Last month the White House and the Broadcast Board of Governors proposed legislation as part of BBG’s FY2014 budget request to Congress that would create a new Chief Executive Officer who would supervise all U.S. international broadcasting, and I then filed a report based on a telephone conference call that followed the announcement.

WASHINGTON -- Last month the White House and the Broadcast Board of Governors proposed legislation as part of BBG’s FY2014 budget request to Congress that would create a new Chief Executive Officer who would supervise all U.S.

An exchange programme targeted at examining the role that journalists play in the society and the challenges they face while doing their jobs tagged Spring 2013 Professional Fellows Congress opens Wednesday in Washington, D.C., United States of America with 10 journalists from four countries in Africa – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda – participating.

Starting on May 3, the White House's petition website has become a favored landing spot for Chinese Web users, and the hashtag #occupytheWhiteHouse, and a variety of related memes, has recently appeared on Chinese social media platforms. The origin of this chatter provides a case study in censorship, Chinese netizen humor, American soft power, and the unintended consequences of a (sometimes) borderless Internet.

The US State Department has awarded PT Ganesha Aggies Jaya a contract for just under $3 million for communications support for the @america public outreach center in Jakarta. The firm will provide public affairs and PR support as well as diplomacy programming for the outreach center, according to a representative from the federal agency. The representative did not provide further details on the contract's length.

In an article in The New Yorker two years ago, reporter Ryan Lizza famously quoted an anonymous adviser to President Obama characterizing the president’s strategy in Libya as “leading from behind.” That’s not a bad way to describe the president’s foreign policy in general. Obama takes great pains not to lead too conspicuously, not to step on toes, not to offend allies or enemies. Libya, in fact, was the ideal: Let the Europeans and the Arabs take the lead, and we’ll quietly help out. Or not.

The persistence of anti-American views in the Arab world represents an important policy challenge and an intriguing puzzle for political scientists. In the new issue of Foreign Affairs, I use Amaney Jamal's fascinating new book, Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy At All?, to explore a range of competing arguments about Arab views of the United States (many thanks to the Foreign Affairs team for temporarily ungating the essay).

The 43rd Annual Washington Conference on the Americas will be held at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on coming Wednesday, the 8th of May. The event will be co-hosted by the US Department of State and the Council of the Americas.