By Craig Hayden
I attended a talk by James Glassman, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, at the New American Foundation this past Monday. The subject of the talk was ostensibly, “Public Diplomacy 2.0,” while host Steve Clemons of the Washington Note proffered “Facebook/Twitter diplomacy” as a more appropriate title.
There are two significant developments in public diplomacy and U.S. foreign policy that are evident in his speech. Granted, some of the points have been made in prior engagements by Undersecretary Glassman, and in the rollout of such initiatives like “Briefing 2.0.” Yet this speech neatly encapsulates what is obviously a re-imagining of public diplomacy strategy – something akin to a policy compass that was clamored for in the avalanche of whitepapers and reports on PD in the past seven years. The two developments appear to be:
1) New Goals for PD: the reduction of violent extremism by offering alternatives to terrorism for at-risk populations around the world and…
2) New Priorities for PD Methods: the emphasis on providing public fora, and convening opportunities for citizens to connect and realize alternatives to extremism.
There are other aspects to Public Diplomacy 2.0 that Glassman articulates, such as partnerships with the private sector and an emphasis on speed (or perhaps, better reaction times to global message flows). But these latter points reflect less fundamental challenges to previous PD thinking. Karen Hughes had already launched the Rapid Reaction media monitoring unit to complement OSC efforts at quick media tracking, and had also exhorted private sector partnerships. Glassman’s Public Diplomacy 2.0, however, is something remarkably different in ambition.