Seldom have incoming presidents of the United States used the platform of the inaugural address to go beyond the necessary task of speaking to millions of Americans by including a message intended for the hundreds of millions watching worldwide. In a gesture comparable to that of John F. Kennedy in 1961, President Barack Obama imparted commitments to peace, security and prosperity and directed them to friends and foes alike.

Newly minted President Obama offered an address this morning that can be viewed on many layers. An inaugural address is primarily a message to Americans and secondarily a message to the governments and peoples of the world. But in 2009, more than in most years, this address is a message from Americans to a global village about what America is, what America seeks to be, and how America intends to work with that global village.

Quincy Jones's welcome appeal for the creation of an American cultural tsar has fascinating implications for the world of public diplomacy. Jones himself has been a figure in American cultural diplomacy from his early days as the manager for the Dizzy Gillespie band tours of the Middle East and Latin America in the late 1950s to his own work as a powerful international voice of American cultural creativity.

The New America Foundation/American Strategy Program hosts:

"Diplomacy, Power & America's Purpose In a Changing World"

THE HONORABLE ZALMAY KHALILZAD
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Former US Ambassador to both Afghanistan and Iraq
with
STEVE CLEMONS
Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation

Streaming live on http://www.TheWashingtonNote.com/
WEDNESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2009
12:15 pm – 1:45 pm (EST)