Friday, April 23, 2010

Transnational Advocacy Networks and Public Diplomacy

I am sitting in the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars annual conference which, this year, deals with transnational advocacy networks and public diplomacy. Anyone in the LA area, please feel free to come join us at USC. I will be Tweeting the conference from here: http://twitter.com/KatharineKeith and will be blogging as well for those who are unable to join. You can find the conference program here. A great line-up. The keynote speaker, Colin Robertson, a fellow at the Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute, discussed the "Canadian Experience." Here are some of my favorite highlights:

"It costs $1 million to keep a solider in country; It costs 1/3rd that to keep a diplomat."

Roberts outlined 5 points of public diplomacy, his sixth.. "have a good woman on your team." It takes a real man to admit this. ;)

And from an audience member, a good reminder for those practicing PD, the principals of good public diplomacy, ""1st Listen, 2nd Learn, then lead."

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