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Back Issues of PDAA Today

Back issues of PDAA Today, PDAA’s quarterly print newsletter are now online and available for download.

The Regional Program Office Vienna

by Robert J. Baker

In Vienna, an independent organization, the Regional Program Office, included a printing house with four big four-color presses, a 30-strong total of experts in translation, editing, design, exhibits, photography, printing, administrative, and computer work. Our work was entirely to help U.S. Embassies in Communist Europe. RPO reported directly to USIA headquarters […]

Three members recall their time in Afghanistan

Three Public Diplomacy practitioners recall their Afghanistan experiences in the latest issues of PDAA Today, the newsletter of the Public Diplomacy Association of America. The full contents of the newsletter are available only to paid members, but we are publishing the three recollections on our website.

Bruce K. Byers: Afghanistan 1978-79: A Fateful Year in […]

Fulbright at 75: Recollections from our members

Public Diplomacy Officers, previously in the United States Information Agency and since 1999 in the U.S. Department of State, administer America’s premier academic exchange program, the Fulbright Program. Overseas, Public Diplomacy sections and bi-national commissions help recruit and administer the exchanges. We asked some of the members of the Public Diplomacy Association of America to […]

Supporting VIP Visits: The Drama Behind the Curtain

By Judith Baroody Among the highlights of Public Diplomacy Officers’ careers are the times they are called on to provide support to a visit abroad by a USG VIP, such as the President, the Secretary of State or Defense, and Congressional representatives and their delegations.

These meteor-fast encounters with powerful officials can range from exhilarating […]

Location, Location, Location: Diplomacy Is with People

by Mike Anderson

Everyone knows the old real estate agent’s phrase “Location, location, location,” which Lord Harold Samuel reportedly coined when he founded a big U.K. property company in 1948.

But the phrase could just as well have come out of the mouth of any public diplomacy officer who has ever worked abroad. We all […]

The Ballad of The Lost Agency Ramblers

by Bob Holden

The Lost Agency Ramblers formed in the mid-90s as a vehicle for song parodies at USIA holiday parties. In the flaky days of the reinvented I Bureau, we made up names for each appearance, like “Bob & Barry’s Unnatural Act” and “Dr. Fulton’s Keep Your Day Job Band.”

In 1997, rumors of […]