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William A. Rugh

The Edward R. Murrow Visiting Professor Public Diplomacy, and Visiting Scholar at the Fares Center on Eastern Mediterranean Studies

Education

BA, Oberlin College
MA, SAIS-Johns Hopkins
PhD in public law and government, Columbia University

Professional Activities

Ambassador Rugh was a US Foreign Service officer from 1964-1995. He entered the US Foreign Service as an officer with the US Information Agency (USIA). Assignments abroad with USIA included Country Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Cairo (1976-1981); Country Public Affairs Officer in the US Embassy in Jidda (1969-1971). Assignments at USIA Headquarters in Washington DC included Director of USIA’s Near East and South Asia Bureau (1989-1992); Assistant Director of USA for the Near East (1973-1976). Ambassador Rugh has had three assignments abroad for the Department of State. From 1981-1984, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy in Damascus , Syria. In 1984, he was appointed by the President as Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen , a post he held for three years. In 1992, he was appointed by the President as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates; he completed his three-year tour there in June 2005. Ambassador Rugh has served as an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; A Murrow Fellow and Diplomat-in-residence and adjunct Professor at The Fletcher School. From 1995-2003, Ambassador Rugh served as President and Chief Executive Officer of America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc (AMIDEAST), and since 2003 he has been a member of its board of directors. Since 2003, he has been an Associate at Georgetown ’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and an Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute. He is also a Trustee of the American University in Cairo.

Courses

Fall 2009

• DHP D204 - United States Public Diplomacy

Research Interests

Developments in American policy toward the Middle East, United States public diplomacy, and Arab mass media.

Selected Publications

Books

• American Encounters with Arabs: the “Soft Power” of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World (2006).
• Engaging the Arab and Islamic Worlds through Public Diplomacy (editor) (2004).
• Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio and Television in Arab Politics (2004).

Book Chapters and Articles

• “Do National Political Systems Still Influence Arab Media?”, Arab Media and Society, May 2007
• “Enabling Public Diplomacy Field Officers to Do Their Jobs”, Public Diplomacy Council website, December 20, 2008
• “Repairing American Public Diplomacy”, Arab Media and Society, issue 7, Winter 2009, (January 2009)
• “Anti-Americanism on American Television: Some Outsider Observations”, Transnational Broadcasting Studies, online in TBS Journal no. 15, January-June 2006
• “A New Murrow for U.S. Public Diplomacy”, with Lawrence Pintak, the Daily Star, Beirut, 2-17-09, (republished in the Daily News Egypt on 2-17-09 as “The Murrow Option”
• “PD Practitioners: Still Second-Class Citizens”, Foreign Service Journal, October 2009
• “Fixing Public Diplomacy for Arab and Muslim Audiences,” A Practical Guide to Winning the War on Terrorism (2004).
• “Arab Cultures and Newspapers,” The Function of Newspapers in Society: A Global Perspective (2003).
• “Yemen,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Britannica Book of the Year (annually 1997-2003);
• “UAE Warnings for a Friend,” MEI Perspectives (2006).