PD commentary
Selection and commentary by PDC members and authoritative experts in the field
Tuesday, May 15th 2012
For well more than a decade, Korea experts who specialize in international media have been examining the impact of foreign broadcasts and DVDs on users in North Korea. They have done so through a combination of in-country surveys and debriefings of defectors from North Korea, refugees and travelers abroad. In annual reports, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders invariably have ranked that country as having the “least free” media in the world. Yet the curtain of near total silence appears to be opening as never before in North Korea.
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Thursday, May 10th 2012
Perhaps the State Department should take a leaf out of the Marine Corps playbook, especially in terms of evaluation and measurement of results. I for one would like to see a similar study of State Department Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan 2001 to 2010. We learn from our mistakes as much or more than from our "self-rated" successes.
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Wednesday, April 25th 2012
Thank you, Madame Secretary. It is an honor to be here with you, today, and I am grateful for the confidence that you and President Obama have placed in me.
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Monday, April 23rd 2012
I had an opportunity recently to meet Tara Sonenshine, the newly appointed Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and I came away both impressed and hopeful that she will bring a fresh, informed perspective to this important position.
We certainly need it.
The United States seems to have more than its share of image problems these days, from the Secret Service scandal in Colombia and the partying and flagrant disregard for the taxpayer’s dollar by the General Services Administration, to the latest batch of embarrassing photos to emerge from the Afghanistan battlefield.
All of these are public diplomacy problems in the sense that they conspicuously contradict the values of anti-corruption and human rights that we embrace for ourselves and advocate for others. So when we fall short, everybody notices.
Most Americans aren’t surprised by that. We know we’re far from perfect, and we’re also a nation that believes in forgiveness and second chances. (For proof of that, just look at our politicians.) But because of our history, our achievements, and, let’s face it, our occasional lecturing to others, we’re sometimes held to impossibly high standards.
The most surprising example of this that I ever experienced occurred in, of all places, Iran.
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Sunday, April 22nd 2012
Here’s a thought: why don't the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) agents protect the President when he travels to foreign countries?
If there is a constant theme in public diplomacy, it is that the people in the field, at the embassy, know best how to do what the USG needs done.
One reason the Secret Service agents in Cartagena got caught with their pants down (metaphorically speaking) is because they were out of their element. They were in unfamiliar, foreign territory.
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