"Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them."
--George Bernard Shaw; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Public Diplomacy: U.K. 1, U.S. 0 - Roy Gutman, McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Kabul: "What gave Britain a claim to leadership on Afghanistan was the seeming abandonment by the United States of public diplomacy. Despite the troops, treasure and energy the U.S. administration is throwing into this fray, it has yet to devise a strategy to sell its policy to the American public. The problem begins with Democrats in Congress, who seem to be running away full speed and don’t want to hear about it. The best evidence of that is the paucity of visits to Kabul since Obama’s speech (only two Senators visited here since Obama’s early December speech, compared to about four times as many Republicans). But public diplomacy starts with the President himself.
--George Bernard Shaw; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Public Diplomacy: U.K. 1, U.S. 0 - Roy Gutman, McClatchy blog: Checkpoint Kabul: "What gave Britain a claim to leadership on Afghanistan was the seeming abandonment by the United States of public diplomacy. Despite the troops, treasure and energy the U.S. administration is throwing into this fray, it has yet to devise a strategy to sell its policy to the American public. The problem begins with Democrats in Congress, who seem to be running away full speed and don’t want to hear about it. The best evidence of that is the paucity of visits to Kabul since Obama’s speech (only two Senators visited here since Obama’s early December speech, compared to about four times as many Republicans). But public diplomacy starts with the President himself.
In his State of the Union address earlier this week, Obama devoted one-and-a-half sentences to the biggest single military and government operation he has ordered abroad. The U.S. military feels the future of U.S. and western influence will be determined in Afghanistan, with impact in the Middle East, South Asia and beyond. Obama, however, said not a word to rally public opinion, but focused on counter-terrorism. ... Most journalists have an aversion to terms like 'public diplomacy,' for it can be a euphemism for propaganda, but they recognize that complex foreign policy issues involving remote countries, where the United States has an enormous amount at stake, have to be explained to the American public and to the world, promoted by the President himself and elucidated at every opportunity. ... [T]he London conference was a model of public diplomacy. It was made for television, literally, and had the appearance of being a co-production with the BBC, which broadcast hours of it live on its World Service. ... The only problem with the production was that BBC effectively became a participant and promoter rather than a detached reporter of news. That’s the way 'public diplomacy' works, a reason governments need it – and news organizations should keep a distance." On the London Afghanistan confererence, see. Image from
HR 2985: To establish a public diplomacy international exchange program to be known as the Ambassador's Fund for Strategic Exchanges, and for other purposes. Sponsor: James Moran (D) VA - govit.com: "Summary: 6/19/2009--Introduced. Ambassador's Fund for Strategic Exchanges Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of State to establish in the Voluntary Visitors Division of the Office of International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs the Ambassador's Fund for Strategic Exchanges to bring political, economic, civil society, and other leaders to the United States for short-term exchange visits in order to advance U.S. strategic goals. Authorizes appropriations."
Snow storm outside, brain storm inside - jjohnson47: "Ten public diplomacy specialists who have come to Vienna from embassies on the European and African continents have taught me a lot this week about how U.S. public diplomacy is progressing on the ground. Of course, I’m the lecturer listed on the formal schedule, not the FSNs [Foreign Service Nationals, local employees at US embassies].
But I should be taking notes. This week’s seminar covers strategic planning and evaluation for communication programs. It applies standard public relations methods to practice at U.S. embassies. And I can see the participants learning — yes, some from me — and also a lot from each other." Image fromUbiquitous Presence - The Art of Disrupting Influence - LtCol Dean Vrable, USMC, A Thousand Vignettes: "In 2007, at the Joint Forces Staff College, I was introduced to the concept of Strategic Communication, which instantly reminded me of conversations my friend and I had as we plugged away in the Warfighting Lab. Jeffrey B. Jones - former Director for Strategic Communications and Information on the National Security Council, describes strategic communication as 'The synchronized coordination of statecraft, public affairs, public diplomacy, military information operations, and other activities, reinforced by political, economic, military, and other actions, to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.' ... Strategic communications is all about leveraging the best content delivery systems the world has to offer in order to overwhelm the enemy with information that runs counter to their cause."
UK Plans Another Shake-up of Visa System - UK Student News and Events: "The British industry showed extraordinary dynamism and motivation last year when Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced in November that there was to be an unexpected review of the student visa system, with a number of new proposals put forward to prevent bogus immigrants entering the country.
