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The next President of the United States will enter office facing as daunting and diverse a set of foreign policy challenges as any President in recent times: Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea; an unpredictable nuclearized North Korea; Russian belligerence in neighboring nations and renewed influence in the Middle East; Iranian hegemonic ambitions; dangerous and powerful Islamist terror groups, such as ISIS and a host of al-Qaeda affilates; instability in Syria and Libya, with the resulting refugee crises impacting not only neighboring countries, but wide swaths of Europe; rising

At a time of budgetary constraints, it only makes sense to refocus U.S. foreign aid on what is identifiably in the U.S. national interest.

Thank you for inviting me to share my views on improving America's public diplomacy (PD) efforts toward the Middle East. I commend you for undertaking this important review of the U.S. public diplomacy process and your efforts to improve it. To do so does not in any way denigrate the efforts of the policymakers now directing this mission or of the officers in the field who meet, communicate with, and listen to foreign audiences.

It is no secret that America's international-broadcasting institutions have been sadly lacking in strategic vision for years. In fact, such institutions are among Washington's most dysfunctional. Efforts to make them more efficient in the "war for hearts and minds" inevitably get stymied by political infighting, tight budgets and internecine warfare among the organizations.

A new executive order threatens Western technology companies. There are better ways to approach the problem of human rights in cyberspace.