Reaching the American People: A Discussion with Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers
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The Council of American Ambassadors' President, Ambassador G. Philip Hughes, was joined by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers to learn more about how the Trump Administration is communicating with the world in the age of artificial intelligence and social media.
Their discussion touches on a range of topics, including the work of the State Department to protect digital freedoms, examples of the more creative uses of public diplomacy to reach foreign audiences, and the power of sports diplomacy ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the 2028 Olympics.
This podcast was recorded on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
About the Speakers
Sarah B. Rogers was sworn in as the 11th Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy on October 10, 2025.
Under Secretary Rogers joins the Trump administration following a career as a law-firm partner and free speech activist. In 2024, she litigated a winning Supreme Court appeal under the First Amendment challenging the “debanking” of disfavored speakers by hostile regulators. She also spearheaded and supported challenges to social media censorship and the weaponization of law enforcement, including in connection with the successful appeal of the wrongful conviction of Douglass Mackey and the online censorship of Charlie Kirk. An expert on high-stakes advocacy inside and outside courtrooms, she has represented clients including the National Rifle Association, major tobacco manufacturers, and investors and executives in the artificial intelligence industry.
Under Secretary Rogers received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Dartmouth College and her Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. During 2003, she gained her first exposure to public diplomacy as an undergraduate intern and Nelson Rockefeller fellow in the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. Department of State.
Ambassador G. Philip Hughes served as the US Ambassador to Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines from November 1990 until July 1993. Prior to this ambassadorial appointment, Ambassador Hughes served as Executive Secretary of the National Security Council in the White House during 1989 and 1990.
His previous Executive Branch public service included appointments as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement (1988-1989), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs (1986-1988), Director for Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council staff (1985-1986), Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1981-1985), and Assistant Director for Intelligence Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1979-1981). Ambassador Hughes held the position of Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC in 1978-1979 and began his career as an Assistant Analyst in the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-1977). Since retiring in 2020 after 20 years as Senior Director of the White House Writers Group, Ambassador Hughes remains Adjunct Professor of Diplomacy at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., where he has taught for the last decade, and Chairman Emeritus of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training on the campus of the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.
He holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Dayton (1972), an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1974 and 1975), and an M.P.A. degree from the JFK School of Government, Harvard University (1978). He has attended courses at the London School of Economics (1973) and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (1974).
Ambassador Hughes was awarded the Secretary of Defense's Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1985, the George Washington Patriot Award of the Sons of the American Revolution of the State of New York in 2009; and the Puentes de las Americas Award of the Centro de Estudios Americanos of Buenos Aires in 2018. Ambassador Hughes was born in Dayton, Ohio and is married to Victoria A. Knipper Hughes.
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