Transcripts For CSPAN2 Public Diplomacy Discussion With State Department Officials 20240714

Commissioners of the Advisory Commission for Public Diplomacy, vice chairman bill hippel and commissioner weidner. Today we know under the offices of the Advisory Commission we called a Public Meeting to look at the question of the gpa, and state department, and the executive director, it is my honor to open this event. And for opening comments, i want to tell you how things will go today. And to principal speakers, they speak to the tagteam formation and at the end of their formation we will take your questions and comments. Please hold your questions and comments until they finish their presentation. For the moderated q and day session there will be a microphone. Please speak into the microphone, and your questions and answers are part of the transcript that will be part of public record. It is important to capture your question so we can reflect them accurately. It is my great pleasure to turn it over to the chairman. Thank you for the audience being here. The president of Public Diplomacy council and adam power, the director of usc, communication leadership and policy programs in washington dc. I am pleased to have bill hippel here, vice chairman from colorado springs, colorado and for 70 years the commission has represented Public Interest by advising the Us Government Global Information medium, culture and Education Exchange programs, a bipartisan and independent body created by congress in 1948 to assess and recommend policies and programs, to Us Government efforts to understand, inform and influence foreign publics particularly but not limited to the work of the us to permit of state. The commission mandated by law to report findings and recommendations to the president of the United States, congress, secretary of state and the american people. The commission to comprehensive annual report of Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting is the premier product compiles and analyzes 20 state Department Offices and other Us Government agencies including recommendations from the commission for effectiveness and efficiency of the programs. In fiscal year 2015, 112 recommendations, 55 were implemented resulting in improved operational efficiencies, and these recommendations, it is the proposed merger of the bureau of Public Affairs, into what is known as the bureau of Global Public affairs. The gpa creation is described as the largest restructuring of state Department Since the merger of the Us Information Agency to the department of state 20 years ago. Hard to believe it has gone by quickly. The assistant secretary of state and gpa Principal Deputy assistant secretary both here today to help us understand what the gpa looks like to the Strategic Vision for Public Diplomacy. The commission appreciate this opportunity to learn about the structural programmatic and policy changes and the ways the commission and Public Diplomacy community can support this effort. Thank you for joining us. I am pleased to invite michelle gita to speak and nicole hewitt. Thank you very much. [applause] it is a pleasure to be here today, thank you for hosting us, love being involved in this. And very excited to talk to you today. There has never been a more there we go. Can you hear me now. Never been a more exciting or important time for Public Diplomacy and communications and how the United States is communicating policy and values in every corner of the world. In his media environment, and by the intent behind it to make sure we can accelerate and deliver on what we are doing, previously with ip and effectively communicate for the United States around the world. We know the communication landscape is fast decelerating, changing a new platform popping up. Tech is driving a lot of change when it comes to communication. There is a are, ai, the acd report in 2017 whether Public Diplomacy can survive the internet with a good indication of where things are going and coming fast. We know business and media and culture and entertainment and government are colliding. They dont sit in separate worlds anymore. They are integrated. We need to communicate in that environment where things we do from a government perspective impact culture and vice versa. We know that the Foreign Policy issues we are dealing with on any given day are most if not all multiregional and multinational in nature. We have to look at things through a global lens to communicate effectively and think about the audiences we are trying to reach so in that type of environment our focus is to bring together the best of both worlds from Public Affairs, the strength both of them had to accelerate and enhance the ability of the United States to compete in the world today. It wasnt an internal driven thing but an external driven thing. We have to compete and win and lead and be effective and successful in the world today and being able to do that meant integrating the strength and best of both worlds meaning communicating to the us and foreign audiences so the domestic focus and foreign focus, how to think about both of those and also communicating both policy and values so there is foreignpolicy piece that was very focused on communicating. There is some rich storytelling and value driven communication for international audiences. How do we think about both of those in communicating america to the world and talk about values that make america unique and longstanding history, rule of law, religious freedom, individual liberty, things like that . We know this wasnt the first time that a merger was explored or thought about. The a cpd together recommendations a number of years ago. We had conversations with alumni from the state department within and without who previously explored iterations of the merger to inform our thinking and the difference this time is the external world. There is an urgency to the