Saying "Thank You" to Secretary Blinken for Creative Use of Public Diplomacy, by Larry Schwartz


In a January 14 ceremony honoring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, PDCA Board Member Larry Schwartz outlined six aspects of United States public diplomacy where his contributions were especially important.
 
Remarks as Prepared by PDCA Board Member Larry Schwartz
PDCA Award Ceremony for Secretary of State Blinken
George Washington University
January 14, 2025

The Public Diplomacy Council of America (PDCA) is a nonpartisan professional association of people concerned with public diplomacy, a critical element in the pursuit of U.S. foreign policy priorities and America’s global leadership.  It is also complex image-building work that requires thoughtful people, planning and tools.  People engaged in public diplomacy are America’s  “influencers” – a part of our diplomatic infrastructure.
 
This week, Washington is awash in the domestic politics of foreign policy as one Administration briefs its record of accomplishments and the next outlines its priorities.  This is a familiar aspect of our national political transitions, and we have seen it before.  Similarly, it is a time of reflection for diplomatic professionals – we all have our personal opinions about U.S. foreign policies.  But that is NOT why we are here today. 
 
PDCA members understand that the foreign affairs profession can sometimes be stressful and bizarrely competitive, and that while it is so important and so challenging, foreign affairs are never “done.”  There are always some successes, but towering new challenges continue to appear regardless of the U.S. electoral calendar, leaving more work to be done.  Nevertheless, we all need to remember to say “thank you,” to those who work on behalf of our nation.  In our view, many people at the State Department deserve thanks for their service to our nation for engaging in global public outreach to advance our national interests and address contemporary problems.  The PDCA Board has resolved to acknowledge members of the public diplomacy community who are making important contributions in defending American’s global image and policies, and in strengthening ties between Americans and people around the world. 
 
Today, we are here to thank Secretary of State Antony Blinken for creative use of public diplomacy, based on his natural instinct for broad public engagement and his support for the State Department’s public diplomacy team and programs.  Because foreign affairs are never “done,” and because so many of the challenges our nation faces have an international element, I’m confident that his successor will be quickly swept up in this work, too.  Meanwhile, today we thank Secretary Blinken for his public diplomacy engagement, including work on new challenges:
 
It Starts with Character
 
Secretary Blinken has demonstrated one of the most important skills of effective diplomacy:  respectful engagement with his counterparts, with Congress and the American people and with the staff of the State Department.  Even as he faced some of the world’s most difficult international interlocutors and problems, the Secretary – supported by the Department -- sustained an image of America’s global leadership as unafraid, prepared, engaged and relentless.
 
Strengthening Engagement and Partnerships
 
The PDCA endorses a view expressed by Secretary Blinken and successive Secretaries of Defense that to prevent war, we need more and better diplomacy.  Secretary Blinken’s tenure has been marked by a vigorous effort to strengthen ties and cooperation with allies and partners.  This sustained effort was welcomed by world leaders, and their publics have responded favorably, recognizing the importance of American engagement.  Sadly, the current era is plagued by many wars, including some that diplomacy has not yet been able to resolve.  Yet the Secretary’s vigorous efforts to engage with and strengthen relations with our allies and partners -- particularly NATO in Europe and countries in the Asia-Pacific region – have developed new webs of cooperation that have yielded greater appreciation of America’s image as a partner of choice for shared challenges.
 
Public Affairs
 
The Secretary has been effective in public diplomacy as part of his most important duty – U.S. foreign policy advocacy.  He has done this hard work personally, through his indefatigable travels to some 86 countries, where he has regularly made time for engagement with both foreign media and non-government audiences.  The Secretary and his public affairs team deserve credit for a blizzard of public readouts or statements from his many calls and meetings and for reestablishing the State Department’s daily press conference, a critical public diplomacy tool.
 
These meeting readouts and the daily press conference serve far more than the voracious and sometimes contentious in-house State Department press corps and the larger universe of foreign policy journalists, pundits, podcasters, blogs  and global media.  They serve as precise guidance to U.S. Ambassadors and spokespersons posted overseas.  They document and coordinate policy across our government’s large and complex national security community.  They signal foreign Embassies and governments about U.S. intentions.  They document U.S. foreign policy for historians.  We live in a world of globalized and varied media – people interested in U.S. policy leadership use the State Department’s various public affairs tools and the U.S. Agency for Global Media products to understand what our government is thinking.  It will be important to continue developing these tools as the global media environment continues to evolve.
 
