October 29

“We cannot leave in our underpants ... or without any.”

--Mikhail Gorbachev, regarding Soviet troops in Afghanistan; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Hillary Clinton visits Lahore - DAWN.com: "‘I'm here not just to do the official diplomacy,’ Clinton said during an interview broadcast by leading Pakistani television channels.

‘It is especially critical that we do more of what you're doing today with your colleagues so that I have a chance to answer the questions that are on the minds of the people of Pakistan,’ she said. Clinton, who says the United States wants to ‘turn the page’ on its relationship with Pakistan, is devoting significant energy to public diplomacy to counter rising Pakistani criticism of the alliance with Washington." See also. Image from article: Workers roll out a red carpet at The Badshahi Masjid in Lahore on October 28, 2009, ahead of the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Blast eclipses Clinton's Pakistan visit: Attack kills at least 100, draws focus away from secretary's mission - Karen DeYoung and Haq Nawaz Khan, Washington Post: "Clinton's three-day visit is geared toward public appearances, with the goal of quelling rising anti-Americanism among the public and assuring the Pakistani political opposition and military that the Obama administration seeks a full partnership with the country."

Pres. Obama's video message to Israelis: Remember Rabin legacy - Barak Ravid, Yuval Azoulay, Ha'aretz: "U.S. President Barack Obama has videotaped a message to be shown Saturday night at the annual memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. ... This is another step in Obama's attempt to speak directly to the Israeli public in light of the very low level of support he has among the Israeli public. ... It was decided at this stage to wait and send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Jerusalem; she is to arrive Saturday night. ... Members of special U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell's staff

have also been trying to improve relations with Israel recently, holding their first press briefing before Mitchell's last visit to Israel. Mitchell recruited a new staff member to deal with public diplomacy with the Israelis and Palestinians on the peace process." Mitchell image from

Judith Mchale And The Paos [Public Affairs Officers] - Philip Seib, Newswire – CPD Blog & Blogroll, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Undersecretary of State Judith McHale's October 15 speech to the 2009 global Public Affairs Officers conference provides some useful insights into PAOs' concerns and Secretary McHale's thinking. ... McHale seems to appreciate the value of listening to the women and men who are actually doing diplomacy."

Public Diplomacy debates reflect bigger IR questions - Craig Hayden, Intermap: "The 'success' of PD for the United States is not going to come once a specific cadre of professionals are recognized as important or uniquely situated as the stewards of public diplomacy. It is going to come when leadership recognizes what kinds of objectives and/or policies

are really the domain of public diplomacy. In addition to strategy, this leadership should provide a viable direction for how to mobilize existing resources, develop new competencies, and more to point, be able to recognize what is necessary to address specific problems as public diplomacy problems." Image from

A Broad Dialogue With Muslims Worldwide - Council on Foreign Relations: "Interviewee: Farah A. Pandith, U.S. special representative to the Muslim communities, U.S. State Department ... [Pandith]: My job is to be the hub here at the State Department to coordinate such efforts and I will spend a lot of my time on the ground working in two ways. One is a strong focus on the next generation of Muslims - the youth demographic is extremely important when it comes to Muslim communities around the world.
We need to do more to get to know this young generation, and I'm working very hard on that through our embassies. Two, we have a focus on building networks of likeminded thinkers around the world. All of these programs and all of our approaches will be based through our embassies, which will work with me here in Washington. But it's our officers on the ground who will be working to collaborate with my support and involvement. This office isn't on an island in of itself - we're working with several important parts of the State Department, [including] the public diplomacy team, the women's empowerment ambassador-at-large, [and] the new media teams." Pandith image from

National Security: Not a Good Argument for Global Warming Legislation - James Jay Carafano, Heritage.org - "[T]here are options for enhancing national security, improving our ability to adapt to global climate change, and enhancing the dependability and availability of clean energy that the Congress should consider. ... Reorganize key non-military instruments so that they are more effective. Again, regardless of how climate and energy supplies evolve, U.S. power must be used effectively to advance U.S. interests. In particular, key non-military instruments such as foreign assistance and public diplomacy are in need of serious reform. Traditional foreign assistance programs have a very poor track record for improving governance, economic growth, or civil society. Of equal concern, U.S. instruments for public diplomacy have atrophied since the end of the Cold War and are in serious need of reform. Neither challenge is being adequately addressed by the current administration."

Coffee Diplomacy -- Meetings At The State Dept - AABF Building Bridges Blog:

"The Following Reflections are From My Notes Last Week...Off the plane from Dubai and on to join Young Arab Leaders at various meetings at the State Department. The lineup at State included: Judith McHale, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy & Public AffairsStanley Colvin, DAS, Educational & Cultural Affairs Farah Pandith, Special Representative for Muslim Communities Greg Berman, Policy Planning. Each of the officials we met with were responsive and engaged, prepared and ready to actively listen. You could feel the energy and optimism in the room. What a refreshing and inspiring series of meetings. Not sure exactly how we will all work together yet, but there is a real sense that the Department and Secretary Clinton are focused on partnerships and action. Two words that align directly with the missions of Business for Diplomatic Action and the Young Arab Leaders. The only issue that was perplexing to our YAL delegation was the lack of coffee, tea or water at our meetings." Image from

The Voice of America: Origins and recollections

– Walter Roberts, American Diplomacy. Roberts image from article

UAE-NATO conference to focus on ICI - WAM - Emirates News Agency: "The Secretary General of NATO, the NATO Permanent Representative, and a total of more than 60 NATO delegates will interact with nearly 200 government officials and academics from the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, representatives of international organisations, security experts, opinion leaders and media during a day-long conference in Abu Dhabi.The event - hosted by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the NATO Public Diplomacy Division - is scheduled to start with an opening address by UAE Foreign Minister HH Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, followed by a keynote speech by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen."

