by Steven R. Corman
With the end of the year, it’s time for some shout-outs to five individuals who made significant achievements in strategic communication during 2008.  They are (in alphabetical order):

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who had the good sense to put some serious money into social science research through the Minerva project.  Despite a [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Pakistani public opinion about the U.S. and its war against extremists is a matter of  considerable concern given the tenuous situation in that country.  As we know, the public is quite unhappy about cross-border missile strikes the U.S. has been conducting this year.
Even if the U.S. and Pakistani governments have a tacit [...]

by Steven R. Corman
With news that the Hillary Clinton pick for Secretary of State is final, I thought it might be useful to summarize what she had to say one year ago in her essay for Foreign Affairs (subscription link).  Of course, these were her priorities as an erstwhile president, and the Secretary of State [...]

by Steven R. Corman
The GAO has just released a report on the 2009 Congressional and Presidential Transition.  Number five on the hit parade of urgent issues is improving he U.S image abroad (good beat, but it’s kind of hard to dance to).
The GAO says that to accomplish this, policy makers must

“improve their strategic planning, coordination, [...]

by Steven R. Corman
In a widely-read white paper published last year, my colleagues and I pointed out that strategic communication operates in a complex worldwide system.  One feature of such systems is that they can develop inertia, stubbornly insisting on interpreting messages in standard ways, practically no matter what the message is.  Such is the [...]

by Bud Goodall
A recent report in The Huffington Post showed once again how much trouble foreign journalists can have in translating colloquial Americanisms:
That problem faced Al Jazeera reporter Abderrahim Foukara when he wrestled with how to describe “maverick.” The world’s most watched Arab network finally decided to define the American colloquialism as “a bird that [...]

by Steven R. Corman
You would think that any presidential debate on foreign policy would have to spend a lot of time talking about how American policy is perceived and how its perception influences our ability to project power, pursue our strategies, and achieve our goals.
You would be wrong.
In the entire 90 minute presidential debate last [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Earlier today I paticipated in a bloggers’ roundtable with Assistant Undersecretary of State James Glassman.  My question for him was whether the U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication (NSPDSC) is still in force.
I asked this because Glassman has made comments in multiple appearances, like his speech at the Council [...]

by Angela Trethewey and Joe Faina

In addition to his prime time speech last week at the Republican National Convention, Senator Lieberman also appeared at a convention panel in place of McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Sheunnemann.  In that talk, Lieberman outlined what a McCain administration would mean for foreign policy.
Lieberman promised that McCain would [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Though I’m not too sure what he has been doing in terms of actual public diplomacy lately, it’s apparent that Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Jim Glassman has been working overtime on public affairs.  Since his recent confirmation he has produced a a slew of speeches, TV appearances, op-eds and other [...]