by Steven R. Corman Last week, while I was recovering from a long stretch of foreign travel, GAO released its latest report on public diplomacy.  Matt thinks it is “interesting and worth reading,”  while Kim says not so much. My own view is that the report is interesting (in a disturbing way) because it clings [...]

by Steven R. Corman Judith McHale was sworn-in yesterday as Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.  Accordingly the Countup Clock that has graced these pages for the last several weeks has been retired. The final reading was 129 days between President Obama’s inauguration and swearing in the new PD Chief.  As others have [...]

by Steven R. Corman I just ran across this “Washington whisper” item in USNWR: President Obama has nominated longtime national security expert Philip J. “P. J.” Crowley as assistant secretary of state for public affairs, a move that suggests that the department’s public diplomacy with foreign nations will be stepped up. Crowley, currently a senior [...]

by Steven R. Corman Today the White House announced its intent to nominate Judith McHale as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (h/t Matt). Obviously the Obama administration couldn’t withstand the unrelenting pressure of the Count-Up Clock.  I can only imagine the meetings that must have taken place over the weekend.  [...]

by Steven R. Corman Matt’s latest post reminded me that we are still awaiting the appointment of a new Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Perhaps the problem is that the task of filling the PD post has simply fallen off the radar screen.  I mean, we all know how things [...]

by Steven R. Corman Earlier this week John Brown posted a blog questioning those of us who have expressed concern about slow movement on filling the position of Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the State Department. Maybe this go-slow approach is not such a bad thing, he says. I [...]

by Steven R. Corman The new strategic communication leadership at the State Department is still a work in progress.  Nonetheless DoD is making plans for better corrdination with it.  So says the Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review (QRM) released last week. This emphasis is an outgrowth of DoD’s evolving doctrine on Irregular Warfare (IW).  The [...]

by Steven R. Corman In an earlier post I commented on what seemed to be a rather unambitious Public Diplomacy agenda outlined by Secretary Hillary Clinton in her confirmation hearings.  At the time I noted that the new administration was just getting started and there was no point getting alarmed.  Since then there have been [...]