Were going to be talking about Public Diplomacy in the trump administration. At least i think someone who studies this extensively, not enough has been really coming forth about the senior official ain the bureau of public affair. She joined the state department of february 3rd, 2018 and a year later, she became, she was already assistant secretary, but took on the responsibilities of the undersecretary of state. So this is a very ambitious and interesting effort which has now created the bureau of Global Public affairs. Of which she is the head. She brings a a breath of global Strategic Communication experience. She was Global CorporateCommunications President in new york. And she has previously in washington work ed for Newt Gingrich on his Communications Team and Communications Director for go pac. She holds aers degree in political management from George Washington university and degree in Political Science from ucla and one of the things that impressed me most was that she was team captain on the usa gymnastics team, which i think is fabulous. Thank you so much for being here on this rainy morning. Over to you. Thank you for the introduction. Were excited to have a conversation around Public Diplomacy and communicating American Values, Foreign Policy and really engaging the public in advancing the interests of the United States all across the world. Theres never been a more important time for Public Diplomacy. Public diplomacy today is more important than ever. Engaging people, engaging the public, individuals and citizens in American Values, in american Foreign Policy and the Critical Issues of our time is not only a nice to do, but a requirement for success. And theres a number of factors krinlting to this. The world is increasingly interconnected. Transparent. And so youve got a number of factors that are making Public Diplomacy core to how we succeed at the stiate department. The first is technology. We know theres a proliferation of channels. Platforms and new ways that were able to communicate with citizens from across the world so were enfwanlging and having conversations and reaching new audiences through these tools and channels. It presents enormous amounts of opportunity, but then you have Technology Driving new challenges and risks. If you read the acpd report the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, the report in 2017 on can can Public Diplomacy survive the internet . Take a look at the trends to almost now three years ago that theyre highlighting. Chat bots. Artificial intelligence. The scale and speed of technology and the tools now to pump information into this ecosystem were all living in has dramatically changed and presents a lot of risks. You can use it as tools forfection and were seeing malign actors use it to spew disinformation into the world so theres a lot of risks and new opportunity that technology is bring iing to the way in which do Public Diplomacy. In parallel, you see more people having empowered voices. Social media allows people to have their voices heard, speak up. Their voices now are r more empowered through technology and these platforms. And communicate with people more important than ever to Public Diplomacy. With china, with russia, with the Islamic Republic of iran and there is more demand and you know, importance to the way in which we communicate American Values across the world more so than in any other time and engaging people in that message and in those stories to help advance the values of the United States thats really the heart of Public Diplomacy. So we know that diplomacy isnt just government to government conversations anymore. We have to engage with the public and people and what were doing. We just celebrated the 230th anniversary of the state department and we know that our missi mission has stayed the same, which is to advance american interests in every corner of the world. But how requires new thinking. Public di ploem is at the forefront. So a quick overview of how doing that, the state department into their areas of expertise, weve got thousands of Public Diplomacy officers engaging the americans and communicating t the every major media market and region where were engaging with the media and foreign audiences and because we know theres a lot of where it hasnt penetrated. Were engage digitally we have thousands of subscribers of the state department. Having real time conversations. Using those as really important listening tools to understand whats important to the audiences were trying to communicate with. Well talk about tech camps. Civil Society Leaders in countries to help them use digital and help them advance civic engagement. Transparency. Empowering more voices through social media. Were engaging in through the gec. Countering information from state and nonstate actors. Through eca, amid this dingital and technology change, not forgetting that human relationships and people to people ties and interaction are still at the core of how we do our job. Those human relationships amid this change are more important than ever. So matt will talk about that. I think one of the ways as was mentioned earlier that were really trying to modernize and advance how we do Public Diplomacy for 2019 and beyond is this merger that we just did to create the new bureau. The whole purpose and mission was to elevate and accelerate how were communicating with audiences around the world in real time to advance our policy and to advance our values. I was pleased to leave this alongside nicole, head of the International Information programs bureau. To create Global Public affairs. We increased resources to inform and measure and improve how were communicating in audiences and with audiences across the world. A lot of emphasis on content and different ways and creative ways that we can communicate with audiences across multiple platforms. Whether it be traditional and digital and emerging platforms and future focus on platform, that will be emerging. Whether its augmented reality, virtual reality, ai but how are we thinking about communicating in nothose platforms to make su were advancing american diplomacy. So seeing a lot of ways through the mergerer in dploebl pibl affair of how were deepening and enhancing our ability to communicate across the world. And you know, one of our greatest advantages and ill close with this, is that the United States amid all this change and technology, amid great power competition, has the best story to tell. Thats our competitive advantage. It is the values and founding values that make our country the most successful and prosperous country in the history of the world and american Foreign Policy today, our story is grounded in our founding principles and our fundamental values under the leadership of President Trump and secretary pompeo. Right. We know at the state department our first due tty is to the American People. To advance their interests, to protect their security and to defend their values. And in that pursuit, and if focus of the state department is to seek and find and create partnership and friendship and cooperation aalliances with with countries and strong sovereign independent nation. Who share our values, who choose independence and cooperation over global governance. Who respect the rights of their neighbors. Theyre people, their pride. Their patriotism. So at the state department, we are uniquely positioned because of our global footprint, because of the ways in which we communicate with people in ways all across the world, not just here at home. Had a great story to tell about the partnership, friendship and cooperation that we helped create with countries across the world