Center for Strategic Communication

Good News from Sri Lanka: Is It Sustainable?

By Patricia Lee Sharpe Take a good look at the photo of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the two term president of Sri Lanka who called a snap election, expecting to win  by a landslide, then lost, decisively.  Note the aggressive mustache, the arched eyebrows, the bug eyes.  Shift...

Ukraine and Cuba: What a Contrast!

By Patricia Lee SharpeI wish I were still in the foreign service.  This serendipitous conjunction of US and Russian foreign policy makes for a beautiful public diplomacy message: as Vladimir Putin’s Russia fights viciously to hold on to Ukraine, its uppity Cold War...

The Tortured Debate about Torture

By Patricia Lee SharpePinch me!Wake me from this nightmare!Am I really stuck in an America awash in arguments pro torture put forth by fellow Americans proudly proclaiming they’d do it again?  Waterboarding.  Rectal rapes.  Chaining.  Hanging. Agonizing stress...

Public Diplomacy Post Ferguson

By Patricia Lee Sharpe The protests stemming from the failure of a grand jury to indict the Ferguson, Missouri, policeman who shot and killed an unarmed Black man continue.  In fact, demonstrations tied to this and recent similar shootings are blocking traffic and...