"When are people going to come to terms with the fact that Twitter's top trending topics are almost completely useless?"--MountainRunner Blogger Matt Armstrong, in a Facebook entry via Twitter; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MAGAZINE
Public Diplomacy Magazine: Current Issue Winter 2010: “From the Editors: PD has entered its second year and second phase of production led by a dedicated team of public diplomacy graduate students and support from scholars and practitioners in the field. We are excited to bring you this latest issue focusing on the subject of cultural diplomacy.”
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS
Town Hall Meeting for Employees Marking One Year at State - Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Department of State: "With respect to Haiti, the challenges that we confront are really going to give us both the opportunity and the necessity of demonstrating what we mean by diplomacy and development working together. One without the other is truly inadequate. ...
[S]ome of the international press either misunderstood or deliberately misconstrued what was a civilian and military response, both of them necessary in order to be able to deliver aid to the Haitians who desperately needed it. We were able, working through Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and with the assistance of P and all of the regional bureaus, to begin to push back. I have absolutely no argument with anyone lodging a legitimate criticism against our country. I think we can learn from that. And we are foolish if we keep our head in the sand and pretend that we can’t. On the other hand, I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people, and the leadership of our President in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake. So what we’re asking for is that people view us fairly. And we sent cables to all posts. We asked our entire teams to be prepared to respond to any misleading media report. And we stood up for who we are and what we represent. And we saw the change. We’re not going to leave unanswered charges against the United States of America and the kind of work that we do every single day. That has to be, going forward, what becomes the norm, not the exception. We have a story to tell. We have an important message to deliver. And we need every single person to be part of that. So going forward, we’re going to look in a very clear-eyed way at what we do well, what we could improve on, but to make sure that the extraordinary story that the United States has to tell is presented forcefully and effectively in every corner of the world." Clinton image from
Secretary Clinton criticizes media coverage of US Haiti effort. Al Jazeera responds - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Sniping at US Haiti Role Shows EU Weakness - Celestine Bohlen, Bloomberg: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez went so far as to claim that the earthquake was set off by U.S. weapons testing. You can count on Chavez going over the top, but this actually began with a French official angered by the U.S. military’s delay in landing a French government aid plane at the Port-au-Prince airport. 'This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,' Alain Joyandet, the government official in charge of humanitarian assistance, said in a radio interview that was picked up around the world, from China to the Persian Gulf. This kind of cheap shot was way out of line given the conspicuous failure of the European Union’s newly installed leaders to take active charge of a collective response to the disaster in Haiti.
It’s a given that the EU lacks the military muscle required but even its public diplomacy has been disappointing. The French government quickly tried to undo the damage done by Joyandet by piling on praise for the U.S. effort, issuing odd reassurances like this one from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking to a French parliamentary committee: 'Obama is not at all an imperialist.'” Bohlen image from article
Looking For A Few Good Friends - Helle Dale, Heritage Foundation: "Internet outreach is the hottest new item in the U.S. government’s array of public diplomacy tools. While international broadcasting is in disarray, the focus has moved to Internet outreach through social networking and websites to promote America and its allies abroad. The Internet can be a great tool for the advancement of freedom and the empowerment of individuals. Yet it is not immune to the designs of state actors, nor does it exist in a policy vacuum. After having tangled with China over its internet censorship policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on January 21 spoke at the Newseum and hailed the potential of the Internet to connect individuals far and wide. ... As exciting as public diplomacy 2.0 can be, it is critically important that its weaknesses and limitations are taking into account – in order that other tools of public diplomacy are not neglected. What Hillary Clinton calls this new global 'nervous system' is highly sensitive to government interference and state control as the case of China’s dispute with Google demonstrates. And of course, Internet access itself is much scarcer in most of the regions of the world that the U.S. government seeks to reach than it is here in the United States. Nevertheless, this is the basket in which the State Department is currently placing its public diplomacy eggs. The good news is that we can all tune in and see how the State Department is spending our tax payer dollars."