that share our interests in order to achieve mutual gain. You can see this in the ministerial to advance religious freedom. The first was hosted last year at the state department. He did it again this year. Huge gathering. More than 100 countries r participated to help advance religious freedoms. Think about how we end religious persecution across the world. To defeat isis the United States as well as 80 plus countries coming together to think about how to stop the threat of isis everywhere across the world. You see anytime the new trade deal the president just signed with Prime Minister abe. In the usmca. The warsaw ministerial we participated in 2019 in february, you have countries coming together the to think about middle east peace and security. We now have several working groups. The United States will host one. So will south korea, bahrain and romania and poland. To talk about in partnership with multiple countries how were going to help peace and security in the United States and all across the world. Sorry, the middle east. You have them coming together to support the interim president. So this is americas story. Our Public Diplomacy mission. Were bringing the tools to bear in order to engage the public in the Critical Issues o our time. To communicate our interests to advance and protect them. Day in and day out so that we are serving the interests of f the United States and those of our fellow citizens. And so with that, ill turn it over to my colleagues here. Ill introduce first nicole chulick, shes a Senior Foreign Service officer. Spent much of her career in south asia before helping me to spearhead the e realignment of gpa. Then to matt lussenhop. Also a Senior Foreign Service officer who served much of his career in the middle east and most recent lly seved in bell g and morocco then well hear from Chris Dunnett to tell you about their work in countering influence operations from our global adversaries, particularly in the Digital Space w. That, over to nicole. Thank you, michelle. So as michelle just mentioned, there has never been a more exciting or important time to be engaged in Public Diplomacy and communication. In shaping how the United States communicates policy and values overseas and dmoesically. The Global Public affairs was created to strengthen communications at the department of state. Were now four months old. Let me tell you about its creation. The goal of the merger of the two bureaus at state, the bureau of International Information programs and bureau of Public Affairs was to effectively Shape Communications for the United States around the world. Our focus was to bring together the west best of both worlds of those two bureaus, focused on Strategic Communications. The merger isnt a new idea. That 20 Year Anniversary is tomorrow. So this merger of iip and pa is long overdue. And something that had been talked about for years. Public affairs was traditionally focused on communicating Foreign Policy to domestic and foreign audiences where as iip focused on context yulizing. They took the guidance and ran with with i. Created the structure and framework for the new bureau and flusheded out the details. They worked with hr folks, budget folks. Lawyers, to make sure we were doing it all right. That we were getting the Human Resources and money piece right and developed the structure. My colleague will talk about the programs weve realigned because while focusing the bureau, we realized there are some places an programs that would be better housed in other part of the Public Diplomacy family. Integrated, agile and future proofed. Integrated. We integrated the two bureaus, taking the best of both worlds. Iip, story telling and communications, their ability to understand foreign audiences and working with posts to get insight on the ground and combine that with Public Affairs strategic approach. With Public Affairs connection, direct connection to Foreign Policy. So we brought the best of both worlds together. An example. In mid july as michelle had mentioned, secretary pompeo host ed the second ministerial to advance religious freedom in washington. The 2019 was the largest of its kind in the world. More than 11,000 Civil Society actors, religious leaders and more than 100 foreign dell dpagss that were part of the ministerial. Gpa, the bureau of Global Public affairs, was critical in shaping the narrative around this event. We used nor traditional tools, and swer views with the press as well as the flag ship social media platforms. And we captured key moments. Back to the idea of integration. One of the things michelle mentioned is the use of data and analytics to shape our message. To do that on the front end to make sure were reaching the audience we need to with the most effective message. But also to be able to do that on the back end. So how quick will they be able to deliver key messages to key audiences . How do we get the message out to make sure the truth is out there before the misinformation and disinformation . Last week, we were consumed with the u. N. General assembly, the president and secretary, and it was an excellent opportunity to highlight American Values as well as our engagement on the bilateral front. Our campaign produced a 40 increase in public interaction with content on our flag ship Digital Properties when compared to our 2018 messages around the u. N. General assembly. Pretty proud. Previous efforts were isolated and focused on key events and speeches rather than the narrative around the u. N. General assembly so the difference is that we looked a themes that we wanted to push. The narratives he wawe wanted t presenting through our interviews and through our social media platforms. And we tightly organized around that. And it worked. Future proofed. This isnt about moving boxes around on a chart or adding capacity that would only work in the shortterm. We were looking for a structure that would make sense five years, ten years down the line into the future and that means having written into our structure and the way we work a focus on explore iing new platforms, new technologies, best practices, not only the technology, but also the in person connections and relationship building. We try to create a bureau that would attract Diverse Talent and be relevant years to come. With three in mind, integrated, agile, future proofed and a focus on learning and development in the new bureau, we believe we will deliver on those Effective Communication tools that we will effectively communicate policy and American Values for many secretaries of state. Thank you. Hi. Im the assistant secretary at the bureau of Cultural Affairs at the state department. Pca. At eca, our focus is on that critical element of Public Diplomacy, people to people changes. As the assistant secretary was saying in an increasingly digital world, meaningful real world interaction are more important than ever so when malicious actors like china or russia try to split people apart through misinformation, our counter is to bring people back together to establish relationships that bridge divides and that build Human Networks of people in the yit and overseas where united in both thought and action. President Trumps NationalSecurity Strategy is clear. Create the networks of future and current political Civil Society and educational leaders who will extend the free and prosperous world. Id like to highlight three elements of how eca approaches its work in this field. First, our programs are effective because we create network of like minded alumni around the world. In fact, our assistant secretary, marie royce, is in thailand today for a meeting of the Young Southeast Asian Leader