December 27

“The human is being reconfigured for the machine.”

- Science writer William Saletan, regarding the work of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as Darpa, a secretive arm of the United States government; image from

“Like many people concerned about 'humanity,' he was contemptuous of actual humans.”

--Christopher Caldwell, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, regarding Arthur Koestler

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Pentagon reviewing strategic information operations - Walter Pincus, Washington Post - "Trying to counter information-savvy enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has rapidly spent nearly $1 billion in the past three years on strategic communications. ... [W]hen Congress asked this year what the Defense Department across the services and commands proposed spending for strategic communications -- or information operations as it is often called -- in the fiscal 2010 budget, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates found that no one could say because there was no central coordination. The first answer came back at $1 billion, but that was later changed to $626 million. ... Beginning in Iraq and expanding to Afghanistan, Pentagon officials have awarded multimillion-dollar contracts under the labels of strategic communications or information operations that in the past had been the purview of the State Department's public diplomacy section. 'The department's leadership has only recently become aware of the variety, scope and magnitude of funding associated with these programs across the services and at all levels within the combat commands,'

according to the report of the House-Senate conferees on the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill that passed Congress on Dec. 19. ... 'The Congress has a need for better budget justification and execution documentation for congressional oversight of information operations program funds,' the conferees said in their report. They ordered the Defense Department comptroller to submit a report on strategic communications and information operations 30 days after President Obama submits his budget proposal to Congress in January. The State Department is also stepping up its output, although it does not have the Pentagon's resources. ... [A]s Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in October in discussing her department's public diplomacy activities, particularly in Pakistan: 'This is going to take time.'" Image from

Diplomat's mission is to revive nation - Nick Malawskey, Centre Daily Times: "About five days ago, Danielle Harms was in a gymnasium in Kabul, working with the nation’s fledging Olympic committee, helping orchestrate a basketball program. A native of Lemont, Harms has spent the past five months working in the country as a cultural affairs officer, a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service office. ... During the past six years, she has been stationed in Iceland, Bosnia and Washington, D.C. Afghanistan, being a conflict zone, has been unlike any other posting she has experienced. 'Traditionally, you would be spreading American culture, teaching people about the United States,' she said. 'In Afghanistan, our mission is so much more complicated. ... We’re doing less of the traditional public diplomacy, or public outreach, and we’re doing a lot more of bolstering the Afghan identity.'”

"Avatar" and Public Diplomacy – John Brown, Huffington Post: To expand on Cameron's comic-book plot, the paraplegic Marine Jake Sully --

who gathers intel about the "Na'vi" tribe on the distant moon of Pandora for a company's military unit headed by Colonel Quaritch -- resembles, one could argue, a Public Diplomacy Foreign Service officer (some in the military would say psy-ops officer). Image: Sully's Avatar

A Message From The Kween - Aunt Joyce's Ice Cream Stand: "Without further ado, here is her [skating star Michelle Kwan’s] message courtesy of MKF. I've bolded my favorite classic MK lines. Hi MKF, I hope you’re all ready for the holidays! I finally finished my last minute Christmas shopping for my friends and family. I didn’t have much time to prepare for the holidays since I was busy studying and writing papers for grad school. I didn’t finish my last final until Monday morning! And trust me I was very relieved when I finished my Econ final! I was a studious student and finished my U.S.-East Asia and Public Diplomacy paper early because I knew that the Econ exam would take all the brainpower that I needed to do OK. I absolutely love living in Boston and going to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The Fletcher community consists of people from all walks of life, each contributing their knowledge and experience to our school, and together we try to prepare ourselves to address key issues that we might face in the future…well, at least I think we all hope that we can make the world a better place: ) (Are you dying yet...This woman is incredible. Why isn't she sent to bring peace to the Middle East?)"

VOA as "only source of news" for Burundian refugees - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Win some, lose some; Turkey looks forward to 2010 - Sunday's Zaman: "The Turkish government unveiled bold initiatives in 2009 in a bid to solve the decades-long problems of the country on the domestic front but has failed to finalize any of them by year’s end amid mounting

opposition in Parliament and growing skepticism among the people. Added to that, government blunders in communicating these initiatives in effective and well-thought-out public diplomacy has weakened the government’s hand." Image from

Media Matters: Cunning like a Fox - Stefanie Garden, Jerusalem Post: "Over the next few weeks, the Turkish government has plans to launch its own Arabic-language satellite TV station in an effort to connect with the Arab world. The decision was facilitated by a recent piece of legislation allowing Turkey to broadcast in languages other than Turkish, which was prohibited until now. As Turkey's bid for entry into the European Union remains a point of contention, this move to play a greater role in the Arab world signals a tactical shift for Turkey's public diplomacy strategy. Prof. Philip Seib, director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and author of New Media and the New Middle East, suggests that, 'by exercising more leadership in this way, Turkey presumably enhances its stature in European eyes, helping its case for EU membership.'"

