The US public diplomacy effort has been highlighted on a number of occasions recently, as the White House announced that Vice President Joe Biden will be sent to the Middle East, Under Secretary of State Judith McHale publishes a new “roadmap” for public diplomacy, and former Under-Secretary of State James Glassman prepares for an upcoming testimony before the US Senate.

President Barack Obama announced that he will send Vice President Joe Biden to the Middle East on a public diplomacy tour in an attempt to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reports Reuters.

A “main component” of Biden’s trip will be “reassuring anxious Israelis” about the Obama administration’s dedication to the security of Israel, while simultaneously stressing the need for reconciliation.

Biden also plans to stop in the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, and Jordan, reports the Daily Beast.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale has put forth a much-anticipated plan for the future of US public diplomacy, and Director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) Philip Seib calls the strategy “a stunning disappointment” on the CPD blog.

Seib claims that US public diplomacy has largely remained lacking direction, despite President Obama’s professed interest in engaging populations around the world.

The CPD director states that the roadmap “hardly represents the ‘strategic approach for the 21st century.’" He criticizes the rhetoric used in the plan, citing some of its clichéd, vague objectives, such as "combat violent extremism" and "better inform policy-making."

“For those of us who had hoped that the Obama administration would bring new vitality and decisiveness to public diplomacy, the approach taken by the State Department is terribly deflating,” Seib writes.

On his Mountain Runner blog, Matt Armstrong posted some of the testimony that former Under Secretary of State James Glassman intends to give at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Glassman will attend the hearing with McHale and two more of her predecessors.

“Here is the problem with public diplomacy,” Glassman’s preliminary testimonial reads, according to Armstrong. “It is not today being taken seriously as a tool of national security by policymakers.”

Armstrong writes that the former Under Secretary will emphasize the need for a new narrative in US public diplomacy-- one that gives priority to the audience and not the broadcaster, similar to the policies he called for during his tenure at State. Glassman will also highlight the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which has a new slate of board members still awaiting confirmation.

Spencer Ackerman, a journalist for the Washington Independent and formerly of The New Republic, writes on his blog Attackerman that Glassman’s proposition is “a very good idea.” Ackerman agrees that promoting a positive account of US policies would be an effective public diplomacy campaign, although he comments that concrete policies must also back up such a public relations initiative.