of the talk is available on the U.S. Department of State's website here.
To watch footage of the Q&A session following the talk, click here.