November 13

“[I]t was the arts that made the biggest cracks in the wall.”

--Central European author Peter Sis; via; Sis image from

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Public Diplomacy blog by Syracuse University PD students

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: RECENT NEWS

Rosa Brooks on Public Diplomacy – Liriel, iDiplomacy: "Rosa Brooks from the Defense Department – but speaking in a personal capacity – spoke Monday about the need to change the narrative lens through which we view the world. ... Brooks also issued a plea to the participants from the private sector:

'We desperately need all of those of you who are not part of the U.S. government, who don’t care about our arguments of what’s the difference between … public diplomacy, strategic communication and engagement. We don’t want you to care about this, we want you to say, ‘Huh, we live in a world with really significant challenges and threats, really significant opportunities and engagement at every possible level and every possible way… and there’s going to be a limit to what the US government can do and how effectively it can do it. And so we’ve got to get out there and be really creative ourselves in figuring out – seeing ourselves as the crucial players, sort of a whole of nation approach.’" Brooks image from

Talking About Public Diplomacy in the Middle East, Philip Seib, Newswire – CPD Blog & Blogroll, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "I’ve spent the past week in Syria, Qatar, and Egypt, primarily to proselytize about public diplomacy. In Syria, in a Damascus University lecture (carried by Al Jazeera Live) and a lengthy interview on Syrian National Television, I made the case that Arab states do an exceptionally poor job of conducting public diplomacy and that their standing in the global political community suffers as a result. I made the same point in Qatar and Egypt, and in all three places I encountered little disagreement, even when I added that the only country in the region to do a decent job of public diplomacy is Israel."

International broadcasting and 1989 (plus or minus) - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Event - Communication Roundtable - Winning Hearts and Minds: American Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century [at Johns Hopkins University] - The Public Diplomacy Council, on Facebook: "Too bad there is no one on the panel who has actually practiced public diplomacy abroad. Perhaps some input from Public Diplomacy Council members is needed to give some perspective to the session."

Sino-Indian rivalry fuels Nepal's turmoil - Peter Lee: Asia Times Online: March 4, 2008: "Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, He Yafei, undertook a three-day visit to Nepal.

Nepal's engagements with China have also increased manifold with the visit of delegations both at state and non-state levels. Apart from visits at the official levels, private visits by political leaders, journalists and academicians are also sponsored by China as part of public diplomacy. During these visits, Chinese authorities have reportedly assured all kinds of support to the Maoist government in its efforts aimed at laying the foundation for a 'New Nepal'". Image from

ASEAN seeks to negotiate an end to the Thaksin imbroglio - Roger Mitton, Sebastian Strangio, Phnom Penh Post: "Senior leaders in the region are urgently discussing how to defuse the rising tension between Cambodia and Thailand, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Diplomacy in Singapore, Surin said the war of words that has flared between Phnom Penh and Bangkok over the arrival in Cambodia of Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has caused deep concern among regional leaders."

A friendly southern face - Indian Express: "Any strategic initiative in Asia will be driven by the progress Australia makes at the bilateral level, especially with India. But the immediate challenges to the relationship are primarily that public opinion in India has turned adverse, especially in the wake of attacks on Indian students. In this context [Australian Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd’s

public diplomacy skills will be tested; after all, should public perceptions in India continue to plummet the envisaged India-Australia strategic partnership will reach nowhere." Rudd image from

Under Lieberman, Foreign Ministry drops peace initiatives as goal - Barak Ravid, ‎Ha'aretz: "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has set priorities for his ministry that apparently are at odds with those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ... Public diplomacy and Israel's image in the world come fourth on the ministry's priorities list. Lieberman introduced a new goal called 'international law,' perhaps as a result of the Operation Cast Lead and the subsequent Goldstone report."

Will Netanyahu Make Peace with Syria? - Benjamin Joffe-Walt, The Jewish Journal of greater L.A: "Dr Ronen Hoffman, a member of Israel’s negotiating team during previous talks with Syria and a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said both sides were trying to improve their international image. 'It is important to distinguish between creating momentum and gaining political points, versus making concessions and actually negotiating,' Dr Hoffman told The Media Line.

'These are two very different diplomatic processes. Right now I think that both sides are not ready to make serious concessions but both sides feel that negotiations will help their image in the international area, so we are just seeing gestures and public diplomacy.'” Image from

'Bostrom scraps organ theft accusations' - Jerusalem Post: "Journalist Donald Bostrom, whose August article in the Swedish publication Aftonbladet accused the IDF of harvesting the organs of Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead, has had an apparent change of heart, Army Radio reported on Thursday. ... While in Israel for the Dimona media conference, Bostrom was interviewed by multiple Israeli media outlets and heard serious criticism of his article and the accounts of IDF organ theft. ... Upon his return to Sweden, Bostrom decided to cancel his participation in the Beirut conference, the goal of which was to slander Israel, the radio station said. ... Amid criticism of Bostrom's invitation to attend the conference, Dimona Mayor Meir Cohen defended the organizers' decision to invite him. Meir stressed at the time that in Europe, 'the street is controlled by negative Palestinian propaganda,' and suggested that by ignoring hostile publications instead of confronting them Israel was damaging its own public diplomacy."

Ambassador Sheinwald visited Boston on November 10, 2009 for public diplomacy events at Harvard (November 10, 2009) – "Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald,

visited Boston on November 10, 2009 for a series of public diplomacy meetings at Harvard University." Image (from article) : Sir Nigel Sheinwald (left) with Ambassador Nick Burns

RELATED ITEMS

US, British media transform tragedies into war propaganda - Bill Van Auken, Axis of Logic: Now, the deaths of soldiers—those slain by a disturbed officer at Fort Hood as well as those killed in Afghanistan—are being exploited in an attempt to intimidate mass antiwar sentiment and support a military escalation that will lead to many more deaths of both Afghan civilians and those sent by the US and British military to suppress opposition to foreign occupation.

