Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel travels to Nairobi, Kenya July 23-26 as part of President Obama’s delegation for the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. While in Nairobi, Under Secretary Stengel will co-host the Summit’s Youth and Women Day.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said at least 7% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was required to provide proper health, education and employment opportunities to youth. He was giving his opening remarks at meeting of US-Pakistan Education, Science and Technology Sixth Working Group here at "P" Block Auditorium here. 

With the majority of radical websites and social media messages hosted on servers in the United States, US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel yesterday found himself defending America’s stance of upholding the freedoms of religion and expression, including “the speech that we hate”, in response to questions on why the US authorities are not doing more to clamp down on such communications.

Top Hollywood executives including James Murdoch have been recruited to help the United States counter Islamic extremist propaganda, according to hacked Sony Pictures emails published by WikiLeaks. Secret exchanges between the US State Department and Sony have also included a bizarre plan to recruit hip-hop artists to produce a Muslim We Are the World video to support the fight against Islamic State (IS).  

Under Secretary Richard Stengel will travel to Jakarta, Indonesia April 14–15. While in Jakarta, Under Secretary Stengel will meet with the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia and U.S. Embassy staff. He will also meet the U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN...

The current occupant of that office, Richard Stengel, acknowledges that "the ultimate battle is not on the military battlefield, it's in the information space."  (...)The problem is that ISIS is very, very good at turning out highly professional video work. They are adept at using the right music to evoke the right mood and their grizzly executions take on an almost ethereal feeling.

Madison Avenue has helped the U.S. government fight everything from wartime foes to teen smoking. But now that Washington is locked in conflict with ISIS, a deadly enemy with sophisticated propaganda skills, adland seems very far from the front. Where are the country's best communications professionals during the propaganda battle of our time?

Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality.