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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

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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LET’S NOT FORGET PUBLIC DIPLOMACY 1.0
DEC 8, 2008 - 5:46PM PDT
Posted by Mitchell Polman
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In the new movie "Slumdog Millionaire" there is a poignant scene that all public diplomacy experts should have etched in their minds. It's of a classroom full of boys in a Mumbai slum inhabited by Moslems passing around one copy of the "Three Musketeers" as part of their English lesson. Later we watch one of those boys evolve into a gangster. He could just as easily have joined Al Qaeda. The scene takes place in the early 1980's, but I suspect that in spite of India's growth that similar scenes can be found today. I say public diplomacy experts should... FULL TEXT
 
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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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