Time to head home - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post:

As long as our goals in Afghanistan remain as elusive as they are now, Obama shouldn't be sending troops. He should be bringing them out. Image from

Bypassing the aid trap in Pakistan - Glenn Hubbard, Washington Post: The Marshall Plan of postwar Europe is still recognized as the most successful aid program in history. The essence of the Marshall Plan was loans to local businesses, which paid them back to their local governments, which used the money for commercial infrastructure to help those same businesses. That strategy could contribute to the battle against Islamic extremism. The current aid package to Pakistan should become a Pakistan Marshall Plan -- before it's too late.

Our enemy is not Islam -- it's extremists: The U.S. response should be zero tolerance for political cultists who try to achieve their goals through violence - Judith Miller and David Samuels, latimes.com: So now we must be clear: The United States is not at war with Muslims or Islam. We are at war, whether we like it or not, with Islamic heretics

who argue that their own beliefs supersede traditional Islamic law and that traitors to Islam as they define it should be killed. Image from

Of Fruit Flies and Drones - Roger Cohen, New York Times: When robots are tomorrow’s veterans, does war become more likely and more endless? Do drones cow enemies with America’s technological prowess or embolden them to think America is not man enough to fight? What is the psychological toll on video-screen warriors?

For Obama, a dream from my father - Times Wang, Washington Post: Now the president is heading to China. Will human rights continue to be regarded as "interfering" with U.S.-China relations? In my view, if the peace prize was a call to action, then this visit is the time to act. It is especially appropriate that Obama should confront human rights issues on this trip; within Chinese prisons sit numerous peace prize nominees who would undoubtedly have benefited had a Chinese dissident won. Below image from



Deal with it: Trade is big in Asia. Too bad America lacks a trade policy – Editorial, Washington Post

Hollywood's message reconsidered - Mary Claire Kendall, Washington Times: A steady Hollywood drumbeat too often communicates that America's efforts in the Middle East are wrongheaded at best, evil at worst.

Losing the fight for Darfur - Michael Gerson, Washington Post: America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention.

You Say Propaganda, I Say Information - Terry Sweeney, Internet Evolution: In the tit-for-tat worlds of espionage and diplomacy, propaganda is all a matter of where you sit and how you choose to view the latest intelligence leaks and subsequent headlines.

DOCUMENT

"Herewith my remarks at the dedication of our Whitman statue on the Moscow University campus October 14, 2009. Secretary Clinton and Foreign Minister Lavrov did the honors - the event completed my bridge of poets - begun with Pushkin at GWU in 1999. Best, Jim Symington" (from an e-mail to the PDPBR compiler from Mr. Symington; below document posted with his kind permission).

J[ames] W S[ymington]


Remarks at Walt Whitman Unveiling
Moscow October 14, 2009; Symington image from

Acknowledgements

Today we mark the closing chapter of a tale of two poets: Alexander Pushkin and Walt Whitman.

Ten years ago our American Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation celebrated the bicentennial of the birth in 1799 of Alexander Pushkin. We did so by placing a lofty statue of the immortal poet on the campus of George Washington University in our nation's capital, a short distance from the White House.

It towers majestic with a stance and expression that convey a desire to dialogue with the students, faculty and passersby. Counseling the young, consoling the aged, and inspiring whole peoples is the province of poetry at its best. We owe the transatlantic journey of the Pushkin monument to the collaboration of the authorities of both capitals, the donors engraved on its pedestal, and, of course, the craftsmanship and generosity of the sculptor, Alexander Bourganov, creator of the reciprocal work of art we unveil today. [Pushkin statue at GWU from]

While many an American poet has enjoyed world-wide recognition, it is with the guidance and encouragement of our Librarian of Congress, pre-eminent author and scholar of Russian history, Dr. James Billington, that our "Good grey poet" as he came to be known, Walt Whitman, was selected to occupy an equivalent post of honor at the threshold of Moscow University,

the heart of academe in this ancient and honored capital city - an arrangement perfected through the dedicated agency of the Russian Peace Foundation, the good offices of the Mayors ofour two capitals, Yuri Luzhkov and Adrian Fenty, the corporate sponsors including on the American side, Caterpillar, Pepsico and Coca Cola, and again Mr. Bourganov. [Whitman statue in at Moscow University from]

Born in 1819 Walt Whitman had just tumed 18 years of age when tragedy cut short the vibrant life of his fellow poet. The two never met. Pushkin's dream of seeing America remained unfulfilled, at least until his symbolic arrival in bronze. Yet their two hearts beat in unison, brimming with understanding of the human condition, compassion, tolerance for difference, reverence for freedom, and, withal, a kind of pretenatural joy in life itself. Let us listen to the preface Whitman prepared for an unfinished Russian translation of his epic Leaves of Grass.

As my dearest dream is for an intemationality of poets and poetry, binding the lands of earth closer than all the treaties of diplomacy (present company excepted I should say) how happy I should be to get the hearing and emotional contact with the great Russian peoples.

Well, Walt, I think you've done it - and we most warmly thank our Russian partners for enabling you to do so.

Spacibo bolshoi!

Image


Missouri Rep. James W. Symington displaying an original manuscript The Secret, written by Charlotte Bronte in 1833 that he found in a drawer at the house of his late mother. Photo: Arthur Schatz/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Jan 01, 1974