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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 5, February 13-February 26, 2009

The White Oak Recommendations

Recent discussions on the future of public diplomacy and strategic communications, from reporting on personnel moves to the release of the White Oak recommendations for public diplomacy, have influenced the direction that the Obama administration will take in public diplomacy, reports Marc Lynch for Foreign Policy.

What they're concerned about is the structure that needs to be in place to ensure that whatever orders the Obama administration provides can be effectively executed. The White Oak recommendations advocate a more strategic direction for communication and public diplomacy at both the civilian and military levels.

Spencer Ackerman, for the Washington Independent, remarks that the White Oak signatories are critical of the "war of ideas" approach but definitely reject the public relations model. He notes that according to the recommendations, public diplomacy is relevant to a broad array of strategic interests and has multiple stakeholders and should keep on strategically engaging with people.

When it came to defining the role of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, the recommendations stipulate, "at minimum, within the current State Department structure, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs should have operational control of public diplomacy field operations, budgets and personnel."

The recommendations also invite Congress to play a more proactive role and better coordination among agencies. While all recommendations were based on common sense, Ackerman remarks that little attention was paid to new technology and media such as Twitter and Facebook, which underlined the public diplomacy policies of the State Department under former Under Secretary James K. Glassman. Back to articles.