The Pause That Refreshes: Some Thoughts on Obama and Public Diplomacy
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, February 12, 2009, San Francisco — Persons interested in foreign affairs — among them the distinguished former Foreign Service officer Pat Kushlis; the noted scholar of the Middle East Professor Marc Lynch; the well-known blogger Matt Armstrong — have suggested that the Obama administration is not moving fast enough in organizing its public diplomacy. The Department of State defines public diplomacy as “engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences.” More in John Brown’s Notes and Essays
My initial reaction to the PD experts’ sense of urgency, as a former US diplomat, was to share it fully: We must do something big for PD after Bush! It must be done right away!
Thank you to FreeMediaOnline.org for the plethora of PD essays. We look forward to using mucho quotations (with references) in the proposal that we are submitting the DOD’s Robert Gates.
IMHO Roger Moore should consider doing a film entitled “Robert & Me.”