ability, the need for the United States to communicate effectively and i wanted to deliver on that. We had tremendous support and leadership from secretary mike pompeo who from day one made sure to empower the state Department Team to make changes and do our jobs most effectively and we knew we had that support going into this and we talk about how we accomplish the merger. So our areas of focus bringing together the best of both worlds were first and foremost integration. I use that word a lot. But bringing together the best of both worlds, strength from storytelling and communicating values and understanding foreign audiences and working with the post to understand audiences on the ground, culture and language and narrative on the ground and bring that before storytelling and Public Affairs breaks from strategic munication communicating policy, realtime environment, thinking of both of those together. We placed a large emphasis on data and insight and research and analytics. One of the tremendous Opportunities Technology provided us, Digital Communication provided us is able to measure and in some cases in real time how effectively or quickly we are communicating on any given issue in terms of longterm Audience Research on however time we make an impact which weve explored for a number of years so we placed a big emphasis on how we are putting data and insights at the core of communicating, to measure at the back end and inform when we are designing a strategy and communications and message how we are communicating so we are informing at the beginning, measuring along the way and improving in real time as close to real time as possible. Speed was a focus of hours. The news cycle is moving instantaneously. How are we working together to deliver on that to get the message out, before some counter narratives. And effective and fast, for longterm communications and values we are communicating over time. And future proofing of the bureau, and 2018 when we started the 2019, we wanted to set ourselves up for success, 5 or 10 years down the line and that means having written into our structure and the way we work a focus on new platforms and new technology, best practices not only on technology but in present munication and relationship building, how are we future proofing Global Public affairs the we are constantly improving and changing and evolving as fast as or ahead of the communication landscape in the world today. That was the focus, a really great strength in doing that over the course of the last few years as we wanted to make sure that was part of the culture in the merger. Very collaborative effort. Nicole will talk about the way we made this happen. It was a large exercise in collaboration. An opportunity to work with folks all across the department with the a cbt and other stakeholders as well. I will turn it over to nicole to explain. Im happy to be here and talk to you about how we put this together. Michelle has laid out the vision behind the creation of the Global Public affairs commission. Let me talk to you about how. Last year we pulled together a working group that michelle mentions with representatives from across the department. We included ip, we made sure to have colleagues from big hr at the department to make sure we are considering all of the hr potential issues. Colleagues from our Budget Office so we were thinking what budget might look like and senior pd professionals to get the benefit of their experience. So that we could get the benefit of their experience and incorporate their thoughts in this. We gave the team a basic framework and leaned on them to put a plan together so let me lay out what the framework consisted of. First, they were to focus on Strategic Communications, that was the purpose of the new bureau and merger and also to look at the capabilities and think about where if it didnt fit into a Strategic Communications bureau where might they be houston the state department . The merger was to be budget neutral. We were not asking additional funding for this. We were trying to future proof this has michelle mentions. We wanted to build a structure that would last into the future that wasnt based on personalities. A structure that would really last in the future and we wanted to make the best use of all our employees, skills and abilities, to make sure they were in places to utilize their talent. They put a plan together. And developed it. We looked at it and continued to consult throughout the department. We tried to engage legal colleagues to make sure we were thinking how to communicate domestic and foreign audiences. We continue to engage with the budget and Human Resources to make sure we were thinking about all those issues and that we had all the details right. The devil is in the details. Thats the hard part. We did the initial briefs to the hill and the employee unions to see what their concerns might be, to incorporate any feedback they gave us. We started working on implementation. We started the hard work of implementing the changes and through implementation, we set up a working group to elicit broad participation from the workforce. We wanted to make sure folks had the opportunity to have their voices heard, taking into consideration their thoughts moving forward with implementation. We prioritize regular communication, talking about the process and what was going to happen. We took input from the field, from regional bureaus. We send out a survey to Public Diplomacy professionals to see how they wanted to partner with the new bureau and what they valued most from the old in pa and think about what we wanted to continue in the new bureau. The emphasis during that period was on communication and continues to be on communication. We have been functional for 3 months, we are fairly new. We are focusing on communication within the bureau. And at posts around the girl, understand what a partner we can be