In 2002 and 2007, The New York Times published my pieces about the need for autonomy in U.S. international broadcasting. On July 13, they published me again. The op-ed, "Radio Free of Bureaucracy" is about my other recurring theme: the need for consolidation in U.S. international broadcasting.

As you may have heard, former Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes came out against Cordoba House over the weekend. Hughes called on Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to move the project in order to "provide a path toward the peaceful relationships that he and his fellow Muslims strive to achieve."

Every so often, with about the same frequency as a combination hailstorm and solar eclipse, I get an op-ed published. In 2002 and 2007, The New York Times published my pieces about the need for autonomy in U.S. international broadcasting. On July 13, they published me again. The op-ed, "Radio Free of Bureaucracy" is about my other recurring theme: the need for consolidation in U.S. international broadcasting.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale will travel to Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile... During her visit to Argentina, Under Secretary McHale will meet in Buenos Aires with government officials, alumni of U.S. Government youth and professional exchange programs, and Argentine social media entrepreneurs.

Why did the world, particularly U.S. individual donors, give so much for Haiti but show so little concern for Pakistan? The two most common answers are the poor economy and donor fatigue. While they are certainly playing a role, these two factors provide an incomplete picture.

When a program can increase U.S. security and counterterrorism efforts and benefit the American economy at a time of a struggling recovery, you have hit a double jackpot. And when the program—in this case the United States Visa Waiver Program (VWP)—is also an effective public diplomacy tool for improving the image of the U.S. abroad, it is a triple jackpot.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently pledged that the U.S. would provide long-term support to Pakistanis affected by historic, devastating floods...My own view, in a nutshell, is that this is not a public diplomacy issue. It’s a humanitarian issue. We in the West should find every way to relieve the immense suffering in that unstable but crucial nation, simply because it’s the right thing to do, not because we can expect to score points or to keep the Pakistani Taliban from scoring points.

On the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama was asked about foreign-language education. He responded emphatically, calling it "embarrassing" that most Americans are monolingual. Being able to speak a foreign language makes you "so much more employable," he said. "We should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age."