The USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School and the Foreign Policy Association announced the launch of a collaborative Web log on Public Diplomacy and the U.S. Presidential Elections.

The blog will collect and analyze statements by U.S. Presidential candidates on world opinion, and world opinion on the U.S. elections.  Its aim is to help readers understand how the candidates and their policies are viewed by the world’s publics and how the candidates are communicating – or planning to – with the world.

"It is clear that the next U.S. President will face a daunting challenge carving out a new foreign policy agenda and engaging world opinion," said Geoffrey Wiseman, acting director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. "T his important blog will provide a unique public diplomacy service, demonstrating that many Americans are themselves listening to, and engaging with, international publics."

"The current U.S. Presidential race has sparked an unprecedented interest around the world ,” said Noel Lateef, President and CEO of the New York-based Foreign Policy Association. “ I am delighted that FPA and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy are entering into an important joint venture to showcase global opinion in the blogosphere .”

Public Diplomacy and the U.S. Presidential Elections will identify and collect in one place Web-based commentary and analysis of the public diplomacy dimension of the U.S. Presidential elections.  Included will be statements by the candidates and their advisors concerning U.S. public diplomacy, statements by them directed at foreign audiences, as well as foreign opinion on the U.S. elections and candidates.  Comments and observations from prominent international non-governmental organizations will also be included.  Naturally, comments by readers are welcome and encouraged.

Contributors to the blog include Desa Philadelphia, a former journalist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Time Magazine and CNN; former Senior Foreign Service Officer Mark Dillen of Dillen Communications LLC; and Melinda Brouwer of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.

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