for communicating with American Values and Foreign Policy priorities. We recognize the posts are best equipped to communicate the bilateral relationship but we have a distinct advantage in communicating the key Foreign Policy priority and American Values. That is where the comparative advantage is. We will continue to engage the ongoing planning and continue to engage with others as well. This engagement is part of spreading the word, we hope to continue working with a cpd and see how we may continue to improve our communications at the state department. One of the things nicole touched on quickly before we turn it over to questions continuing to engage and improve, one thing we talked about with team members in this process is what our values are, it has changed. We know the world outside us has changed quickly. We have tried to put that at the center of how we are communicating which is change is constant and consistent and required if we are going to be effective at what we do. We are trying to ingrain that in our culture and know that we didnt solve everything, it is not a static thing. Our team is to keep evolving in learning and changing of the bureau has to keep evolving of learning and changing to deliver our objective to communicate on behalf of the United States. We made it clear when working with hr at the department. There will continue to be changes we need to make to make the bureau as effective as it could be. Thank you both for coming today with incredible news and descriptions of what you have done. Congratulations on changing a major piece of a strongly ingrained bureaucracy. You have done it with great competence so that is awesome. What we are going to do is take questions from the audience about the gpa bureau. I want to start with a softball and how i was thinking about it, the creation of the gpa has perhaps elevated pd function to a place where it has more respect in the state department. I was a young officer back in the day. The pd function was seen as lesser and now you have been able to create status and career focus that didnt exist before. We hope that to be true in the Energy Around this and the impact that it has makes that true. We want to tie in storytelling and the way we communicate values to policy priorities, thing that the center of the conversation while still communicating longterm across the world. And in that time from the time i joined until now in which pd has been elevated overall is seen as central to not only communicating values but achieving and accomplishing policy objectives has become more apparent to folks inside and outside the pd world and the same is true in the private sector. Marketing at a private sector business how a business gets its work done and the thing that is true for pd is central to the state department diplomacy. I was thinking of someone who said all diplomacy is Public Diplomacy which is increasingly true. Everything is transparent now. Everything is part of the narrative and conversation so i hope and think pd has been elevated through this and hopefully we contributed to that. Career Foreign Service Public Diplomacy, the state department nomenclature is odd. I am excited about this. I think it has elevated Public Diplomacy to your point. And placed us at the table in this policy conversation so the messaging component and how we talk about American Values is core to when we are looking at policy limitation. Who wants to be brave from the audience . Lets go to the front here, brave woman in the front. Thank you. Can you say who you are . Absolutely. My name is greta morris and i am a retired Public Diplomacy Foreign Service officer and congratulations to both of you and everyone involved in this incredible process that i have been involved in a small way. It has been an exciting process. I want to ask about the bureau of Global Public affairs. We have been talking Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, the sign says nextgeneration Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. It seems the Public Diplomacy part has gotten lost. I wonder how you are thinking of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. There used to be distinct in the Public Affairs was what we did domestically, Public Diplomacy was what we did overseas through our embassies and posts. I am wondering how all of this factored into your decision about the name for the new bureau and thank you very much. The name was one of the last things we decided on. There was a rigorous conversation around the name and what it meant and symbolized. To your point at the state department Public Affairs has been synonymous with domestic communication, Public Diplomacy foreign. We tried to break out of that mindset and think about Public Affairs, disassociate it with policy, same with pd. I used integration at the beginning of this, we wanted to think about those together, the fact that we are doing both together and well aware of this but how do we think about them together . You cant think about how you are communicating to mystically and internationally in a silo. Digital has made that a fact. But we wanted to communicate that we are focused on Public Affairs in a broader sense and communicating policy and values in a global way. The Global Public affairs. It was a large robust conversation. Thank you so much. I am just a member of the public, sort of a student of the state department and its history. My question for the panel is it seems there is this normative executive diplomatic reading and writing practice about the nature of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. That is the first thing and it also seems like some people are privy to those conversations in the making of those procedures or policies and people who arent. How do you make the state department more inclusive to the people who have been historically maybe not part of that normative executive area . Im not