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Boston College McMullen Museum Presents Asian Journeys: Collecting Art in Post-war America - Boston College Chronicle: "Section Two [of 'Asian Journeys' exhibit]: Cultural Diplomacy in Japan and Japanese Taste: Focuses on the work of JDR [John D. Rockefeller] 3rd and Lee in Japan during the post-war years. Working in the Arts and Monuments Division under the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Lee inventoried major Japanese collections of art throughout the country and formed relationships with a number of influential Japanese art historians and art dealers from whom he purchased objects for American collections.

Serving as president of Japan Society, JDR 3rd promoted the loan of exhibitions from Japan to the United States. Section displays a variety of Japanese ceramic objects, a wooden bodhisattva, and other works acquired by Japanese collectors." Image from article: Covered Jar China, Jiangxi Province Ming period (1368–1644), Jiajing era (1522–1566) Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.

Dugway resurgence is a big positive for county - Tooele Transcript-Bulletin: ‎ "Dugway is now one of the most important counterterrorism training facilities in the nation, and it’s not only soldiers who are training there. Municipal police and civilian defense contractors of the sort that have risen to prominence in Iraq receive training at the post. Some of these personnel are from foreign governments counted as U.S. allies. On another front, Dugway has become an important training site for troops being deployed to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, which has become our nation’s main battlefront overseas. The west desert’s vastness and mountainous terrain allow for everything from large-scale armored divisions to constructing mock Taliban compounds to practice cross-cultural diplomacy and village reconstruction. That was illustrated last spring when native Afghans were contracted to help provide a simulation of the type of rural warfare-cum-reconstruction scenarios soldiers are currently facing in the AfPak region." On Dugway, see.

Arthur Koestler, Man of Darkness - Christopher Caldwell [review of Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell]: "He became a mainstay of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded with C.I.A. help in 1950 to counter Soviet propaganda and cultural influence.

Later discussion of the congress largely concerned whether the intellectuals who started it knew about the source of its financing. Scammell thinks not. Washington, at any rate, would not have helped Koestler. At the time, as Scammell astutely observes, 'the C.I.A. was actually pleading for less overt anti-Communism.'" Image from article: Arthur Koestler in 1931, on a zeppelin expedition to the North Pole.

AR Rahman To Perform At 2010 Sydney Fest - india-server.com: "A R Rahman is all set to rock the stage at Sydney Festival 2010.The Mozart of Madras will perform live at the annual fest. ... Rahman also aims to shed light on the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia. He will also try to encourage cultural diplomacy and friendliness.” See also.

Housewives exhibit artworks - Jakarta Post:

"National Mothers' Day, which falls Dec. 22, was marked Sunday by housewives and artists in Yogyakarta through an exhibition of their artworks at the Aming Prayitno Studio in Murangan, Triharjo, Sleman regency. … Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University cultural diplomacy professor Tulus Warsito, who officially opened the exhibition, said it was not surprising to see a variety of paintings at the exhibition, especially because it featured mostly housewives." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

Obama's ambitions outpace his effectiveness: By historical standards, the president's first year wasn't bad. But graded against his own lofty goals, he fell short - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times: A president who made his name as a gifted speechmaker has fallen into a spectacular failure in communicating. He might have served himself better by making fewer trips to Scandinavia and more to construction sites in Middle America.

Redefining human rights – Editorial, Washington Post: Ms. Clinton's lumping of economic and social "rights" with political and personal freedom was a standard doctrine of the

Soviet Bloc. Judging from Ms. Clinton's own rhetoric, that is the approach the State Department is headed toward in the Arab Middle East. In a major speech last month in Morocco, she said that U.S. engagement with Islamic countries would henceforth focus on education, science and technology, and "entrepreneurship" -- all foundations of "development." She made no mention of democracy. Image from

A year of war -- and progress: Despite ongoing troubles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2009 was a moderately successful year for the U.S. in all three theaters of battle - Michael O'Hanlon, Los Angeles Times

AWOL from the battlefield - James Zumwalt, Washington Times:

For Mr. Obama both to impose an 18-month deadline and not provide all the troops needed for a longer timeline as initially envisioned demonstrates lack of commitment to our courageous fighting forces as political concerns outweigh military ones. Image from

Guantanamo at crossroads: Closing the prison isn't enough -- Obama must also end the policy of indefinite detention – Editorial, Los Angeles Times

Peace possibilities - Mohamad Bazzi, Washington Times: The Obama administration has an opportunity to break the current logjam in the Middle East by pushing for renewed Syrian-Israeli negotiations.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"The clothes have no emperor!"

--British author William Cooper, regarding Czech author Milan Kundera; cited in Times Literary Supplement (December 11, 2009), p. 36