Category: public diplomacy

This is the third of a seven-part series of posts. See part one here, and part two here. 

Equally important to the relationship with Washington is the relationship within the Embassy, primarily because different sections are privy to specific policy developments emanating from headquarters that PAOs are not.

Many PAOs start each day in the embassy with meetings in the Front Office with heads of other sections to review Washington developments which will affect the embassy’s work and to discuss local developments which may inform U.S. decision making.  The PAO’s job then is to convey this to the entire PD staff so that all work is aligned to the latest guidelines.  This may involve what messages to convey, what terms to use or avoid, or what the reasons are for policy direction.   Once again, for the PAO much of the work within the Embassy is to ensure that public outreach conforms to policy.  Before the PD section posts something in social media related to a trade agreement, the economic section has to weigh in.  A public statement on Russia must pass muster with the political section, which may alert the PAO to Washington sensitivities regarding wording or content.  By far the most important internal relationship is between the PAO and the Ambassador, who is the public face of the Embassy.  Although the PAO often plays a critical coordinating role in crafting the Ambassador’s public persona, in most embassies it is the Ambassador who deals with the press, delivers the public speeches, and personifies policy.

The average PAO spends much of his or her energy aligning agencies and sections with different missions and priorities and resolving the inevitable conflicts between representatives of US government agencies with different cultures and missions.  When I was PAO in Cyprus during the evacuation of more than 14,000 Americans from Lebanon, my primary interest was to help the press get a good story.  The Defense Attache had an exclusive focus on the evacuation mission with the legitimate concern that media could negatively impact that mission.  In such circumstances the PAO must work with the relevant section and with the Front Office (Deputy Chief of Mission, the #2 person in the embassy especially) to balance competing needs.  In this case we decided to respond to journalists’ questions of arrival time of ships from Lebanon and helped them gain access to the secure part of the port and on board ships carrying evacuees from Lebanon to Cyprus while ensuring that the media did not interfere with the arrival of the evacuees.  With our help, the journalists got their story of a US government-wide effort we could be proud of and the mission continued unimpeded.

Following the old saying that amateurs think tactics but professionals think logistics, the PAO also must coordinate with other embassy offices that are part of the State Department to ensure successful exchange programs. One of the first things a PAO needs to do upon arriving at post is to develop good relations with the Admin Counselor, the General Service Officer, and the Budget and Financial manager to ensure that the administration and money side of the Embassy understands exchange programs, how the money will be used, how the programs will be organized, and how program success will be evaluated.   The PAO also learns from the Admin Counselor staff what rules and deadlines need to be followed to ensure timely service and support.  In Germany, for example, to prepare for large programs where hundreds of participants needed access to the embassy, the PD and Admin sections had regular meetings at all levels so that smooth logistics led to successful programs.   For example, long lines or bottlenecks at the entry to programs can reveal the lack of good planning and preparation.   When participants in a PD program are unaware of the logistics behind the program, one can consider that aspect a success.

One of a PAO’s main jobs is to ensure that his or her supervisors up the chain are never blindsided and that they have enough information to make decisions appropriate to the context.  The PAO and/or IO spends most of the day ensuring that the Front Office knows the latest guidance from Washington, that Washington knows of potentially problematic stories emanating  from the field, that USG officials are armed for potential press questions , and that the Ambassador’s speeches conform to policy.  The PAO must ensure that the Ambassador and Washington learn about a developing or a bad story before they read it in the press.  This gives the bureaucracy time to draft a thoughtful response.  Drafting guidance often requires input from other sections to ensure that the embassy is providing a united front.  In short, the average PAO must manage government internal relations (including much e-mail), manage the resources supporting exchange programs, and look inward to ensure the success of the outward face of the embassy.

We need to be reminded of Nicholas Cull’s admonition that public diplomacy must be connected to policy. It would be useful to see more scholarly writing on the internal dynamics of PAOs and other players in embassies as they cooperate to implement programs.   As described above, this internal coordination in support of policy dominates a PAO’s day.  Much excellent scholarly work describes managing exchange relationships with contacts in the field, but the public event is built on a foundation of internal coordination and consultation.   (End Blog 3)

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Government.

This is the third of a seven-part series of posts. See part two here, and part four here.

This is the second of a seven-part series of posts. See part part one here. 