Engaging People Beyond Government
 
In Paris recently, Secretary Blinken quoted Alexis de Tocqueville, who observed of early Americans:  “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”  He added that we must “continue to adapt, to learn from each other, to work together, to make each other better.”   And this is surely true.  In acknowledging that the real power of our country lies with the extraordinary America people, Secretary Blinken highlighted another important tool of public diplomacy, the engagement of people beyond governments.  Having lived and studied abroad as a young person, the Secretary understands cross-cultural communications and has regularly cited the importance of international students.  PDCA believes that public diplomacy exchanges that facilitate the engagement of Americans with international experts strengthen our nation and keep our country the partner of choice for people everywhere.  Our diplomats gain extraordinary leverage from the public diplomacy tools that enable people around the world to study and work with Americans, absorbing the strength of American values.
 
The prestigious Fulbright Scholarships and International Visitor exchange programs the Department manages, among others, bring great credit to our country and connect Americans with the very best people overseas with funds largely spent in the United States.  They are a core function of effective diplomacy that Secretary Blinken defended in his budgets, and which need greater support by Congress, as people around the world look to the United States.
 
DisInformation and National Security Competition
 
We are all aware that the United States is facing a new set of challenges that have emerged in recent years.  A small number of revisionist powers – principally Russia, with the partnership of Iran and North Korea, and China – have been aggressively challenging U.S. interests and values and are determined to challenge America’s global leadership.  China has expressed the desire to do so and has acquired extraordinary power and influence.  The world’s many unresolved issues offer a propaganda opportunity to our competitors, who sponsor substantial disinformation campaigns and engage in election interference using electronic communications.  Their goal is to erode global public confidence in American leadership and democratic values.  We have seen this before as initiatives of the former Soviet Union.  We have also seen the use of electronic communications for terrorist recruitment and inspiration.
 
Much work remains to be done about this very complex issue, yet during Secretary Blinken’s tenure the Department’s public diplomacy teams have stepped up, with reports exposing foreign government-directed information aggression and by completing over 20 bilateral agreements with allies and partners to fight information manipulation.  Under Secretary Blinken, this very hard work of defending the United States in the information and media arena has begun.  The State Department will need flexible and rapid-response tools to challenge the tidal waves of false claims from adversaries in a world newly freed from factual oversight by social media companies.  It is a challenge that will need to be met with additional staffing and resources from Congress, as America’s silence in the face of systematic slander and lies is a recipe for disaster.
 
Meeting People Where They Are
 
Those of us who believe in the power of public diplomacy acknowledge Secretary Blinken’s leadership in urging the Department to help address international challenges that affect peoples’ lives but fall outside the normal subjects of “Foreign Ministry” engagement.  Here’s a partial list of very practical long-term issues on which the Department is engaged, all of which have a public diplomacy element: 
 
issues of fair trade and workers protections; securing supply chains for critical items like semiconductors and medicines; safeguarding digital infrastructure to protect threats to our privacy and data and to assure that our institutions and businesses are kept safe; international safeguards for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI); protecting the environment;  securing new sources of energy; preventing another pandemic; stopping the global flow of deadly synthetic drugs; and contending with migrations across our hemisphere and around the globe. 
 
The State Department is involved in working on all these things, and more, to assure that the United States is present, and our views are understood, where American interests are being considered.  Although the Department’s public affairs machinery has documented this diplomatic work, much more needs to be done to highlight American contributions and draw the attention of global publics to these matters.  Public diplomacy officers are responsible to be informed and advocate on these matters, yet the Department’s staffing and resources are wholly inadequate to protect America’s evolving international interests.
 
In sum, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has shown extraordinary leadership in public diplomacy – enhancing America’s image in the world, strengthening and building networks of partnerships, and supporting his Department team in communicating with global publics.  He has also taken the Department into new areas of great importance, that require the U.S. to acquire expertise and lead systematic public diplomacy engagement if we are to bring global audiences and their governments to our vision.  The PDCA Board offers its thanks to the Secretary for his service and have presented him with this award.
 
I’ll conclude by saying that the Secretary-designate, Senator Rubio, is a friend of public diplomacy well known to many of us from his work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  The PDCA looks forward to working with him, with the Congress, and with our friends at the Department toward strengthening America’s global leadership.  We will also urge the Secretary-designate to appoint an experienced senior leader as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs as he works to assure America’s security and further strengthen our global leadership.  On behalf of PDCA I want to also thank Acting Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs Stephanie Sutton and the members of the Under Secretary’s staff who have been such good partners in organizing this event.

Larry Schwartz is a 32-year Foreign Service veteran who served in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. In Washington he served at the Department of State in the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.