Reviving Public Diplomacy: An Opportunity for the Next President
While the Bush administration brought in several undersecretaries of state for public diplomacy and public affairs over the last seven years, all left office, and their public diplomacy efforts were largely unsuccessful. (Failures could be partially attributed to the position itself: With the dismantling of the U.S. Information Agency in 1999, the financial and organizational support for public diplomacy was greatly diminished. The current public diplomacy position is under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, though public affairs and public diplomacy are quite different matters and should be overseen separately.) Given…
Read MoreThe “YouTube Effect” on Public Diplomacy
If there’s one thing the 2008 election promises to be about it is “change.” While the candidates emphasize their credentials at bringing change, it is important to remember that there is also a need to respond to change that has already occurred. And nowhere has change been more evident than in the arena of communication. The media environment has been transformed in the last decade, presenting new challenges to the presidential candidates and to the victor in November. Much as the famous Nixon-Kennedy debate signaled the beginning of the “visual era” of politics brought on by the advent of television,…
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