The successful Public Affairs Officer (PAO) must skillfully balance and successfully navigate three relationships:  a.  the Washington bureaucracy, b. other sections of the embassy, c. contacts abroad.  The following diagram outlines the key relationships that PAOs juggle on a daily basis (I have highlighted the internal relationship in blue):

Here I will briefly describe the internal relationships which dominate an average PAO’s day, how one tries to get different offices in the embassy and Washington on the same page (often literally), and how a PD officer can deal with the inevitable case of competing priorities.

The PAO Washington relationship is key to success in public diplomacy.   Effective PAOs and Information Officers (IO’s), whose focus is the press, generally spend the largest portion of their days aligning themselves with Washington.  From the minute s/he wakes up usually very early in the

morning, the PAO (and of course IO) monitors the local press to identify news items which headquarters needs to see.   These range from highlighting a story which may require USG comment to giving Washington a feel for stories which affect its interest.  The PAO and the staff must always keep US policy in mind in order to determine what to include in the daily press summary and how prominently to place it.  The story featured most prominently in the local press may not be included at all or may be placed in the background of the press summary sent to headquarters.  Locally Employed Staff, who do the bulk of the monitoring, become highly attuned to USG priorities so that they can highlight appropriate articles.  The PAO and IO may also clear on speeches from Washington or guidance for appropriateness to local context to assure that the host government and populace will read the message as intended.

Similarly, the PAO and in concert with the Cultural Affairs Officer ensures that all exchange programs support U.S. policy and that the allocation of resources reflects Department priorities.   By example, this meant programming more speakers in Germany to support our economic agenda such as T-TIP and in Pakistan developing programs to reach a more diversified young audience.   The PAO and CAO are in frequent contact with Washington to learn of Washington priorities and models of effective programming.  All these efforts are to bring Washington and the post on the same page.

But it is a headquarters oriented relationship, which why the line from Washington on the chart above is thicker than that from post to headquarters.  The Public Affairs Office in the field receives its funding from Washington with a mandate of explaining and supporting US policy abroad.   Often there is a competition among other embassies for resources with the proposal that best supports policy in an innovative manner garnering extra resources.  While PAOs may inform policy and provide ‘ground truth’ to Washington with daily press summaries and other reporting, and may backchannel to warn of directives from Washington that could harm U.S. interests, once the policy is set the PAO must enact it to the best of his or her abilities.

Mastering USG policy requires reading the daily Department of State (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/) and White House (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings) Press Briefings, a careful reading of all speeches by the President https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-and-remarks, the Secretary of State http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/speeches/ and other high level officials as well as daily Department guidance and suggested social media content.  The PAO must be aware of all high level visitors from Washington to the post and the content of phone conversations between the President or Secretary of State and in-country counterparts.  A fine reading of these texts provides PAOs and IOs with an up to date understanding of USG policy to use in daily interactions with press and other contacts.   I would argue that the public interaction of PD officers, which receive much of the scholarly attention, is just the tip of the iceberg for the more important task of aligning the officer with Washington views.  With this knowledge, the PAO or IO can reply to press queries, correct misconceptions may which may arise in conversations with contacts and ensure that all outreach, including social media supports USG policy.   By the same token, the spokesperson in Washington is able to anticipate and prepare for questions using information provided by the field.

To garner extra funds for exchange programs, the PAO must know how to connect proposals to Washington priorities and how to make the case that a program that might on the surface lack connection to policy actually has a direct link.   Many of my American and German staff had copies of the strategic goals placed in a prominent position in their offices to underpin any request for funding and other support.  End Part 2

The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Government.

This is the second of a seven part series. See part one here, and part three here. 

Balancing Relationship Based and Policy Based PD Programming

Introduction

Public diplomacy activities are traditionally divided between exchanges, which are seen as policy neutral, and short term messaging, which pushes out the latest policy (see: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/241430.pdf.)  This division, in fact is reflected in the organization of U.S. public diplomacy sections abroad, which divide broadly into information and cultural sections.   The general view is that cultural sections focus on developing lasting relationships through participation in exchanges often with a long-term payoff as contacts rise over a lifetime into positions of influence.  The press side of the house does the heavy policy lifting, conveying U.S. policy to broad audiences and reacting quickly to short term developments.

