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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 Mitchell Polman

WE NEED A PUBLIC DIPLOMACY STRATEGY FOR RUSSIA
AUG 20, 2007 - 2:14PM PDT
Posted by Mitchell Polman
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Since September 11th much of our nation's public diplomacy efforts have been focused, appropriately enough, on the Middle East and the Islamic world. However, while much energy and attention has gone to improve understanding of America and its policies in those regions another important sphere has been neglected. The Russian government is now clearly conducting a concerted effort to indoctrinate its people, particularly its young people, in anti-Americanism. America is hardly the Kremlin's only target. Indeed, the list is a long one -- Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Britain, etc. Its recent forays in the Arctic have actually sparked the Canadians to... FULL TEXT
 
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IDEAS TO BOLSTER THE WORLD’S KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA
JUN 5, 2007 - 11:54AM PDT
Posted by Mitchell Polman
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Last March I wrote an essay for the Center's "Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review" identifying what I believe to be a key problem with our nation's public diplomacy -- a lack of emphasis on informing people overseas about our nation's history. One thing that makes this an attractive approach is that it can be done for the most part with infrastructure that we already have in place. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. So here are some suggestions on how we can work to improve international understanding of the American experience.

Alan Heil, former deputy director of Voice... FULL TEXT
 
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AMERICAN HISTORY IS MISSING FROM OUR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
MAR 15, 2007 - 2:11PM PDT
Posted by Mitchell Polman
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Since the events of September 11, 2001 the foreign policy establishment of Washington has exhausted much energy debating America's public diplomacy efforts. I've watched this debate with interest because I work on a contract basis for State Department public diplomacy programs. I have also tried to create private sector public diplomacy projects. I've traveled with foreign journalists, politicians, and other notable figures all over the United States. You might say that I'm a "foot soldier" in the public diplomacy battle.

From my vantage point America's biggest public diplomacy problem is one that receives scant attention from the myriads of commissions... FULL TEXT
 
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