Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Public diplomacy, the art of explaining America and its policies to the masses abroad, plays second fiddle to traditional, government-to-government diplomacy," and that's a problem, writes former U.S. Information Agency director John Hughes. Hughes advocates for recreating USIA, citing the 9/11 commission's call for "a vastly accelerated information program abroad to stop the 'next generation of terrorists.'" Nancy Snow, another former USIA staffer, criticizes a recent "innovations for the war on terror" report by defense contractor Battelle. "Missing from the Battelle definition [of public diplomacy] is the intercultural communication," Snow writes. Intercultural communication emphasizes "long-term strategies for mutual benefit and mutual trust," through educational and cultural exchanges; programs that should be "separated from the more tough-minded battlefield tactics associated with counterterrorism," says Snow.
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