Forgive me if this reads like I’m greasing a source, but as part of the holds on administration appointees released by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) last week, Douglas Wilson became the Pentagon’s new assistant secretary for public affairs. Why’s that significant? Because at a time when global skepticism about More…
Via Abu Muqawama, NATO is holding a contest for the best viral video answering the question of Why Afghanistan Matters. I’m not sure what to think of this. On the one hand, it kind of makes you wonder whether this means NATO governments aren’t able to compellingly answer More…
In February, I did some reporting about how it was far from clear whether the Obama administration embraced the proposition that public diplomacy is a national security mission. Some observers wondered whether Judith McHale — now confirmed as the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, who came from the More…
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 More…
President Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first leg of of his outreach to what-we-maybe-shouldn’t-call-the Muslim world and, unsurprisingly, Osama bin Laden has released his latest mixtape screed against Obama and the United States more broadly. This time, to blunt the message of reconciliation and respect More…
Via Matt Yglesias, al-Qaeda’s leadership continues to sweat the non-demonic nature of President Obama:
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command told Muslims not to be fooled by U.S. President Barack Obama’s policies which, he said on an Islamist website on Monday, are no different to those of his predecessor, George
No alarms and no surprises here — I reported that she was a sure thing in February — but after long long long delay, the State Department finally has Judith McHale, former Discovery Channel honcho, as its undersecretary-designate for public diplomacy, according to a fresh White House announcement. Now More…
Right now, it’s looking very much like Judith McHale, former president of the Discovery Channel, will be the next undersecretary for public diplomacy. What’s also interesting is who won’t be: Douglas Wilson, a former principal deputy secretary of defense for public affairs and senior official with the old U.S. More…
I’ve been hearing what I guess you’d call credible rumors from a number of informed people both inside and outside the Obama administration that Judith McHale, the former president and CEO of the Discovery Channel, is going to be tapped imminently as the next Undersecretary of State for Public More…
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