1. Cultural/Exchanges________________________________Press/Information

Long Term                                                                                                           Short Term

Field Oriented                                                                                                    Headquarters Oriented

Relationship Oriented                                                                                      Message Oriented

Largely Two (or more) Way                                                                            Largely one way

With a vast literature on building collaborative networks, the balance in scholarly literature on PD weighs heavily in favor of the cultural/exchange part of PD and developing relationships with contacts.  As Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel noted in an address at the U.S. Institute for Peace (http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/event/cpd-forum-global-leadership-public-diplomacy), when public diplomacy in the US was created, there was a scarcity of information.  This provided fertile ground for institutions such as VOA to broadcast news and other programming  to information hungry audiences.   We have now moved to an infinite supply of information where the real problem is scarcity of attention and ability to process.

David Ronfeldt and others remind us that technological developments such as ubiquitous cell phones, the Internet and social media have hastened the trend.  They elevate many-to-many communication over traditional one-to many modes of the broadcast media.  Dialogue is valued over messaging, which is viewed as close to propaganda.  Thomas Keene, chair of the 9/11 Commission and chair Lee Hamilton emphasized that, “The U.S. government must define what the message is, what it stands for,” but also concluded, “Public diplomacy is not a one-way street.   It is not delivering a message:  It is communication … a process of engagement and developing relationships.”  There are simply too many players able to convey their message for a government to have a monopoly of information.  Although Americans in general have a particular talent for sitting down and having a conversation according to Undersecretary Stengel, he acknowledged that the State Department is much better at one way than two way communication.

Yet arguments can be made for a focus on the right hand side of the diagram as well.  The power in the Department of State and US government resides with those who make policy, not those who carry out exchanges.   In an era where one expects immediate results in domains from business to diplomacy and the rationale for PD funding is regularly called into question, one must build in some short term results in order to protect long term programs.

An effective senior PD officer must live, eat, and breathe US policy.   The typical Public Affairs Officer (PAO) will start the day perusing and watching local media to gauge how issues that touch US policy interests are covered.   A focus on US policy dominates the entire day from internal meetings to coffees or lunches with contacts such as journalists to representational events in the evening when PAOs may try to explain or defend US policy in multiple conversations.   Even in the area of exchanges (the left-hand side of the cline), Washington ties programs closely to headquarter priorities as posts compete for a dwindling resources.   Senior PAOs may spend just as much time and energy managing the Washington and internal Embassy relationships as those with their contacts.

In the next six blogs, I will try to argue that the view of cultural and information programs occupying different worlds is a false one which blinds us to areas of overlap and synergy.  I will show that money spent on long term exchanges is not a wasted resource that could better be spent supporting short term goals as some argue.  I will also show that it is possible to tie exchanges to short term goals without sacrificing program integrity.  The biggest payoff should still remain the long term benefit as alumni of our programs often become the most credible interpreters if not advocates for our policy.  Meanwhile academics studying public diplomacy often forget that the underlying rationale for public diplomacy is to support policy objectives.

I will attempt to bridge the gap with suggestions for making exchanges more policy oriented and messaging more dialogic.  I will recommend that scholars of PD devote more time and attention to activities that support policy and that are key to how government measures the success of PD programming.   I will also recommend that headquarters review the importance of establishing and maintaining long term relationships.

In the next two blogs I will focus on internal relationships within the Department of State bureaucracy and maintain that the most important public diplomacy is often internal to the organization.  Blog four will focus on the exchange side of the equation with suggestions for garnering more short term payoffs.  Entry five will include a model which eliminates the exchange policy gap altogether with a focus on policy with indirect and direct goals.  Entry six will include recommendations for both scholars of PD and practitioners within the government for bridging the gap between long term exchanges and short term policy PD.   The final entry will describe pedagogical implications of a more policy-focused approach.

Disclaimer: The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the United States Government.

This is the first of a seven-part series of posts. See part two here. 

Speaking in both Spanish and English, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University Frank Sesno described in his introductory remarks the thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba as the threshold of a new era. Hosted at George Washington University on September 9, the program— a collaboration with GWU’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Affairs, the Department of State, and Sister Cities International–brought together approximately 200 representatives of NGOs, universities, think tanks, government, and the private sector to discuss academic and citizen exchanges with Cuba. Sesno emphasized the importance of building bridges through exchanges and GWU’s intention to strengthen relations further between the peoples of the United States and Cuba. Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan described the new relations between the U.S. and Cuba as a historic moment that comes along once in a lifetime. She noted that “the re-establishment of diplomatic relations and the easing of some restrictions on trade and travel open a door to exploring a new relationship and creating a new paradigm to define relations between the United States and Cuba and between the American people and the Cuban people.” She added that ”people-to-people exchanges play a unique and critical role, helping people to build bridges where gaps exist, breaking down barriers that separate people of goodwill, building connections that engage and empower people, motivating them to become leaders and thinkers, and helping participants use their skills and develop new ones, which improves their communities.”

