Bureau of Public Affairs

The Bureau of Public Affairs is the part of the United States Department of State that carries out the Secretary of State's mandate to help Americans understand the importance of foreign affairs. The Bureau is led by the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs who also serves as Department spokesman.

The PA Bureau pursues the State Department's mission to inform the American people and to feed their concerns and comments back to the policymakers. It accomplishes this in a variety of ways, which include:

• Strategic and tactical planning to advance the Administration's priority foreign policy goals;
• Conducting press briefings for domestic and foreign press corps;
• Pursuing media outreach, enabling Americans everywhere to hear directly from key Department officials through local, regional and national media interviews;
• Managing the State Department's websites at www.state.gov and www.future.state.gov and developing web pages with up-to-date information about U.S. foreign policy;
• Answering questions from the public about current foreign policy issues by phone, email, or letter;
• Arranging town meetings and scheduling speakers to visit communities to discuss U.S. foreign policy and why it is important to all Americans;
• Producing and coordinating audio-visual products and services in the U.S. and abroad for the public, the press, the Secretary of State, and Department bureaus and offices;
• Preparing historical studies on U.S. diplomacy and foreign affairs matters.