The State of Now – #140conf - Kent Beatty, tweetvalley.com: "The original scope of #140conf was to explore 'the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, 'The Media', Advertising and (maybe) Politics.' Over time the scope expanded to look at the effects of twitter on topics ranging from public safety to public diplomacy."

SPN Annual Meeting Livestreaming - newmediatv.org: "Wednesday, November 4 8:10am: James K. Glassman, former Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State"

Rufino Tamayo And The Mixografía® Years (1974 – 1990):A Cross Border Journey At Meridian International CenterOctober 3, 2009 – February 14, 2010 - meridian.org:

"Meridian International Center, together with the MIXOGRAFÍA® Workshop and Landau Traveling Exhibitions in Los Angeles, California, has installed nearly 40 signed prints by renowned Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991). These are on view at Meridian’s Cafritz Galleries in its historic Washington, D.C. campus. 'This latest Meridian Art for Cultural Diplomacy exhibition serves as an excellent example of cross-border relations, and the ways in which cultural endeavors between the United States and Mexico have grown and flourished,' said Ambassador Stuart Holliday, President of Meridian International Center.'" Image from article

The life of a job-seeker - Career huntress in action, thecareerchallenge.wordpress.com: "Regarding Hill and Knowlton, I am dying to work for them. I really am. But I really don’t know how the assesment day went, which I attended along with around 20 other grads. On one hand, I truly did my homework regarding the company and the assesment day. I was initially introduced to Hill and Knowlton in Manheim’s book on strategic public diplomacy, and I was hooked."

The Many Ways To Become a Foreign Diplomat - Business articles, hints and tips: "In diplomacy, five important career tracks exist.

They include Public Diplomacy, Consular, Political, Economic and Management. Using their interests and preferences a basis, individuals ought to assess and then pick career tracks to become a diplomat." Image from

Ау, потенциальные коллеги!!! - tzitzitlini.livejournal.com: "Public Diplomacy Officer The Australian Embassy in Moscow is seeking a Public Diplomacy Officer to work on a temporary contract until October 2010. This is not a permanent position."

RELATED ITEMS

Call in the Civilians. Pray Tell, From Where?! – Spero Domani, Diplopundit: In the long life of a bureaucracy, a well resourced agency like the Defense Department has hundreds of proud parents and godparents who can claim responsibility for its successes ... . And when we call in the civilians ...and they're nowhere around, we start thinking, [itlics]"how could that be?" They must be here somewhere, surely, they must be ... just hiding somewhere? ...

U.S. Quietly Speeds Aid for Pakistani Drives on Taliban - Eric Schmitt, New York Times: Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst in Lahore, said that publicly acknowledging the military aid — an open secret in Pakistan — could hand militants fresh ammunition for propaganda attacks.

“The Pakistan military would not like to talk about the U.S. assistance,” he said, “so that the Islamists, most of whom are opposed to military operations, do not get additional reason to criticize the military and the government.” Image from

Obama's paralysis on Afghanistan – Colbert King, Washington Post: Afghanistan is a problem that won’t wait. But that is what the Obama administration seems to want the Afghan war to do -- that is, until the president comes up with a new war strategy.

Iran: Can Obama play hardball? - Robert Kagan, Washington Post: Iran's intentions, it seems, are not good.

Top Obama fundraisers get posts - Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY: More than 40% of President Obama's top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

U.S. impeded in democracy efforts for Egypt - Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY:

More than $180 million in U.S. foreign aid to promote democracy in Egypt over the past four years has produced few measurable results, in part because the Egyptian government has stymied the effort, a newly released government audit says. One grantee, it says, got $1.2 million to provide civic training to 600 teachers and 30,000 students, but actually trained only 330 teachers and about 2,000 students, less than 8% of the target. Another grantee received $950,000 to publish a children's book on civic education but could not verify that any schoolchildren actually received the book, the audit says. Image from

Getting ready for the Islamic bomb: The White House should prepare for a new Mideast war – Editorial, Washington Times: An Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear program will have significant consequences for the region, and Washington will be required to demonstrate strong leadership.

Truman and the Principles of U.S. Foreign Policy:Jimmy Carter rejected the postwar consensus. President Obama appears to be following a similar path - Victor Davis Hanson, Wall Street Journal: At war's end, Truman was faced with a global propaganda nightmare. Stalin's victorious Soviet Union -- soon to be nuclear -- cynically posed as the egalitarian leader for millions of war-impoverished and newly liberated colonial peoples.

In contrast, America accepted the difficult responsibility and expense of rebuilding the destitute former European colonial powers and rehabilitating ex-Axis Japan and Germany. Gradually, the president shed his Wilsonian trust that there would be a postwar global consensus under the aegis of the new United Nations. Instead, he came to believe that too many trans-Atlantic diplomatic elites had been terribly naïve about Stalin's murderous agenda. Will an inexperienced Barack Obama, in the fashion of Harry Truman, learn quickly that the world is chaotic and unstable -- best dealt with through strength and unabashed confidence in America's historic role galvanizing democratic allies to confront illiberal aggressors? Image from

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY


"soft power & public diplomacy is ruining my week."

--twitterer peachel, October 27; image from twitter