McHale on Public Diplomacy as National Security

Allow me to revise and extend a remark I made yesterday when I noted that Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale made some “gestures to treating public diplomacy as a national security issue” in her confirmation hearing testimony last month. Though a lot of people have been skeptical of McHale’s framing her new job as a venue for aggressively combatting anti-American messages, the Center for a New American Security just released the itinerary for its annual conference next week, and sure enough, McHale will be delivering the lunchtime keynote speech — titled “Public Diplomacy: A National Security Imperative.” Looks like McHale might surprise the doubters.