The Foreign Service Journal, December 2008

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7 New Media Innovations Public Affairs Officer Scott Rau- land is right to stress the importance of cutting-edge technology to the suc- cess of U.S. public diplomacy in the 21st century (September Speaking Out, “State’s Wrong Turn on the Information Highway”). The State Department’s International Informa- tion Programs Bureau, Public Affairs Bureau and Information Resource Management Bureau, among many others, work hard to ensure that posts have both the IT support and Web- ready content they need to maintain a competitive presence on the Web. State 52197 (May 16) provides detailed guidance on post manage- ment of Dedicated Internet Net- works, which can provide embassy Information Resource Centers with the open platforms needed to engage foreign publics on the Internet. That cable specifically authorizes external media, such as CDs, DVDs and flash drives, and offers guidelines for wire- less DIN applications that meet department security requirements. The Content Management System now mandated for all posts eases IT development and maintenance costs overseas and ensures that posts are in compliance with the elaborate com- plex of federal security and privacy regulations. CMS also provides auto- matic content feeds when desired, freeing posts to focus on country-spe- cific information. In times of crisis, embassies can ask IIP to manage a site directly from Washington, relieving a stressed post of technical site-man- agement chores. During the recent Georgia-Russia crisis, we did this for Embassy Tbilisi. DINs and CMS are two examples of the department’s commitment to innovation in new media. We are en- ergetically adapting blogs, video, pod- casts and widgets to advance the mis- sion. The Digital Outreach Team engages directly on Arabic-, Persian- and Urdu-language sites to discuss critical policy issues. And through the Democracy Video Challenge, we are leveraging the power of YouTube and all its attending social networking capability. Working together, the State De- partment and overseas posts will con- tinue to explore and develop our capacity to use new technologies cre- atively and effectively. Jeremy Curtin Coordinator, Bureau of International Information Programs Department of State Washington, D.C. The Challenges Ahead President-elect Barack Obama faces a host of immediate and difficult global challenges. This is true in every sector: health, energy, climate change and poverty, which together make the world increasingly danger- ous. Ignoring these problems as the U.S. has done for nearly a decade will have catastrophic consequences for us and the rest of the world. Not least among our challenges is the continued threat of nuclear disas- ter, either from an irresponsible nuclear weapons state or from the so- called “loose nukes” still around in the former Soviet Union. Too little was done over the last eight years about this problem; in fact, recent U.S. poli- cies weakened the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. Solving these problems must be at the top of a new administration’s global agenda. Too often America has tackled one problem, one solution at a time. In the 21st century, this piecemeal approach does not work. The chal- lenges of food security, regional con- flicts and refugees are complex and fast-changing. This is especially true in the realm of weapons of mass destruction, where the consequences of our policies of neglect can be cata- strophic. One priority is to make our inter- national institutions more effective. To do this, reform and renewal must address the global landscape in a new and fundamental way. Unfortunately, recent American attempts to “reform” old structures, like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations, have often result- ed in weakening their capacity for effective action. This makes restruc- turing to create an effective problem- solving framework more difficult, but it is still necessary. What is required at the very start is not only reforming but rebuilding American and international organiza- L ETTERS