The Past and Future of Public Diplomacy
What are the implications of all this for the future of American public diplomacy? To begin with, the end of the Cold War brought a halt to the expanding budgets and ambitious modernization efforts of the Reagan years% and in the eyes of many, eliminated much of the rationale for them. The Rush administration committed itself to a gradual phase-out of RFE-RL., in spite of protests that doing so was premature given the political sihiation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; but VOA has also suffered an apparent decline in its legitimacy and a downward budget spiral. In response to this situation, some attempts have been made to redefine the fundamental mission of American over Seas broadcasting and public diplomacy generally in terms of global democracy building.
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