In fact, the proposals amounted to a full-scale assault on the international education sector and industry bodies were given just 10 days to respond to specific proposals set out by the UK Border Agency (UKBA). Hundreds of stakeholders lobbied MPs, signed a petition and returned submissions. ... Tony Millns, Chief Executive of English UK, wrote in an extensive submission, 'given all other controls suggested, we see no reason to introduce such a restriction and note that no other major English-speaking destination country has such a policy. To introduce it would have disastrous consequences in public diplomacy terms because it would lead to the almost total exclusion of students from countries such as Saudi Arabia.'” Image fromNew actors of the foreign policy get together in Istanbul - Emportal: "Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) brings together the think tanks of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference between the dates of 28-30 January 2010 in Istanbul for the 'Think Tanks Forum of the Islamic Countries'. ... In the seven sessions of the Forum which will all be held in the first two days of the organization, the topics [include] ....'Cooperation and Institutionalization among the Think Tank Organizations of Islamic Countries in the Perspective of Public Diplomacy.'”
Cultural Diplomacy - Katharine Keith, A World Not Our Own: A Public Diplomacy Blog: "Check out PD Magazine's new issue Cultural Diplomacy. The issue has new developments in PD, Perspectives from public diplomats from the State Department and UNESCO, and many interesting articles. Some of my favs; Nollywood Diplomacy Pop Culture Diplomacy Public Diplomacy in Lebanon..and I hear there is a fabulous interview by yours truly with Joe Mellot, Special Assistant for the Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State. This exciting issue rolls out with a whole new website that allows the PD community to join the conversation. So please, join us at PublicDiplomacyMagazine.com."
Hot off the presses! - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "The newest edition of Public Diplomacy Magazine is now live! It is on Cultural Diplomacy and has some great articles. We have a pieces by: Kenjiro Monji, the Sake Samurai and Director-General of Public Diplomacy for Japan's MoFA on Anime Diplomacy; Leena Nandan, Joint Secretary at India's Ministry of Tourism on the Incredible !ndia campaign; Dr. Richard Arndt, the godfather of Cultural Diplomacy; Evgeny Morozov from Foreign Policy's Net Effect blog, plus much, much more. The website has been redesigned, including pics from moi. It is a quality mag, if I do say so myself. "
American Public Diplomacy: Engaging Middle Eastern Audiences – Monthly Highlights, The Fletcher School, Tufts University: "February 3, 05:30 PM - 07:00 PM Speaker: Evelyn Early, Air University Senior State Department Advisor; Air War College Deputy Commandant for International Affairs Free and open to the public."
Global Public Opinion, US Foreign Policy, and Public Diplomacy – School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego:
Lecture by Yusaku Horiuchi, Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University. Horiuchi image from articleOdds and Ends Thursday 40 - Matt's Samoa Blog:"On the plus side: commenter John Brown linked to me from his blog yesterday. Probably because I used the phrase 'public diplomacy'. On the minus side: He had to 'sic' my spelling of 'Chargé D’Affaires'. Twice."
RELATED ITEMS
Afghan conference a propaganda ploy: Taliban - AFP: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday dismissed the London conference on Afghanistan as a propaganda ploy and said the summit will fail to produce results, the SITE monitoring service reported. "The war-mongering rulers under the leadership of (US President Barack) Obama and (British Prime Minister Gordon) Brown want to deceive the people of the world by holding the London conference to show that people still support them," SITE quoted an Internet statement as saying.
Jewish Agency says world anti-Semitism surges: truth or propaganda? - Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report
North Face - A film review by Jay Antani, Filmcritic.com: It's 1936: the glory days of the Third Reich, when Hitler's master race propaganda dominated all quarters of Germany's national life, including its sporting identity (it was, after all, the year of Berlin's Summer Olympics).
Director Philipp Stölzl's mountaineering saga gains momentum on this theme of nationalist pride in his based-on-fact North Face, about German climbers attempting to conquer the notoriously dangerous Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Image from
Why and who use propaganda? - Eldinasblog: Propaganda is often connected to corporations, it’s their tool for marketing and it’s what they are good at. Politically it’s linked to fascism.
RELATED ITEMS
Afghan conference a propaganda ploy: Taliban - AFP: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday dismissed the London conference on Afghanistan as a propaganda ploy and said the summit will fail to produce results, the SITE monitoring service reported. "The war-mongering rulers under the leadership of (US President Barack) Obama and (British Prime Minister Gordon) Brown want to deceive the people of the world by holding the London conference to show that people still support them," SITE quoted an Internet statement as saying.
Jewish Agency says world anti-Semitism surges: truth or propaganda? - Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report
North Face - A film review by Jay Antani, Filmcritic.com: It's 1936: the glory days of the Third Reich, when Hitler's master race propaganda dominated all quarters of Germany's national life, including its sporting identity (it was, after all, the year of Berlin's Summer Olympics).
Director Philipp Stölzl's mountaineering saga gains momentum on this theme of nationalist pride in his based-on-fact North Face, about German climbers attempting to conquer the notoriously dangerous Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Image fromWhy and who use propaganda? - Eldinasblog: Propaganda is often connected to corporations, it’s their tool for marketing and it’s what they are good at. Politically it’s linked to fascism.