The fifth freedom - Editorial, Globe and Mail: 
"Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, last week put her government's international muscle firmly behind an open Internet. Her speech is worth heeding, and has policy ideas that ought to be considered as part of Canada's public diplomacy. Ms. Clinton invoked Franklin Roosevelt's 'Four Freedoms' speech to show how the Internet can not only promote freedoms of expression and worship, and freedom from want and fear, but also unleash a new freedom: the freedom to connect. As Ms. Clinton said, 'The Internet is a network that magnifies the power and potential of all other' networks. That power fuels the Internet's democratizing potential (something that the Canadians who organized and attended last weekend's anti-prorogation rallies also recognized)." Image from
US state dept official meets Egyptian activists - Wael Ali, Al-Masry Al-Youm: "A representative from the United States Department of State met on Monday with nine Egyptian human rights activists at the US embassy in Cairo. Tamara Cofman Wittes, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, met with Egyptian activists who had been participating in programs organized by Freedom House, a Washington-based non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights. Wittes is responsible at the State Department for democracy, human rights and public diplomacy. In her meeting with the Egyptian activists, Wittes emphasized Washington's 'formulation of appropriate policies' toward Egypt and other countries in the region. Wittes's tour included a stop in Tunisia, and she will also visit Jordan and Jerusalem."
State Department's Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy includes "creation of public, private and university radio stations" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Insight: After 100 days: Where to? - Rizal Sukma, Jakarta Post:
"Indonesia's image abroad has been quite positive so far. Many have come to see Indonesia as the only stable democracy in Southeast Asia. Indonesia has also been seen as a good candidate for joining the informal club of the emerging markets called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). This image needs to be preserved and nurtured. And, the best and effective way to do this is not by changing other countries' perceptions through either propaganda or public diplomacy. We must do this by changing the reality at home for the better." Image from
Liberia: US Ambassador to sign Grant agreement - The LiberianTimes.com: "The United States Ambassador to Liberia, Linda Thomas Greenfield,
will on Wednesday, January 27, sign grant agreements to provide assistance to several community groups from across Liberia.The grants will be provided under the 'Ambassador’s Self Help Fund' to implement various community development initiatives in the areas of health/sanitation, education (construction and renovation of school buildings) and income generation projects.The signing ceremony is scheduled for 2: pm at the Public Diplomacy Section of the United States Embassy." Greenfield image from article
Assistant Secretary for Outreach and Social Media - Matt Armstrong, Facebook entry: "The Defense Department’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) has a new deputy: Sumit Agarwal. Agarwal was previously at Google, previously head of Google’s North American mobile products and before that image products."
The Power of a Story Well Told - Joshua S. Fouts, The Imagination Age: "Earlier this week we blogged about the Microsoft's new Public Diplomacy Master Storyteller, Mark Drapeau. In the course of doing some ongoing research on the power of storytelling
as a lynchpin for cultural relations, I came across an excellent 2002 interview with colleague, Nahum Gershon, Senior Principal Scientist at MITRE Corporation. We first met Nahum during our 2009 project on 'Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds' and subsequently at the 2009 Gov 2.0 Summit. In the context of where government thinking is and was in 2002 with regard to the use of communication technology tools for collaborative, co-created storytelling, this article is way ahead of its time." Image from
Turkey's role in Afghanistan unique, NATO spokesman says - Minhac Çelik, Today's Zaman: "A senior member of the Turkish diplomatic mission to NATO has underlined that Turkey’s attempts to expand its influence in its region would improve the country’s credibility in the 28-member alliance, adding that Turkey will be more effective in strengthening NATO’s hand in its operations around the world, and especially in the Middle East and the Balkans. ... On the new strategic vision that will be adopted by the alliance to renew the last document, drafted in 1999, the Turkish diplomat said the institution’s new strategic vision will bring about many reforms, especially by attaching great importance to public diplomacy. He does not expect a major change in the core functions of NATO, whose purpose is ensuring its members’ collective security."
The Power of Nostalgia in Advertising - posted by Duncan, The Inspiration Room:
"Bob Deutsch, in his second column with The Inspiration Room, continues the meeting of cognitive anthropology and marketing in an exploration of nostalgia in advertising. Bob explores the connection between nostalgic yearning and Valentine’s Day. ... Dr. Bob Deutsch is founder of the consulting firm Brain Sells, Boston, Massachussets. From contributing to Military Review magazine ('The Droning of Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy' (Sept/Oct 2009) to portraying a college professor in a McDonald’s commercial, cognitive anthropologist, Deutsch breaks the mold. Bob has worked in the primeval forest, as well as on Pennsylvania and Madison Avenues. His focus, since the mid-’70s, when he was living with pre-literate tribes and chimpanzees, has been to understand how leading ideas take hold in a culture. Since opening Brain Sells in 1990, he has been applying this understanding to how people attach to products, persons and performances. He is fond of saying, 'Reasoned judgment about attributes is not the issue. The brain evolved to act, NOT to think.'” Image from
RELATED ITEMS
'"Office for Arab Satellite Television" could enforce content regulations on channels using Arabsat, Nilesat - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Consistency in Place Branding - Efe, Reaching the Public: Place branding tries to attract investment, business, and tourism, in other words, the main aim is to generate income either via creating businesses or via tourism. A consistent message will be boring and given the global communication environment will be disregarded by the audiences.
