Democracy – IPDGC Smart Power

Digital Diplomacy’s Reach and Risk

April 8, 2013 public diplomacy 2 Comments

The recent Twitter row between the United States and Egypt triggered a number of issues – freedom of expression; the role of media in modern societies; the balance between diplomacy and public diplomacy; between interests and values, both ours and theirs; and the ability to communicate not just governments but…

Harlem Shake: Arab Spring Protest Edition

March 25, 2013 Cultural Diplomacy 2 Comments

by Kate Shriver First, there was Gangam Style, the epic YouTube video by South Korean pop sensation Psy that swept the world in 2012 and currently has over one billion views, making it the most viewed YouTube video of all time. Anyone who was anyone made a spinoff or parody of…

Democracy and 21st Century Statecraft

By Rebecca Woodward The recent presidential elections in Kenya served as a platform to showcase mobile technology as a medium for transparent and fair processes in a country troubled by election violence and fraud in the recent past. There are roughly six billion mobile phones in the world, in Kenya…

21st Century Visual Culture, NGOs, and Public Diplomacy

December 20, 2012 Cultural Diplomacy Global Communication public diplomacy 1 Comment

An early Christmas present arrived in the mail today – a new book called Sensible Politics: The Visual Culture of Nongovernmental Activism (Meg McLagan and Yates McKee, eds., Zone Books, 2012.) The “visual culture of nongovernmental activism” seems like an important topic for U.S. public diplomacy practitioners to consider. Even…

Everybody’s Talking About World Press Freedom Day

May 3, 2012 Africa in the field public diplomacy 1 Comment

World Press Freedom Day – celebrated today, May 3, with the centerpiece UNESCO event held in Carthage, Tunisia – is one of those global phenomena, like soccer, that seizes Americans only peripherally. Yes, the main event last year was held in New York, and yes, U.S. organizations such as the…

Is Subversive Diplomacy the Right Path?

March 29, 2012 Global Communication public diplomacy No Comments

After reading Fergus Hanson’s article in Foreign Policy, I have mixed feelings on the State Department’s campaign to use social networking and the Internet as a possible way of “subtly undermining repressive regimes.” While it is great that social networking is being embraced, I am not sure if this is…

Learning Public Diplomacy in Europe — China: Still Center of Controversy

March 9, 2012 public diplomacy No Comments

In Paris, whenever I’m asked where I am from, I have difficulty in giving a short answer. I am a Chinese national, which is apparent from my Asian face, but I’m also on exchange to a French university from an American graduate school. For many, however, the fact that I’m…