Articles by Helle Dale

Russian “Telephone Justice” for Pussy Riot

Helle Dale | September 03, 2012

Members of the Russian female punk band Pussy Riot, who have become international celebrities as victims of Russian “justice,” on August 17 received two-year jail… Read More

$50 Million Government Polling Contract with Gallup Attracts Scrutiny

Helle Dale | August 29, 2012

An example of government waste and bad planning—the exorbitantly expensive Gallup Organization contract with the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)—is finally coming under a long-overdue… Read More

Downsizing America: The Obama Doctrine in Action

Helle Dale | August 27, 2012

A poorer, smaller, humbler, less influential America—that is Barack Obama’s vision for America as presented by Dinesh D’Souza, who spoke at The Heritage Foundation last… Read More

State Department Website Morphs into the World According to Obama

Helle Dale | August 23, 2012

The State Department is continuing to edit its website into a more Obama-centric story of the world. As reported by The Heritage Foundation’s Jim Roberts,… Read More

Iranian Earthquake Victims Blame Their Own Government

Helle Dale | August 21, 2012

The fracture between Iran’s autocratic government and its people is growing ever wider in the aftermath of the two earthquakes that hit northern Iran last… Read More

Julian Assange’s Sordid Ego Trip

Helle Dale | August 17, 2012

After hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two months, Julian Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador yesterday to avoid extradition to Sweden, where… Read More

Red Tape Tangles Aid to Iranian Victims

Helle Dale | August 17, 2012

U.S. government red tape is preventing American Iranians from sending much-needed aid to the thousands of victims of Saturday’s two earthquakes in northern Iran, aid… Read More

Suffering Iranian People Need Humanitarian Help

Helle Dale | August 14, 2012

The two earthquakes that hit the northern Iranian town of Tabriz on Saturday—6.4 and 6.3 on the Richter scale—should prompt strong American support for the… Read More

The New Public Diplomacy: The American Story Starts with Knowing Ourselves

Helle Dale | August 13, 2012

A newly published study by the American Security Project (ASP), “The New Public Diplomacy Imperative,” highlights public diplomacy (PD) as a crucial element of our… Read More

Italian Prime Minister Warns of EU Collapse

Helle Dale | August 09, 2012

In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti warned of the “psychological break-up” of Europe if the euro… Read More

Tweeting: An Olympic Sport?

Helle Dale | August 07, 2012

The London Olympics have been dubbed the “social media Olympics.” Again, social media find their way into the big story of the day, but keeping… Read More

Public Diplomacy Mission: Defining America as a Resilient Nation Built on Individual Dreams

Helle Dale | August 02, 2012

In a recent speech to the American Security Project, Tara Sonenshine, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, laid out her vision for her tenure in… Read More

The White House Attack Machine Backfires

Helle Dale | July 31, 2012

If ever a political assault on the media misfired, it has to be the appalling attack last Friday by White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer… Read More

Americans Deserve to Know What the U.S. Government Is Broadcasting

Helle Dale | July 18, 2012

Americans deserve transparency about what their government is doing, as long as that transparency doesn’t threaten national security. Transparency should also be the guiding principle… Read More

A Billion Here, a Billion There: The State Department’s Wacky Budget Process

Helle Dale | July 03, 2012

Even by U.S. government standards (not a high one these days), the State Department’s budget process is a mess. In almost every budget cycle, billions… Read More

The BBG’s Culture of Secrecy

Helle Dale | June 27, 2012

What in the world is going on at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the Voice of America (VOA)? The BBG has started to… Read More

Global Disappointment in Obama Tracked by Pew

Helle Dale | June 21, 2012

President Obama came into office globally hailed as the savior of America’s standing in the world. Now, three-and-a-half years into the Obama presidency, international disappointment… Read More

News

The State Department’s Confusion over Confucius Institutes

Helle Dale | June 13, 2012

On May 17, Robin J. Lerner, deputy assistant secretary for private sector exchange at the State Department, made a valiant attempt to correct the troubling… Read More

Smith–Mundt: Myth and Reality

Helle Dale | May 23, 2012

Controversy has swirled around the Smith–Mundt Modernization Act since it passed mark-up as an amendment to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act last… Read More

Smith-Mundt Modernization: Better Late than Never

Helle Dale | May 22, 2012

The House Armed Services Committee clearly acted in the U.S. interest when it voted to modernize the Smith–Mundt Act last week, as an amendment to… Read More

Cuban Solidarity Plus

Helle Dale | May 18, 2012

Cuban Solidarity Day should make us renew efforts to extend a little more freedom to the Cuban population, which is still effectively imprisoned under their… Read More

Kyl’s Call to Action

Helle Dale | May 15, 2012

“Americans are tired of carrying the burden of foreign obligations, frequently unappreciated by others and always costly in blood and treasure,” lamented Senator Jon Kyl… Read More

Congress Moves to Protect International Broadcasting

Helle Dale | May 15, 2012

Kudos to the House Appropriations Committee for protecting U.S. international broadcasting against the eviscerating cuts in language services and personnel contained in the President’s proposed fiscal… Read More

Russian Roulette at Voice of America

Helle Dale | May 10, 2012

Depending on Russian government-funded media to broadcast news from Voice of America (VOA) is about as brain-dead as depending on Russian spaceships to send American… Read More

Embarrassment in Beijing

Helle Dale | May 05, 2012

On her first visit to China in 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Chinese leaders that she considered human rights secondary to other, greater… Read More

Economy

Helle Dale

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