Public Diplomacy

KEY PEOPLE

Edward P. Djerejian, Founding Director

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Baker Institute plays an active role in public diplomacy, and at the request of past and current U.S. administrations, the institute has advised senior officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations to provide them with a strategic game plan on public diplomacy in the broader Middle East.

In 2003, Ambassador Edward Djerejian, the institute’s founding director, was asked by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to chair the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World. After extensive consultations with U.S. and foreign decision-makers, the group’s findings were published in the 2003 report PDF icon “Changing Minds, Winning Peace,” which has become a template for how the U.S. government should conduct its public diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim world and for what should be done to bolster the image of the United States in the region.

The recommendations in the report outline strategic direction for the United States in the “struggle for ideas” in the Arab and Muslim world, defining diplomacy as the ability to “first listen and understand, and then inform, engage and influence foreign audiences.” Other recommendations were made with respect to the roles of the White House, U.S. Department of State, secretary of state, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, and human resources.

The report also examined several key instruments of public diplomacy, including the American Corners program, access to American education and exchange programs, and English and foreign language training, as well as the advancement of technology and communications resources.

As chairman of the bipartisan congressionally mandated advisory group, Djerejian worked closely with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then-Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes during the administration of President George W. Bush to implement many of the recommendations in the report and to reorganize the Department of State’s public diplomacy apparatus.

The findings of the report have also been presented to the Barack Obama administration. President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo epitomizes many of the recommendations for the future direction of U.S. public diplomacy in the broader Middle East made in “Changing Minds, Winning Peace.”

In 2010, the Baker Institute formed the Public Diplomacy and Global Policymaking program, which invites Rice University students to discuss relevant issues with students in the Middle East. In 2010, the inaugural Rice cohort held a colloquium in Cairo, Egypt, with students from the American University in Cairo. In 2012, the student colloquium took place in Doha, Qatar, in conjunction with an international conference on stem cell research and policy organized jointly by the Qatar Foundation and the Science and Technology Policy Program at the Baker Institute.

PUBLICATIONS
2013: Foreign Policy: Toward a New Balancing Strategy
Mar 08 2013

Joe Barnes
2012: Transcript -- The K. George and Carolann S. Najarian, M.D. Lecture on Human Rights: An American Ambassador's Reflections on U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East and the Caucasus
Oct 26 2012

Edward P. Djerejian; Allocation of Carbon in the Production of Liquid Fuels and Electricity in the United States
Jun 08 2012

Dagobert Brito, Robert Curl; U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership
May 09 2012

Edward P. Djerejian, Madeleine K. Albright, Henri J. Barkey, Elmira Bayrasli, Richard R. Burt, Soner Cagaptay, Steven A. Cook, William M. Drozdiak, Stephen J. Hadley, Robert W. Kagan, Parag Khanna, Clark B. Lombardi, Aliza Marcus, Larry C. Napper, Denise Natali, Joseph W. Ralston, Gregory Saunders, Patrick N. Theros, Vin Weber, Jenny B. White, Ross Wilson, Nur O. Yalman, Ahmad Zuaiter; How Conservative is David Dewhurst?
Mar 28 2012

Mark P. Jones; Visiting with James A. Baker, III
Feb 18 2012

James A. Baker, III; Our "ample safety net" leaves a lot to be desired
Feb 04 2012

Rachel Kimbro; Revisiting Alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz
Jan 26 2012

Dagobert Brito
2011: The Honorable James A. Baker, III, on Reducing Nuclear Arms
Nov 06 2011

James A. Baker, III; Remarks by The Honorable James A. Baker, III, at "Twenty Years After Madrid: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward for Arab-Israeli Peacemaking"
Nov 02 2011

James A. Baker, III; U.S. must live up to role as Mideast honest broker
Sep 21 2011

Edward P. Djerejian; Hanging Chads in Tirana
Jul 01 2011

James A. Baker, III
2010: Nine Years Later: The Tragedy of September 11, 2001
Sep 10 2010

Douglas Brinkley; Video: Ambassadors' Perspectives on the Middle East (Panel)
Sep 09 2010

Edward P. Djerejian, Yousef Al Otaiba; Flood-ravaged Pakistan could use a helping hand
Sep 03 2010

James A. Baker, III

EVENTS

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Public Diplomacy