By Mitchell Polman With Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools coming to the fore as public diplomacy tools, you might be surprised to know that a relatively old-fashioned technology – text messaging – is a favored vehicle for outreach from the Voice of America.  VOA has been expanding the use of SMS technology to deliver news and information to its audience worldwide.  The growing use of mobile phone technology in developing countries, especially in Africa, has made it possible for VOA to reach people directly.  VOA is using SMS to deliver public health information, monitor elections, and alert people to breaking news. In some cases, SMS technology can even help VOA interact with foreign citizens on events as they are happening.  In Zimbabwe, for example, VOA used funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to launch an SMS service prior to Zimbabwe's elections.  VOA provided news bulletins twice a day.  But the relationship with listeners was not a one-way street:  Zimbabweans replied via text message with tips and information on the elections.  Within two weeks time the service had 20,000 subscribers and was heading towards 50,000 subscribers

The Washington Post's Mary Beth Sheridan has a great piece on what ails the U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID:

The Obama administration inherited a foreign aid system starved of civilian experts and burdened by a bewildering array of mandates. USAID's full-time staff shrank by 40 percent ...

So says Sec. of State Hillary Clinton about her own administration's vetting process, as Clinton still hasn't named someone to run the U.S. Agency for International Development. The New York Times' Mark Landler reports that Clinton says a bunch of people declined the ...

The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus preview a book that probably won't be widely available at airport shops but should: Hard Lessons, which pulls together the most telling audits and investigations by Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq. From his work since the 2003 U.S. invasion, ...

Of all the utterances George W. Bush made in his 2000 campaign for president none have been subsequently been disregarded quite the way "no more nation-building" has. The Bush administration might tell you 9/11 changed everything, but there is evidence people like Dick Cheney had a plan all along to ...

In less than two years as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates has at the very least distinguished himself from predecessor Donald Rumsfeld. The Washington Post's Ann Scott Tyson reports that yesterday Gates warned against the "militarization" of U.S. foreign policy. He ...

The Washington Post’s Stephen Barr reports that Jeremiah S. Johnson, a volunteer with the Peace Corps, was told to leave the U.S. Agency of International Development-run service program because he contracted HIV. But Johnson wanted to finish out his job and has contacted the ACLU to see if the Peace ...

No matter what your attitude towards American taxpayer dollars going to fund political parties in foreign countries -- something I think often backfires -- you have to wonder why the U.S. has been putting money into Pakistan's government-established Election Commission.

A panel convened by Congress to examine America's government foreign affairs machinery has called for a complete restructuring and "a super-size international affairs agency" to improve America's foreign policy planning and implementation.  Glenn Kessler writes in the Washington Post that the proposed "super-State," a Cabinet-level agency, would have four sub-Cabinet ...

On the front lines of American foreign policy, culture and communication can be as important as Humvees and RTEs.  In this spirit, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has called for more funding for . . . the State Department.  Thom Shanker of the New York Times reports that ...