Department of State, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Department/Agency: Department of State
Position:
Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Executive Schedule: Executive Level III - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation
Major Responsibilities:
Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:
Insight:
With the dissolution of the U.S. Information Agency in 1999, the task of developing America’s public image fell to the State Department and the newly created Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. That task became immensely more complicated when the United States responded to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks by waging war against Islamic extremists. Global surveys have found growing antipathy toward the United States and its foreign policy. Critics have charged that State has lacked an overall strategic vision for public diplomacy, failed to coordinate interagency messages and made inadequate use of technology and private sector resources.
James K. Glassman, a longtime financial investment columnist and editor, attempted to lay out a vision in his first briefing as under secretary of state for public diplomacy in July 2008. “Our aim in public diplomacy is to engage foreign publics to make it easier to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals, both short and long term,” Glassman said. “People frequently see my job as winning a beauty contest or an ‘American Idol’ vote. I disagree with that. My job is to help achieve the national interest, not necessarily by making America more popular, although certainly popularity, or more importantly a respect and trust, those are important things. But we focus on policy goals.”
Glassman said those goals include reducing the ideological competitiveness of violent extremism and promoting democracy around the world, in part by such traditional public diplomatic strategies as cultural exchanges and education.
“Our mission today in the war of ideas is highly focused,” he said. “It is to use the tools of ideological engagement — words, deeds, images — to create an environment hostile to violent extremism. That's our mission. We want to break the linkages between groups like al Qaeda and their target audiences.”
Critics contend that the State Department may not be the best federal agency to wage this war of ideas and that the White House needs to do a better job of coordinating interagency communications.
Glassman's predecessor, Karen Hughes, a longtime aide to President George W. Bush in Texas and Washington, acknowledged the troubling disconnect among communications professionals at various federal agencies. “I hear around the world that we don’t speak as one government – yet whether it’s a detainee issue or a secret prison issue or dealing with Iran or Iraq issues, mass audiences around the world don’t really care if it’s news from DOD or CIA or State Department – they hear it as news from America. It’s increasingly important that we break down silos and coordinate and communicate in one voice,” she told a Pentagon conference on strategic communications."
Hughes, who visited almost 45 countries as under secretary, spoke in December 2007 about the importance of getting the U.S. message out to younger audiences. “In many parts of the world, more than half the population is under the age of 25,” Hughes said. “And so public diplomacy needs to reach out to younger audiences than we've ever reached out to before. Many of these young people get a distorted perspective about our country because of TV shows, for example, that may portray a part of life in America but do not portray the reality of the totality of life in America.”
The next under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs will assume the difficult task of improving the U.S. image abroad and convincing critics in the United States that the State Department’s efforts are making headway in countering the messages of those promoting terror and extremism around the world.
Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:
Secretary of State
Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
Coordinator, Bureau of International Information Programs
Office of Policy Planning and Resources for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Key Relationships – Within the Government:
Executive Director, Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
Intelligence Community
Department of Justice
Key Relationships – Outside the Government:
Domestic and international media
Foreign governments and diplomats
International arts and education groups
Universities
Travel and tourism industry
Businesses with overseas operations
Business for Diplomatic Action
Nomination Referred to:
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Current Position Profile:
1. Judith A McHale (Confirmed May 21, 2009). Former Managing Partner GEF/Africa Consumer Fund. Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Discovery Communications, Inc.
Recent Position Profiles:
2. James K. Glassman (2008-2009). Former journalist and investment columnist for The Washington Post. Former senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute and editor in chief of The American, its bimonthly magazine. Former chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Former president of Atlantic Monthly, executive vice president of U.S. News & World Report, and editor and co-owner of Roll Call. Co-founded Tech Central Station.com; moderated CNN’s Capital Gang Sunday and hosted PBS TechnoPolitics. 2. Karen Hughes (2005-2007). Former counselor to President George W. Bush and his director of communications when he was governor of Texas. Former executive director of the Texas Republican Party. One time television reporter. Now global vice chair of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant. 3. Margaret D. Tutwiler (2003-2004). Former assistant secretary for public affairs at Treasury and State in the Reagan administration, State Department spokesperson in the first Bush administration and assistant to the president. Former ambassador to Morocco. Became a government relations executive for the New York Stock Exchange and senior vice president and head of global communications and public affairs for Merrill Lynch.
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