The soccer soft power contrast between Qatar and Iceland speaks volumes. A comparison of the strategies of both countries demonstrates that it takes more than money to leverage soccer to create political, geopolitical and economic opportunity. Money and world soccer body FIFA’s desire to take one of the world’s foremost sporting events beyond Europe and the Americas helped Qatar win the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

On July 8-9, 2016, some of the world’s most powerful heads of state, as well as their foreign and defense ministers, gathered in Warsaw for the NATO Summit. NATO summits, convened every year or two, represent important public diplomacy opportunities for the Alliance. During these summits, NATO nations and partners meet in order to produce a communiqué, which outlines the Alliance’s priorities and initiatives. 

In an earlier post, I speculated that preventing a Zika virus epidemic would rally transnational diaspora organizations. Since then, concern has grown among U.S.- and Canadian-based diasporans, especially those with roots in Brazil, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other Latin American countries. Caribbean American and global media are featuring stories and public service announcements on the outbreak, but so far, I have observed no major non-governmental diasporan response.

Worries about ineffective U.S. government response to foreign propaganda campaigns and calls for coherent, coordinated and compelling American messaging are growing. Having failed to pass reform in the last session, Congress is again deliberating how to restructure U.S. international broadcasting (USIB) to match the challenges facing American interests around the world. But the International Communications Reform Act, intended to “improve the missions, objectives and effectiveness of U.S.

Over the long term, it will be crucial to turn off the IS recruiting faucet. Doing so will require counterterrorism officials to better understand that that the “snuff videos” for which IS has become so well-known are not the principal enlistment tools. Rather than “come kill,” the strongest message is “come build the caliphate.”

Some Americans are wondering how we’ll be able to explain Donald Trump to the rest of the world, but they needn’t worry. Trump will be an all-too-familiar character in many countries because they already have their own version of him.

The dominant perception is that the TPP is the commitment of the United States to Asian-Pacific relations, as well as an assertion of America’s trade and security rules and norms in a region increasingly influenced by China. This perception works well to positively influence the U.S’ Asian partners. But for its North American partners, Mexico in particular, the U.S’ rhetoric is different.

Aside from the figures, the 2015 report also includes an analysis section. In it, ACPD makes more than 20 recommendations that are meant to iteratively strengthen and modernize public diplomacy and broadcasting strategy and tactics. The emphasis of the recommendations is on research and evaluation; supporting public diplomacy professionals; and how to keep American Spaces open and accessible.