But a consistent place/community identity and a solid integrated communication strategy won’t hurt. Image from
Gitmo Fades As 'Recruiting Tool For Al Qaeda' - James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News (blog): President Obama still insists he will close Guantanamo Bay’s terror prison because it’s a “tremendous recruiting tool for Al Qaeda” — but it’s not much of a tool anymore, a Daily News analysis has found. Terrorism experts agree with Obama that the blight of past abuses of Gitmo detainees once helped Islamists draw followers to join their radical anti-Western jihad by mentioning the U.S. prison camp in Cuba in its propaganda videos — which are the most visible tool Al Qaeda and its allies use for recruitment. But Al Qaeda has rarely complained about Guantanamo Bay since Obama pledged to shut it down on his first day in office a year ago, a meticulous scrubbing of jihadi propaganda has revealed.
Israel exploits Haiti for propaganda ...and Sri Lanka? - Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report: Ethan Bronner in the New York Times took note Jan. 21 of the controversy surrounding Israel's high-profile rescue mission to Haiti in a story entitled "For Israelis, Mixed Feelings on Aid Effort." But the statements quoted are pretty tame compared to much of what is buzzing around the blogosphere. There is certainly something fundamentally perverse about the Israeli Defense Forces establishing a field hospital in Port-au-Prince as their blockade of the Gaza Strip is actively creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Commentators within Israel have made the point repeatedly. Now admittedly, Spain's treatment of the Basques, Norway's treatment of the Sami, and Canada's treatment of its First Nations don't come close (in recent years, anyway) to Israel's instrumented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. But Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defense boasts in a Jan. 24 press release that it has a 1,000-strong contingent in MINUSTAH, the UN "peacekeeping" force in Haiti, which is involved in "the clearing of debris, the carrying out of rescue operations and the provision of medical assistance to the earthquake victims." The statement also said Sri Lanka is donating 1,000 kilograms of tea for the relief effort.
This has met with no hand-wringing within Sri Lanka, nor accusations of propagandistic exploitation from without. Yet in Sri Lanka's military campaign against Tamil rebels last year, an intentional humanitarian disaster was instrumented no less severe than that in Gaza. Image from
Auschwitz and Its Soviet Liberators - Marcin Sobczyk, Wall Street Journal: On the 65th anniversary of the entry of the Red Army to the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us share two completely different takes on what happened on January 27, 1945 — a day as bitterly cold as today. For Poland, which lost many of its citizens in the camp, Jews and Catholics alike, Soviet soldiers couldn’t have brought freedom to the camp or the country because they enjoyed little freedom back home and later helped transplant the Soviet system of totalitarian oppression to post-war Poland and half of Europe. Russia, on the other hand, calls the above Polish view blasphemous and demands unconditional respect for its sanctified Soldier the Liberator. Before 1989, Soviet propaganda tried to imprint it in the minds of millions of people in the Soviet-oppressed part of Europe. Those conflicting visions are still visible today even though Soviet propaganda is long gone.
Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda And Art - The Guardian: Anonymous, Confiance – ses amputations se poursuivant, 1944, 123 x 84cm, lithograph on paper: Propaganda maps, as with political cartoons, do not always fulfil their purposes by subtle means.
This Nazi poster, produced in France in 1944, portrays Churchill as a demonic, cigar-smoking octopus, whose attempts to seize Africa and the Middle East are being thwarted by the Axis forces that cut his tentacles so that they bleed profusely. The use of the octopus in political comic-maps dates back to the 19th century, for the creature could be well equated with offensive, land-grabbing states. The survival of such posters is extremely rare as despite being mass produced for a large audience, they were rapidly discarded and destroyed. Image from article