sure i understand the question. I will jump in and hazard a response. I think as an american citizen we are all public diplomats when we travel. Even if there is a school of thought we are working from inside an academic institution, theres always citizen diplomacy, something you can participate in when you travel and have experiences and you welcome people here as well. I dont know if that is the answer you are looking for but i am not sure how else to answer it except there is a specific practice inside the part of state, that is a professional, professional sort of experience. If you are interested as a civilian you can practice it in your own life but anyway lets go to the next question. William lawrence, professor at gw and former Foreign Service officer. Two questions, one, i just came up with, as a Foreign Service officer i was frustrated, in large part because the American Public is clueless about diplomacy and a lot of not communicating with the American Public in respect to 6 months so i was wondering what you might be trying to do to have more diplomats speaking to the American Public and other diplomats. Other ways to get the word out about what us foreignpolicy means because we end up having congress defend budget cuts and the general public doesnt have much of a view on it. My second question is it is clear to me that you are integrating a lot of things but i am wondering, does everything get integrated or do something stay on their own . I am thinking about various foreignpolicy implications, intelligence functions that have to be separate, to be good. Not everything has to be integrated. I am concerned about integration, integration, somehow you can over integrate your messaging with your foreignpolicy. I will take part 2 and talk about part one. Let me take the 6month question first. We just had a conversation last week with our legal colleagues to talk through when people content anywhere how you make this work and we are working with them on that to make sure when producing content to influence foreign audiences and going to for not he and his that we are using the correct funding for that but there is a robust conversation ongoing about making sure we are staying on the right side of it. And probably doesnt go far enough to address the way the Digital World works, ongoing conversations and we need to continue those conversations. On the integration piece, we have an integrated policymaking with what we are doing, integrating all the different communication specialties and functions as part of the spectrum how to communicate with the world but we still have distinct troops and offices doing specialized things. It is more so how are we getting them to Work Together so the right people were at the right table at the right time in thinking about how to execute a strategy or create a message that we have data and analytics at the table when deciding what message to use with what audience so we have our content creators and press folks in digital folks at the table at the right moment at the right time and we design whatever work chart you want, the magic is how to Work Together and what the process looks like. In that respect that is what we are focused on when it comes to integration, the way in which we Work Together. Thanks very much. This is so interesting, thanks for the presentation. I am david ensor, the last voice of america director. Great to see you both here. My question is about something that came up when i was in office and i imagine you are dealing with. At voice of america we had to get out of the way when a very determined group of immigrant americans, somali americans from minnesota, haitian americans and others came to us and said why cant we hear your broadcast . We had to explain to them. They said fine and went to the hill and want this change, we want to hear the broadcast in minnesota so they lead that charge. It was not our role to be involved. It opened up opportunities in terms of reaching communities around the world who were somali, haitian, or any other group. How is this reorganization going to create new opportunities in terms of immigrant communities in the United States to communicate through them to the mother country of origin or other groups and is there any further need to do more than you are doing now . To your first question a large part of our conversation and focus on bringing data, insights and analytics to the core of how we operate is making our communications and strategies audience centric so in designing campaigns and strategies for how to reach and influence and how to engage certain communities or diaspora, it all comes down to our audiences and research and analytics to do that but we have an office of Public Engagement focused on communicating in the United States with communities in the state department or engaged in foreignpolicy so that is how we think about communications so definitely a part of using data and analytics to reach their not he and suzanne that is one of them. The office of Public Engagement, part of what we wanted to do through this merger is make the mystic outreach more strategic and knowing who your audience is and how to reach them with a particular message. Where are we sending them and why and being more strategic . To be very clear the law is the law and legal has been part of the conversation from day one, the first day we got the working group together and to design the bureau and the workflow and how we operate to align fully with this. Is it with the conversation and making sure we explore the merits of it and the ways it is approved with the goal always being how the United States is communicating effectively to an american audience appropriately in foreign audiences appropriately and the acp the has done well with that and it is worth conversations. I am peter, botch, my question is about the are structure and how it has the two constituent bureaus