The purpose of the Symposium is a frank and open discussion on the foundation of America’s international engagement. The focus is the structure of America’s international engagement rather than analyzing specifics, although past, present, and future programs will certainly be discussed.
In addition to the two keynotes by senior officials from the State Department and (formerly) the Defense Department, there are four discussion panels. This Symposium will not be a Brookings, Defense Sciences Board, or other report in four acts. The format of each is moderated question and answer. There will be no opening statements or presentations. The make-up of the panels is designed to foster debate and discussion on the topics. For example, the two middle panels, #2 and #3, has a person from Public Diplomacy (State’s “R” or BBG), one from the Defense Community, a member of the media, and an “Other” (on #2 it’s USAID and #3 it’s a scholar who writes on propaganda and public diplomacy).
It was difficult to finalize the panels because of the tremendous experience and interest to speak on the subject of the structure of America’s international engagement and the Smith-Mundt Act in particular. The audience will be filled with stakeholders, policy makers, and front-line public diplomats from many communities. Because of this, the Q&A format should elicit some interesting and insightful discourse.
The panels are arranged essentially in a time progression. That is, Panel 1 primarily looks at the Act from before it passed into law in January 1948 up to the 1990’s. Panel 2 generally looks at the impact of the law today while Panel 3 looks toward the future. The timeframes are guidelines and not hard and fast rules. Panel 4, the Congressional panel, focuses on the Congressional perspective on the Act and the future of what used to be called simply public affairs but now goes by public diplomacy or strategic communication, depending your bureaucratic “tribe”. The time frames provide only a starting point and neither moderators nor discussants will be asked to stay within temporal boundaries.
Biographies of the moderators and discussants can be found here or click on individual names below. The full agenda can be found here. All are confirmed unless otherwise indicated.
9:00 - 10:30 First Panel: History of the Smith-Mundt Act
Len Baldyga, moderator
Richard Arndt
Barry Zorthian
Mike Schneider
Matt Armstrong
10:30 - 12:00 Second Panel: America's Bifurcated engagement
Marc Lynch, moderator
David Jackson
Karen DeYoung
Jeff Grieco
RADM Greg Smith
2:00 - 3:30 Third Panel: Rebuilding the Arsenal of Persuasion
Kristin Lord, moderator
Ted Tzavellas
Nancy Snow
Colleen Graffy
Bill Kiehl
3:45 - 5:15 Fourth Panel: The View from the Hill
Doug Wilson, moderator
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) (Confirmed)
Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) (Confirmed)
Lynne Weil
In addition to the panels, there will be two keynote addresses:
8:15 - 9:00 Keynote by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman
12:15 - 1:45 Lunchtime Keynote by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Doran
