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The fallout from President Trump’s executive orders limiting travel from some Middle Eastern and African countries is having far-reaching implications for U.S. tourism. It is not just visitors from the countries targeted by the bans that are souring on U.S. travel; the seven countries included in Trump’s original order in January account for 0.1% of incoming travelers. Rather, an atmosphere of fear at the nation’s airports are scaring off people without the slightest connection to the Muslim world.
If America can be said to have a public diplomacy — that is, government-directed outreach to international publics — then someone needs to throw it a lifeline. In only the last few weeks, we have seen evidence of a coming crisis for defenders of America’s international image: The State Department budget, as previewed by the President in his speech to Congress this week, is set to take a serious hit.
US spending on overseas aid is expected to bear the brunt of dramatic cuts as part of Trump’s plan to increase defence spending by $54bn in his upcoming budget. The US operates the largest and most expensive overseas aid programme in the world, with a proposed federal spend of $50.1bn for 2017 alone. More than $18bn of that is made up of economic and development assistance, commonly referred to as humanitarian aid.
Public diplomacy is one of the most powerful tools a president has to inform and influence the world by communicating American values and interests. By engaging with citizens overseas, we expand and extend our national security through the dissemination of news, information, culture, education, entrepreneurship and everything else that make a democracy strong.
When China’s economy slows, as it has recently, Apple’s revenues are inevitably hurt. But Apple also got a perhaps more worrisome sign for the long term just days before its quarterly earnings report, when China blocked its citizens from accessing iTunes Movies and iBooks—just the latest move showing that the country’s response to U.S. tech companies’ ambitions will be to fortify its borders.
On Sunday, however, Mexico showed that the deeper damage to the country’s image is self-inflicted. An independent investigative panel released its final report on the massacre in the state of Guerrero, which left 43 students of a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa missing and presumed dead. Its findings were devastating.
When Laurence Rossignol, France’s minister for women’s rights, likened women willingly wearing the burka to African-Americans backing slavery, she caused international controversy. […] She later apologized for the “language mistake” but she stands by her point, criticizing brands such as Marks and Spencer and H&M that are designing Islamic fashion.
Brazil launched its occupation strategy in 2008, the year after it won the right to host the 2014 World Cup and a year before Rio won its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics […] human-rights campaigners argue that armed conflict has increased as a result of major sporting events, imposing a particularly high cost on poor and homeless children.