and how you see the bureau of cultural exchanges integrating and if i could do a followup to an earlier question, when there is a crisis, are we in better shape to have a seat at the table when policy decisions are made when foreign equity opinions are key . The bureau of education and Cultural Affairs. And the Global Public affairs, and they sit in that narrowly focused goal. To think about where would these really good functions, great Public Diplomacy tools, wherewith they fit best . The conversation was thinking about the bureau of education and Cultural Affairs and absolutely yes. For example Speakers Program was moved to the bureau of Cultural Affairs and we are happy to have your support with these programs. Other programs were moved to other parts of the program and the resource office, we looked at it holistic lee. How you see that is not the undersecretary. Do we need one . How does it evolve . Yeah. The acting undersecretary, as we talked about earlier it depends on the world, when we are collaborating with folks, and Public Affairs and Public Diplomacys, they focused on countering this information so a strong set of public tools right now. And doing our jobs most effectively. Lets go back. Thank you. The new director of the german information center. We went for a similar process in recent years. Will your institutional changes in the different countries. What we did what we are about to do is set up regional offices, Public Diplomacy offices in various regions of the world, do you think in a similar direction the goals behind them on the regional bureaus. In the state department, theres regional Public Diplomacy offices the first point of contact with our post. What we hope to do through this merger and work closely with partners in the department is to make sure we are the best collaborator for our posts. There is one other in the back. I am a student at American University school of National Service and my question, my first is how much will this impact and the second is for three months what are the challenges you experienced and how did you address them . Thank you, that is a good one. The impact on different parts of the family domestically had quite an impact because it meant we were being reorganized are tapping different skill sets, doing slightly different work, working with different colleagues so that had quite a bit of impact. On the field, having worked in the field i wanted to know where to get my information and program so as long as i had a good point of contact i was pretty happy so that is what we are trying to build up those relationships and strengthen those relationships so they know who to come to for programming for Creative Content. The question about the challenges, there have been challenges and opportunities with any major change, making sure we were over communicating consistently. Our department really understood, how we were providing a service to other colleagues and folks in the field. With largescale change, and getting those nuances right and improving and learning how many people are doing that. It was important for us to get as close to write as possible. We leaned on 150 colleagues. And it is on a very strong foot. My name is Megan Phillips and i was in the previous administration. Getting to that point about intent, not the integration or the act of bringing them together because i know how challenging that is but it is more leveling off and saying what is Public Diplomacy and there was a range i found which is telling americas story, explaining america to the world and using the Information Space to advance foreignpolicy interests. We see that with radicalization which is more about breaking down information and understanding target audiences but it is just one policy priority and the public to how you said about this work with the idea that Public Diplomacy is a tool to achieve policy goals rather than to educate people about america and to conclude one of your predecessors got in trouble for talking about marketing and the catch up lady, she was a Corporate Executive who saw marketing and Public Diplomacy and i did as well the culturally that rubs people the wrong way. I would be interested in your experience driving change strategically. I have heard good things about all the great changes you brought so nice to meet you. As far as using Public Diplomacy as a tool to achieve policy objectives that was at the center of the conversation. Public diplomacy cant exist in a silo. We dont just communicate. We have to think of how it advances the state department and the mission of the United States overseas as well as in the United States. It is less how it is designed structurally and more how we work but that is the creek apart of setting up the working group to lean on Public Diplomacy, folks in Public Affairs legacy to come up with the best way to get gpa at the center of the conversation when policy conversations are happening so we shaped it at the front end along the way and continue to fine tune it so we are a partner and how it gets done versus communicating on our own. [inaudible conversations] the microphone. I am a fellow for Public Diplomacy American Security project. I want to discuss values. This was brought up in the presentation, and domestically, a disagreement, i want to settle on the idea of a free press and the idea of a free press by its nature needing to be adversarial and how the executive branch, the value of organizations like voice of america to explain how America Works and core values written into our constitution and how we square that with statements the president made about the role of a free press and a free press should not necessarily be adversarial in squaring that against a governmentwide reduction in a number of press briefings. I was in the state department, in a Daily Press Briefing every 2 or 3 weeks. How do we square the discussion with practice . Part of