Nelson Mandela died one year ago today, but his legacy lives on. He changed the image of South Africa from that of a country despised for its atrocities to a “Rainbow Nation” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s term) that protects and promotes human rights and democratic values.

Reassurance is needed. Hopes that China’s spectacular climb to superpower status might be completed without conflict have been dented in recent years. Its assertive approach to old but until recently largely quiescent territorial disputes with Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and India has jangled nerves. 

It is always difficult to calculate the impact of U.S. domestic events on international audiences. But if experience is any guide, news travels fast, and people from Soweto, South Africa to Seoul are watching events in Ferguson, Mo.; Staten Island, N.Y.; and around the country as protests unfold over police shootings. In short, I would say, "Houston, we have a problem."

Madam Secretary gives me flashbacks to the public diplomacy campaigns we drew up in school, as its fictional storylines follow the sort of programs we’d draft and questions we’d examine in class: How do you encourage democracy in this country? How do you encourage peace between different ethnic groups in a region? 

Since The United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014 (HR4490) was passed by The House of Representatives on July 28, 2014, there has been much debate about the fate of the Voice of America and how the Broadcasting Board of Governors needs to be reformed.