Supervising State: The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy on Performance Measurement

Morgan Lorraine Roach / July 21, 2010

These days “accountable” is rarely an adjective used to describe the state of American diplomacy. With government waste running rampant, it’s easy to forget that there is congressional oversight intended to hold U.S. agencies accountable for their spending.

Today, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bi-partisan board, created by Congress whose members are appointed by the President, met to discuss the State Department’s performance on outreach and engagement with foreign publics. The Commission, who has been critical of U.S. public diplomacy’s performance in the past, devoted this morning’s meeting to discussing the State Department’s capacity to evaluate whether it was having an effective impact on international audiences. (more…)