Anyone who doubts the value of money spent on competition in the world of ideas – a key aspect of public diplomacy – needs to take a look at what the Chinese are doing in this field. Aspiring to promote their own model of governance, in opposition to that of the United States and the West, the Chinese are investing heavily in making friends overseas. Indeed, there is a real danger of the United States being out-done, for reasons of limited resources and a lack of strategy. The Chinese have …
While Moscow has contributed to much of the Russian public’s distaste towards the United States, Washington has focused on resetting relations with Russia’s government rather that its people. Yesterday, a panel hosted by The Heritage Foundation, “Russian Anti-Americanism: A Priority Target for U.S. Public Diplomacy,” focused on U.S. public diplomacy efforts in Russia.
Internet outreach is the hottest new item in the U.S. government’s array of public diplomacy tools. While international broadcasting is in disarray, the focus has moved to Internet outreach through social networking and websites to promote America and its allies abroad. The Internet can be a great tool for the advancement of freedom and the empowerment of individuals. Yet it is not immune to the designs of state actors, nor does it exist in a policy vacuum. After having tangled with China over its internet censorship policy, Secretary of State …
The National Security Council is priding itself on a successful first year for President Barack Obama in terms of strategic communications. In a blog posting on the White House Web site, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes gave President Obama credit for his “steady diplomacy” and renewing America’s moral authority on the world stage. It is of course not surprising that the administration should want to spin its achievements at the first year mile-stone, yet for others it is hard to see the justification for the chest-pounding. …
A glaring omission in President Obama’s speech Tuesday was any attempt to address the propaganda war that is currently being waged with increasing sophistication and success by the Taliban again the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Information operations are a critical aspect of warfare and will help determine the outcome in Afghanistan, being focused on the hearts and minds of the Afghan population. Unless the Afghan people and their tribal leaders reject the extremist, violent Islamism of the Taliban and al-Qaeda and the grim vision of the future they represent, military …
The challenge thrown down this week by the U.S. State Department to the world’s home video makers is an ambitious one — apparently nothing less than changing the climate of the planet. “Change Your Climate, Change Our World,” is the title of the State Department’s new public diplomacy campaign in the run-up to the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen in mid-December. This is hardly an appropriate use of US taxpayer money or effective public diplomacy for the United States as it advances a tendentious political agenda, not knowledge of the …
International expectations went through the roof one year ago today with the election of Barack Obama. The United Stated had elected the man whom many across the globe expected to be the anti-Bush. As controversial abroad as President Bush’s stance on the long war against terrorism had been, just as euphoric was the reaction to the election of the Democratic presidential nominee. The jubilation reflected a belief that as president, Obama would think less like an American and more like the rest of the world – however that was defined. …
When Director of the USC for Center Public Diplomacy, Philip Seib told Professor Nicholas Cull that the anthology, Toward a New Public Diplomacy (released September 14, 2009) was going to be written, Cull was pessimistic regarding the book’s potential impact on the Obama administration’s public diplomacy initiative. On September 14, 2009, during a panel discussion at Washington, DC’s Newseum, Cull revealed his expectation that the Obama administration would already have its foreign policy strategy crafted ten months into the presidency was realistic. As it happens, he was wrong. It is …
International graduate students are cooling on the United States a new study released this week by the The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) shows. Offers of admission from U.S. graduate schools to prospective international students decreased 3% from 2008 to 2009, the first decline since 2004. More than half of responding institutions reported a decrease in international offers of admission, a decline that is founded on a major drop of 16 percent declines in offers to students from both India and South Korea. (Overall numbers would have been even lower …
President Obama’s foreign policy thus far has been marked by an emphasis on public diplomacy. As a result, successfully engaging foreign publics has become a top priority of his administration. The President himself has taken an active role in this effort, delivering several high-profile speeches to audiences around the world. His July 7th oration in Moscow, which focused on the importance of media freedom and human rights, was one such occasion. But Obama’s message failed to reach his intended audience- the Russian public. On Russian television, which is tightly controlled …