Mary Kane, President and CEO of Sister Cities International, informed the audience that nine Sister City members have already built relationships with Cuban cities, which include cultural and educational exchanges as well as humanitarian relief. Sister city relationships develop citizen diplomats who learn from each other and form relationships of trust which lay the foundations for peace and prosperity.

The first panel was moderated by professor at GWU and former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, P. J. Crowley. Crowley stated that in contrast to the fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place almost 26 yearsago, the Cold War in this hemisphere ended just a few months ago. As the United States seeks to build bridges, people around the world pay particular attention to what we do, not just what we say–and there is no more powerful statement than President Obama fundamentally changing the U.S. policy approach on Cuba. The State Department’s Deputy Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, Joan Perkins, described the new policy approach of engagement as unchartered territory. She noted that while the re-establishment of diplomatic relations is a milestone, our goal with respect to Cuba remains the same — to empower the Cuban people and support the emergence of a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba. She described normalization as a long and complicated process that will take time and involve continuous dialogue by both countries. Perkins expressed the hope that the easing of travel restrictions will continue to facilitate exchanges because as President Obama has stated, our citizens are our best ambassadors. Jeff Braunger of the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control noted that the relaxation in the travel regulations can facilitate exchanges but emphasized that tourism to Cuba is still not allowed. Alan Christian of the Department of Commerce Bureau for Industry and Security explained regulatory changes that support the Cuban people such as the easing of restrictions on gifts to Cubans and of exports supporting the private sector. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Private Sector Exchange Robin Lerner described the privately funded J-1 program, which brings approximately 280,000 visitors from overseas to the United States annually for work and study based exchanges supported by private organizations. Last year, 49 exchange visitors from Cuba came to the United States on J-1 programs, mostly as short-term scholars conducting joint research at research institutions, museums, or libraries. With time, she noted that there could be an increase in the number of J-1 exchanges with Cuba.

The second panel, moderated by U.S. Embassy Havana’s Deputy Public Affairs Officer Lydia Barraza, offered a glimpse into existing private collaboration between Cubans and Americans. Jennifer Attal Allen, President and Executive Director of Academic Programs International, provided facts and figures on the educational system and outlined the procedure for entering into educational exchanges and acquiring visas. Michael Eizenberg, President of the Educational Travel Alliance, who has traveled to Cuba more than 60 times in the last 15 years, stressed the similarities between Americans and Cubans and the easily established rapport both sides enjoy. Eizenberg described all participants as winners and underscored the need for exchanges to go in both directions. Cynthia Vidaurri of the National Museum of the American Indian and Curator of Smithsonian Folklife Festival on Cuba described the incredible sophistication of the Cuban scholars and recommended deep engagement and reciprocity in establishing long-term programs in Cuba. Finally, Adam Kaplan, Vice President of Sister Cities International, described activities by the nine current Sister Cities members with relationships with Cuban cities and advocated for the development of long-term, multi-sector partnerships by communities under the sister cities model.

In his closing remarks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Gonzalo Gallegos described the remarkable evolution in Cuba-U.S. relations since he was posted there 12 years ago, stating that during his assignment in Cuba, his job was to highlight differences between our two governments, whereas today it is important to emphasize similarities between the two peoples. Gallegos urged participants to be creative and collaborate with citizens, universities, and NGOs in developing programs that can advance what the President started and foster mutual understanding. GWU Director of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Affairs Sean Aday described GWU’s commitment to supporting further relations between theU.S. and Cuba and underlined some themes running through the conference, including that developing exchanges demands time and patience as one overcomes issues of protocol and paperwork and as one listens to partners to understand their needs. He noted that peer–to-peer exchanges can be the most powerful, whether it be military to military or artist to artist.

Lively question and answer sessions followed each panel. Some questions that could not be addressed during the program will be answered in follow-up e-mail messages. In networking sessions, participants exchanged experiences (and business cards) among themselves and with the panelists, exploring areas of future collaboration. The most common piece of feedback seemed to be that we host more events like these.

Other resources on the symposium:

State Department’s DipNote blog post
Sister Cities International’s blog post
Copy of the cuba event program
Videos of the program are at IPDGC’s YouTube channel