Michael Carpenter

TRANSCRIPT:

Voice of America has always been a source of American soft power. It has brought the truth to audiences that often live behind the veil of dictatorship and don’t have access to the same sort of information that citizens in free societies do. And so Voice of America is able to speak to those people directly, and provide reputable, accurate, factual information on world events that truly is able to shape how people perceive the world around them — and to puncture, again, that veil of propaganda that dictatorships like to impose on their societies so that they can rule more easily.

By cutting off this important source of information, you reduce the fidelity of the information space. And, you know, that may not matter in democracies like NATO allies or in the United States, because there are many sources of information that are true and accurate and that citizens can access. But in some parts of the world, that makes all the difference. And it’s just enabling dictatorships to do their job. And we shouldn’t want that.

We should want to promote open democratic systems around the world. Now, there’s some debate about the degree to which we should use all the tools available of American power to achieve these aims. But regardless, having a free flow of information that casts world events in a true light is in our interest and has never worked at cross-purposes with U.S. government policy. And so, this is something that the U.S. has supported across administrations of both Democratic- and Republican-partisan color for generations, and we should continue to do so.

Published February 5, 2026

Carpenter is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Previously, he served as senior director for Europe at the National Security Council and U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) under the Biden administration. He also worked in the Department of Defense during the Obama administration and as a career Foreign Service officer.