Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine discussed the vital impact of communication and engagement in countering violent extremism during a speech on March 27, 2013. Sonenshine highlighted the work of the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications in countering violent rhetoric through social media, education, and interfaith dialogues. Sonenshine also called on “other governments and religious scholars, universities, and even ordinary citizens, to build international coalitions to counter violent extremism.”
According to Sonenshine, the U.S. “cannot afford to stand on the sidelines and let cynical voices distort and misreport [U.S.] policies, values, and interests.” To accomplish this, the State Dept. has worked with partners, including women’s civil society groups and Imams, to showcase a counter-narrative to violent rhetoric. State has partnered with allies such as Hedaya, a multilateral center for training, dialogue and collaboration on countering violent extremism based in Abu Dhabi. These collaborations are in line with the State Department’s renewed attention toward partnering with civil society, outlined in the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review(QDDR) in 2010. The QDDR, which lays out goals for State and USAID policies, calls civil society groups “indispensable partners…and agents of positive change.”