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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

by Steven R. Corman Yesterday the Washington Times released video excerpts of an interview with  Hussain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the United States.  While the Times featured statements about coming FATA operations in its print story, I was intrigued by a couple of comments he made about U.S. performance in the war of ideas. On [...]

by Steven R. Corman On Monday, recently sworn-in Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Jim Glassman published an op-ed piece in the International Herald Tribune.  Entitled “The Animosity Does Not Run Deep,” it interprets the latest Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Survey. In a nutshell, he says that the survey is not all bad [...]

by Steven R. Corman Jim Snyder has an interesting post at The Hill on efforts to reinvigorate international travel to the U.S. It cites statistics from the Travel Industry Association (TIA) suggesting that travel to the U.S. has declined by one-third over the last 15 years, having an impact on travel-related businesses like hotel chains [...]

by Edward T. Palazzolo Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 and social networking, Jordan’s Queen Rania launches an online campaign to help curb Arab stereotypes. Queen Rania has launched an official YouTube page, with an exclusive message on the importance of cross-cultural dialogue in breaking down stereotypes.You can visit Her Majesty’s page at http://youtube.com/QueenRania. Queen [...]

or Deconstructing John McCain  by Matthew B. Morris  John McCain gave what was billed as a major foreign policy speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on March 26. In the speech he described himself as a “realistic idealist:” I am an idealist, and I believe it is possible in our time to make the [...]