Broadcasting Board of Governors leader Michael Lynton has informed the White House that he is leaving the BBG effective today. “It has been an honor to serve our country by taking part in the work of this board, which was established to oversee an agency with a complex and vital calling,” Lynton wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama about his decision.

The U.S. will certainly face a rise in the power of many others—both states and nonstate actors. Presidents will increasingly need to exert power with others as much as over others; our leaders’ capacity to maintain alliances and create networks will be an important dimension of our hard and soft power.

Hard power has not been in vogue since the Iraq War turned badly in about 2004. In foreign policy journals and at elite conferences, the talk for years has been about “soft power,” “the power of persuasion” and the need to revitalize the U.S. State Department as opposed to the Pentagon: didn’t you know, it’s about diplomacy, not military might! Except when it isn’t; except when members of this same elite argue for humanitarian intervention in places like Libya and Syria. Then soft power be damned.

Food aid is a hot topic in the world of foreign policy these days. Though the U.S. Government’s Food for Peace program is housed in America’s international development agency, food aid is public diplomacy.

Members of diaspora communities are grassroots ambassadors, often returning to their countries of origin or heritage to speak about America's values. For such communities, supporting higher living standards, economic growth, and political stability is about helping their friends and families, not simply a matter of traditional policy or diplomacy.

Given all that, out of the TV shows to send to the mother country, surely this one could be skipped? I'd argue just the opposite: This is exactly the kind of cultural product America should be exporting.

Over the past decade there has been a near universal surge of interest in public diplomacy. Yet, as more nations venture into the PD realm it is becoming increasingly clear that understandings of PD concepts and practices are anything but universal. One area where different views are emerging is the role of the public. Who is the “public” in public diplomacy?