PDCA partner – The Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024

World Expos: Grand scale public diplomacy effort

By Alexis Posel, IPDGC Communications Assistant

At last year’s December First Monday Forum, a panel of Senior Foreign Service Officers discussed the importance of expos in the 21st century. The First Monday Forums are a recurring partnership between IPDGC and the Public Diplomacy Council of America.

The panel comprised of Matthew Asada, U.S. Public Diplomat in Residence 2022–24, Nini Forino, the Director of Alumni Affairs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Beatrice Camp, Senior Advisor at the Department of State on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) shared their experiences and knowledge of these mega-events.

Chairing the panel was Mark Ritchie, former Minnesota Secretary of State and co-founder of Expo USA.

The panelists underscored the significance of expos when it comes to cultural exchange and public diplomacy. Asada had been the Deputy Commissioner of General of the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. “It is important to have an eye for metrics,” he said, outlining the partnership and planning strategies he kept in mind during Expo 2020 Dubai.

Asada broke down expos through four lenses: the governing body, the organizer, the participant, and the spectator. According to him, each of these elements contributed to the advantages and challenges of participating and hosting mega-events that have a large reach.

All the panelists supported the argument that expos do have a place in the 21st century, despite the alternative views in the broader public diplomacy community about their efficiency given the high costs of organizing, building, staffing, and running world expos. To the panelists, expos are platforms that connect people and businesses, and build networks that can have a positive impact.

The main takeaway for the FMF audience was that the opportunities for introducing foreign perspectives and ideas to a country’s national economy and inspiring innovation are – as the saying goes – priceless!

November 13, 2023November 13, 2023

Cybersecuring Democracy

First Monday Forum on election cybersecurity as a PD Focus

By Alexis Posel, IPDGC Communications Assistant

Adam Clayton Powell III and Judy Kang, Executive Director and Program Manager respectively of the USC Initiative on Cybersecurity (pictured with Joel Fischman, PDCA President), spoke on the challenges of election cybersecurity in the digital age. Powell and Kang spoke as a part of November’s First Monday Forum, a recurring collaboration between IPDGC and the Public Diplomacy Council of America (PDCA).

The message was simple: adversaries are attacking democratic elections. Powell explained that non-governmental entities access information such as donor lists and contacts to gain entrance into defense facilities that can disrupt campaign operations. After doing so, these entities, mainly from Russia and China, cause chaos and insecurity in election freedom in democratic nations worldwide.

Powell underscored that “ the reality is that we’re in a race with no finish line,” when it comes to solving cybersecurity challenges for democracies around the world. He expressed concern that the upcoming 2024 election may be more vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks than any other election cycle.

The reason, Powell stated, is that there are more common attack vectors worldwide such as weak passwords, multi-factor authentication, social engineering such as phishing, and unprotected data on electronic devices.

The main concern in 2024? Artificial intelligence flooding campaigns and voters with fake videos and misinformation that could falsely sway the electorate.

The USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative began as a non-partisan project to help educate and protect US campaigns and elections, with support from Google. The initiative expanded in 2022 to include democracies in Europe, Asia, and Africa to exchange best practices in election security.

September 18, 2023April 23, 2024

Looking to the future

USAGM CEO shares the latest developments and challenges to international broadcasting

By Yvonne Oh, IPDGC Program Coordinator

The first in-person First Monday Forum for Fall 2023 featured Amanda Bennett, CEO of the US Agency for Global Media and she shared new developments at the agency that oversees VOA, RFE/RL, Radio-TV Martí, the Middle East Broadcasting Network, Radio Free Asia, and the Open Technology Fund. Bennett talked about efforts to reach new Russian and Mandarin-speaking audiences, efforts against disinformation and censorship, and the challenges of AI.

Amanda Bennett, CEO of the US Agency for Global Media

CSPAN also provided coverage of the event.

IPDGC is especially proud to note that Gabrielle Stalls, the Hans “Tom” Tuch Fellow who organizes the FMF events, is a new graduate student in the Global Communications program. Get to know more about Gabby, who is new to DC as well, in our Student Spotlight.

July 12, 2023July 20, 2023

Capturing the News: Trump and the Voice of America.

12 PM EST

Monday, August 7, 2023

The Public Diplomacy Council of America, the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, and the GWU Institute for Public Diplomacy & Global Communication are pleased to invite you to the August 7 First Monday Forum featuring Dr. Kate Wright, who will discuss the new Oxford University Press book Capturing the News: Trump and the Voice of America.

Kate Wright is an associate professor of media and communications, based in the Politics and International Relations Department at the University of Edinburgh. She is a former BBC journalist, who specialized in flagship news and investigative documentaries. She now researches how different political economies shape the production of international news. She is the author of Who’s Reporting Africa Now? Non-governmental Organizations, Journalists and Multimedia (2014), and co-authored Humanitarian Journalists (2022).

Along with her co-authors Martin Scott (University of East Anglia) and Mel Bunce (University of London), she asks: “How did the Trump administration capture one of the world’s most important public service news networks?” This book uses rare interviews and an analysis of private correspondence and internal documents, to explain why and how Voice of America (VOA) became intensely politicized from 2020–2021.

The book analyzes how political appointees, White House officials, and right-wing media influenced VOA—changing its reporting of the Black Lives Matter movement, the presidential election, and its contested aftermath.

They argue that Trump allies took control of the network’s financial and human resources, dominated its governance structures, and instigated intimidating investigations into journalistic “bias.” Some journalists tried to resist, but others were too exhausted and fearful, particularly those in the organization’s language services.

The book puts these events in historical and international context—and develops a new analytical framework for understanding government capture and its connection to broader processes of democratic backsliding.

They argue that there is currently too little to prevent a future US administration with authoritarian tendencies from capturing VOA and converting it into a major domestic broadcaster. They use this research to recommend practical ways of protecting the network and other international public service media better in future.

The program will take place at noon on August 7 via Zoom. To register, click here.

March 8, 2023March 8, 2023

VIDEO: Capturing The Legacy Of Public Diplomacy. ADST’s Oral History Program

The first installment of the First Monday Forum…

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s Oral History Program.

Speakers
Susan Rockwell Johnson, President of ADST; Donald M. Bishop, holder of the Donald Bren Chair of Strategic Communications at the Marine Corps University and President Emeritus of the Public Diplomacy Council; and Judith R. Baroody, former Executive Director of ADST, will discuss the oral history program and its relevance for Public Diplomacy.

12 PM EST
March 6, 2023

Lindner Family Commons Room 602.
the Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St NW, Washington, DC,

The event is part of THE FIRST MONDAY FORUM series, a collaboration between IPDGC, The Public Diplomacy Council of America and the USC Annenberg Center for Communication, Leadership, and Policy. .

Additional information is available here

February 13, 2023April 23, 2024

IPDGC partners up with PDCA

Programs to support public diplomacy and international relations

By Yvonne Oh, IPDGC Program Coordinator

As part of IPDGC’s collaborations with like-minded organizations, we are proud to announce our partnership with the Public Diplomacy with the First Monday Forums. These talks will be held in-person (or hybrid) at the Lindner Family Commons room in the GW Elliott School for International Affairs every first Monday of the month.

These events fit well with the Institute’s mission goals to support academic excellence in global communication and public diplomacy, as well as provide opportunities for professional development.

The first of the First Monday Forum was held on Feb 6 with a virtual screening of the documentary “A Diplomat of Consequence” The film by Christopher Teal is about Ebenezer Basset, the first American black diplomat. Teal is a Senior Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department and currently, also the Public Diplomacy Fellow for IPDGC.

More information on the upcoming First Monday Forums to come.