APDS Blogger: Riccardo Ruffolo

On the last day of the Masters of Public Diplomacy delegation’s visit to Washington D.C., some of us had the opportunity to visit the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. The delegation included University of Southern California alumna and Senior Communications Advisor, Stacy Hope; Assistant Press Officer, Ren Althouse; and three Press & Public Diplomacy (PPD) interns.

The Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars at USC has their annual conference tomorrow, April 6, 2012. The conference will provide a discussion on new technologies and emerging actors in the amorphous “thing” sometimes called public diplomacy.

The American Music Abroad program is designed to communicate America’s rich contributions to the global music scene as it fosters cross-cultural communication and people-to-people connections to global audiences. Today, American Voices is proud to administer the American Music Abroad program on behalf of the U.S.

In the new information environment world leaders are finding that they must communicate with multiple audiences. This panel considers the range of approaches governments are using to meet this public diplomacy imperative as well as the diverse objectives behind these efforts.

The co-founder of Wikipedia says the languages of Yoruba in West Africa and Swahili in East Africa are the most popular among the several African languages being used on the online encyclopedia..."For a long time there was this sort of cultural concern...

The Broadcasting Board of Governors and Gallup today detailed the ways in which their new partnership is helping the BBG inform, engage and connect with people worldwide in order to better serve their needs and support U.S. foreign policy and national security goals.

Public diplomacy has been the norm in the US and European countries for a long time, but in China this concept has yet to be understood and accepted widely. Government efforts at communicating with the public both home and overseas are often criticized as insensitive and opaque.

NATO has a public diplomacy department staffed with smart and dedicated people, but it became apparent at a conference on “The Power of Soft Power,” held recently in Brussels, that this contingent is increasingly lonely.