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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.

Posts by Ernest_J_Wilson_III

WINNING SMART POWER
FEB 11, 2007 - 9:58AM PST
Posted by Ernest J. Wilson III
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Joe Nye reminds us that soft power is the power to get others to want what we want. By that definition, soft power advocates haven’t done so well. Ironically, they have failed to use soft power to get others to want what they want – that is, more soft power.

It’s easy to beat up on the current administration for failing to understand and deploy "soft power" and public diplomacy in their toolkit of foreign policy. Bush, Cheney and the gang prefer coercion, i.e. hard power.

But the previous Democratic campaigns have not done such a good job either. During... FULL TEXT
 
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EDUCATING THE IDEA MAKERS
JUL 31, 2006 - 6:53PM PST
Posted by Ernest J. Wilson III
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The U.S. foreign policy machine has been churning out a lot of bad ideas lately. To what do we owe this increased supply of bad ideas? Is it mainly the fault of the current foreign policy team? The permanent foreign policy apparatchiks? Where do all these bad ideas come from?

The short answer is, "all of the above." Bad ideas are not just the fault of the Bush officials that control the White House, State Department and Defense, although to them goes the lion share of responsibility for providing and enacting really bad ideas about foreign policy.

The Iraq morass... FULL TEXT
 
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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: GOOD NEWS AND BAD
APR 25, 2006 - 4:52AM PST
Posted by Ernest J. Wilson III
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There is good news and bad news in the world of public diplomacy.

The good news is that respected observers and senior American officials are now paying more attention and trying to develop public diplomacy strategies. The not-so-good news is that they are getting it wrong. And the really bad news is that until America fixes its diplomacy both public and traditional, our national interests will continue to be badly compromised by precisely those institutions most responsible for protecting us.

Julia E. Sweig has just published Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century. An expert on... FULL TEXT
 
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GOOGLE’S DIGITAL DIPLOMACY
FEB 22, 2006 - 2:02PM PST
Posted by Ernest J. Wilson III
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It was bound to happen. The iconic flagship of our voyage into the digital age has run up against the hard realities of state power and international relations. Internet naiveté is giving way to global realpolitik. Now that Google is in a major flap over its deal with the Chinese government to censor itself, what will become of Google’s “foreign policy?” And what, if anything, should the American government do? This case simply foreshadows the complexities of designing “foreign policy” in the digital age.

Not long ago the government of China imposed requirements on Google mandating them to block access... FULL TEXT
 
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