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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

SOFT POWER AND THE OPEN-SOURCE ETHICS OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY 2.0
JAN 7, 2009 - 10:47AM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy James Glassman gave a comprehensive overview of his vision for the next phase of United States public diplomacy during his talk in early December at the New America Foundation. The subject of the talk was "Public Diplomacy 2.0", while host Steve Clemons of the Washington Note suggested "Facebook/Twitter diplomacy" as a more appropriate title.

Glassman provides some clear distinctions about how Public Diplomacy 2.0 is distinguished from previous efforts to provide a "strategy" of public diplomacy. Granted, some of his points have been made in prior engagements by Undersecretary Glassman, and in the rollout... FULL TEXT
 
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ALHURRA LOCATES THE “ARAB STREET”
JAN 7, 2009 - 8:15AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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The much maligned Alhurra, the U.S. government's Arabic TV service, is now a "go-to" news channel in Iraq, one of the largest TV markets in the Middle East of more than 28 million population. Because of its growing number of viewers in Iraq, Alhurra can now lay claim to its legitimate connection with the mythical "Arab Street,' a term which writer Amir Hamzaway says elites use "in the absence of independent public opinion surveys, in representing their own quite ideological views as those of the Iraqi majority and as those of Arabs generally."

The latest TV ratings from the commercial... FULL TEXT
 
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THE USA-WORLD TRUST IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME
JAN 6, 2009 - 1:00PM PDT
Posted by Mitchell Polman
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The Brookings Institution's report on its proposed USA-World Trust has unleashed a predictable torrent of criticism from the public diplomacy community. To be sure, not all of the commentary has been negative, but much of it has been. The critics are rehashing many of the same tired arguments that have been used to kill any ideas to deal with today's public diplomacy realities.

Predictably much of the discussion has centered on how the trust is or is not like the old US Information Agency (USIA). Many seem to be asking why if we are going to create the Trust then... FULL TEXT
 
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FINE TUNING BROADCAST PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
JAN 6, 2009 - 9:04AM PDT
Posted by Kim Andrew Elliott
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I am happy to see that Alvin Snyder is contributing again to the CPD Blog. I have always learned from his experience and have found his views to be interesting and provocative. His return commentary, about a revival of Worldnet, accordingly provoked me to add some thoughts about the possibilities for a public diplomacy television service.

When it was created in 1985, Worldnet billed itself as the “first global satellite television network.” Despite its head start, Worldnet was soon eclipsed by CNN International and BBC World, which were much more successful in getting access to cable systems around the world.... FULL TEXT
 
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REINVENTING BROADCAST PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
DEC 16, 2008 - 7:52PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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It's unfortunate that President Ronald Reagan's global interactive TV Network, Worldnet, no longer exists as it did two decades ago when he stood at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and dared Soviet leader Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".

Our former Worldnet TV service at the U.S. Information Agency would have been a perfect fit for President Obama, who plans to speak to Muslim audiences in the first 100 days of his administration from a venue somewhere in the Middle East.

With Worldnet's former global, regional, and local reach abroad, including its interactive TV locations at many U.S. cultural centers linked to... FULL TEXT
 
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