Diplomacy

An Interview with Alec Ross, State Department Senior Advisor for Innovation

December 3, 2011 by Meghan Healy Luecke
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Alec Ross joined the State Department in April 2009 after coordinating hundreds of policy advisers for the Obama campaign. This month, he spoke with us about his job, the limitations of new media tools for governance, and how the Arab Spring is changing 21st century statecraft.

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The Hardening of Soft Power

February 2, 2011 by Brittany Gleixner Hayat

Perhaps the most dominant narrative in contemporary international political discourse is a heightened sense of vulnerability to terror which has impacted every part of the world and linked small states to large in new ways. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, concern has risen that so–called “failed states,” losing the struggle to maintain [...]

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Strengthening U.S. Statecraft Through Public Diplomacy

January 20, 2011 by Katherine Brown and Tom Glaisyer

President Barack Obama is acutely conscious of the importance of global public opinion; upon entering office in January 2009, he vowed to reestablish the United States as a beacon of liberal ideals. Recent opinion polls, however, display a worrisome gulf between lofty intentions and ground-based realities. The State Department’s 2010 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) posits that public diplomacy should be a core part of twentyfirst-century statecraft. In seeking to effectively reach an amorphous global public, Katherine Brown and Tom Glaisyer, of Columbia University, argue that public diplomacy programs must capitalize on modern technology and be adaptable to rapidly evolving global landscapes.

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