this conversation with the merger with our media team, the head of international organization, our press team around the clock, at the core of Public Affairs and we engage with the press every single day. Sits in the state department and interacting all the time and travel with the secretary at the podium several times at the state department so continue to engage the press domestic and foreign every single day. With regards to press briefings, one of the advantages of Digital Media is multiple ways to do a press briefing. There is a podium and ortagus goes to the podium and have a conversation and we have video briefings with International Media and six hubs across london, manila, johannesburg, dubai, and miami. We are putting state department principles out on those every day to engage with Regional Media across the world and we engage digitally. If you look at our social media channels, Morgan Ortagus is doing more digital briefings from a digital podium so we are being creative and thinking how best to communicate with the media directly to foreign audiences with people of the United States across the sweet of tools we have. Really have time for a few more questions, assistant secretary and michelle have to leave shortly, just a couple questions. My name is brandon andrews, former u. S. Senate staffer. I participated in Public Diplomacy working group. It has been really cool to see changes over the past couple years. I have become an entrepreneur among other things, casting for shark tank and participated as a speaker in several countries. How do we engage folks like the who participated as speakers who transition from the office. And not everybody, and could be interest or thoughts on the plan . I love that program. These programs are better housed in the bureau of Cultural Affairs. It is operating, vibrant, sent speakers overseas daily and a great way to message us policy priorities to for not he and mrs. So a great program. How we engage folks in the conversation and keep it going. Some way to continue that conversation and get input. An Excellent First step in hearing from you and nice to have additional opportunities to do that so thank you for the question. Thank you. The Public Diplomacy council and public ambassador. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about shareamerica. Gov. It is a product that i dont feel response to the kind of guidance you were talking about in terms of authenticity. In my experience in 7 embassies overseas i cannot imagine, never showed this to anyone. I wonder if you could talk a little bit not just about what it is for but how you control that to fit the needs of Public Affairs officers in the field. It is a platform and repository for content to be used overseas. Our hubs have used the content as well. It runs the gamut between communicating about key Foreign Policy priorities and American Values. Any given day you will find a mix of content on that platform. Is publicly accessible to go to the platform but is not really meant to be a destination site, and vibrant content for digital platforms. We are continuing to look at how to best use that tool and what the Creative Content looks like. The conversation about what share of america goes becomes what we are looking at through this merger and how we most effectively get the tools they need. I think we are going to have to cut it off. I think you guys both for such an open and Honest Exchange and being willing to come today and meet the public. [applause] now i would like to hand it off to bill who will close us out here. On behalf of the commission, i want to thank you for being here. Our speakers today and the provocative questions. We are going to have another open Commission Meeting in january where people discuss our comprehensive annual report and preview what the commission will be doing in terms of our efforts to deal with this information and the malign influence on campaigns around the globe. Should be very interesting. We ask you to come back and join us and thank you for being here today. This concludes our program. [applause] [inaudible conversations] here are some live events we are covering tuesday on the season networks. On cspan at 7 00 pm charlie kirk, editor and publisher of the kirk political report talks about the 2020 elections in the key races he is tracking. Education secretary betsy devos and Kellyanne Conway talk about education freedom scholarship. Administration initiative designed to empower students and families to choose their education setting on cspan2 at 9 00 am. On cspan3 a forum on chinas role in the world. Sunday on q a the smithsonian institution, the history of tariffs in managing the us economy. The Supreme Court eventually ruled a tomato is a vegetable avenatti fruit because of tariffs. A kind of odd story. Any botanist will tell you a tomato is a fruit. But in fact, 1883 tariffs on vegetables and not fruits. So an importer of vegetables, pointed out that tomato bringing in from the caribbean were a fruit and he didnt have to pay a tariff. The battle went on for quite some time and eventually the Supreme Court ruled tomatoes are vegetables and an interesting ruling that had repercussions beyond tomatoes themselves. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. The Supreme Court justices return for the new term next week, the first monday in october with the Court Hearing cases on employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The trump administrations winding down of da ca and state funding for religious education. Listen to significant Supreme Court oral arguments on our website, cspan. Org and watch on cspan. Okay. Now the special privilege and boy, this feels really good to be taking off our first panel, a panel of Women Leaders are leading us off today. I think nothing could be better, really. I know were going to hear insights and suggestions and everybody will be very energized