Hillary Clinton Challenge in State Department

Helle Dale, Washington Times:

Foreign policy has also increasingly been conducted by the Pentagon, particularly in the Rumsfeld era. Its regional combatant commands are taking on intergovernmental coordinating functions that previously have been housed in the State Department and the embassies. In terms of public diplomacy strategy and outreach, the Pentagon has moved aggressively and strategically to occupy the turf left open by State in recent times.

Public Diplomacy

Steven R. Corman, Arizona Republic:

Public diplomacy is not a matter of launching messages at targeted audiences, like so many artillery shells. International communication takes place in a large, interconnected and complex system. Such systems can be hard to understand and predict, but they can also become locked into patterns that interpret messages in standard and negative ways, no matter how carefully they are formulated and targeted.

Such is the case with U.S. public diplomacy today.