POMED Notes: Public Diplomacy and the War of Ideas
October 1st, 2008 by Jason
Yesterday afternoon the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Institute for Global Communications and Public Diplomacy hosted a discussion featuring Hady Amr, Director of the Brookings Doha Center; Michael Doran, Dep. Asst. Sec. of Defense for Support to Public Diplomacy; and Kristin Lord, Fellow at the Brookings Foreign Policy Studies Program. The event was moderated by Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at GWU.
Kristin Lord said that every disparate U.S. national security goal can be buttressed by an effective public diplomacy strategy. Hady Amr stressed that we must engage with conservative voices in the Middle East, rather than just the liberal elite. He called for the creation of an independent non-profit organization that will allow a wall of separation between strict policy advocacy and the fostering of relationships and bridge-building. Michael Doran said we must create the bureaucratic institutions needed to empower third-party partners to form and disseminate U.S. messages.
For full POMED notes on the event, click here.
Posted in DC Event Notes, Diplomacy, Public Opinion, US foreign policy |
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October 1st, 2008 at 11:35 am
[…] the heels of yesterday’s forum on public diplomacy comes the very disturbing results of a new BBC opinion poll. In Pakistan and […]
October 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Another way to get a more independent public diplomacy service would be to bring back USIA. It was folded into the State department at the behest of Jesse Helms in exchange for UN funding.
The old US Information Agency did a lot of exchanges and was tasked with explaining US policy, our country, and our system of government rather than explicit advocacy.