Bureau of Global Public Affairs

The Bureau of Global Public Affairs (GPA) is an operating bureau of the United States Department of State responsible for communicating U.S. foreign policy to both domestic and international audiences through press engagement, digital outreach, and strategic communications. It was created on May 22, 2019, through the merger of the former Bureau of Public Affairs and the Bureau of International Information Programs, a consolidation undertaken to align the Department's public-facing functions under a single chain of command. GPA is led by an Assistant Secretary of State and reports through the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs — the office whose statutory lineage traces to the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), abolished and folded into State under the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. Its mandate is grounded in the public-diplomacy authorities historically governed by the Smith–Mundt Act of 1948 (the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act), as amended by the Smith–Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which permitted domestic dissemination of materials previously intended only for foreign audiences.

GPA's core functions include operating the State Department Spokesperson's office and conducting the Daily Press Briefing, managing relations with the White House press corps and foreign media, producing the Department's official websites (state.gov, ShareAmerica) and social-media platforms, and coordinating the messaging output of U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. The bureau houses the Office of the Spokesperson, the Digital Strategy directorate, the Press Office, audiovisual and broadcast services, and the GPA Center for Analytics. It also administers historical and educational resources, including the Office of the Historian and the publication of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, the official documentary record of American diplomacy mandated by statute (22 U.S.C. § 4351).

In practice, GPA operates at the intersection of diplomacy and information warfare. It coordinates closely with the Global Engagement Center, established by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 to counter foreign state and non-state disinformation and propaganda, though the GEC's authorization lapsed in December 2024. As of 2026, GPA remains the State Department's principal vehicle for rapid-response messaging, public-affairs guidance, and the projection of American "soft power" — a concept articulated by Joseph Nye — distinguishing day-to-day public affairs (informing) from longer-horizon public diplomacy (persuading foreign publics).

For the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), GPA is examined in the Job Knowledge section, where candidates must distinguish public diplomacy from public affairs, identify the Smith–Mundt framework, and place GPA within the Department's organizational chart under the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Questions frequently probe the 2019 merger that formed the bureau, the legacy of USIA's 1999 absorption, and the role of the Department Spokesperson. Aspirants to the Public Diplomacy career track in particular should master GPA's relationship to embassy public-affairs sections and to instruments such as the FRUS series and the Global Engagement Center.