“There is always something more interesting on Twitter than whatever you happen to be working on.”
--David Carr, New York Times reporter; image from
"[T]he Department of State, a noble antique, is still trying to come to terms with the invention of the telephone."
--Author Joe Klein; via TH
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
(Another) failure in American public diplomacy - Dan, mcdermottwire.com:
"By now you’ve probably read/heard about the dismissal of all charges against the 5 Blackwater employees accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007. ... The reason I bring up this story is because of its impact on the American image in the Arab world. George W. Bush’s early invocations of crusades and later references to Islamic fascism have come to define US foreign policy in the Middle East. Any positive American gains vis a vis diplomacy are either colored by these statements or wiped away by actions such as this Blackwater case. The American image in the Arab world is one of an aggressive, hypocritical…idiot. Aggressive because we’re currently fighting 5 wars with little direction or reason; hypocritical because we ascribe to universal civil/human rights and democracy, but only apply that ideology selectively. And I use the term ‘idiot’ because that’s exactly what our image is abroad, especially in the Arab world. American diplomats still cannot engage in Arabic, and seem disturbingly out of touch with the communities in which they are based. ... Obama’s early speeches on Al Arabiya and in Cairo were steps in the right direction, but public diplomacy involves substantive policy change in addition to these gestures. What do you think plays more in the Arab world – two speeches promising change or a ruling that acquits 5 murderers? ... I only want to point out that a serious legal decision was accompanied by a serious lapse in American public diplomacy. Even if this ruling is somehow ‘right’, shouldn’t American officials be engaging in some sort of damage control in the Arab world? Instead, we’re obsessing over the failed underwear bomber and throwing ourselves into open conflict in Yemen. All while our image continues to plummet.“ Image from
The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job - Joe Klein, Time: "[Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] is an international celebrity with a much higher profile than any of her recent predecessors and the ability — second only to the President's — to change negative attitudes about the U.S. abroad. She has the potential to become the most powerful public diplomat the U.S. has fielded in quite some time, although her performance so far, at home and abroad, has occasionally been perplexing. ... In the end ... Clinton's success will be determined by whether she can expand her role beyond public diplomat. She will have to become a more sure-handed negotiator and, most important, a trusted adviser to a President who knows where he wants to go in the world but hasn't quite figured out how to get there." Via TH
The 2009 Foley Awards - Liz Losh, Virtualpolitik: "The YouTube channel of America.gov does not allow viewers to repurpose the content by downloading clips for themselves. I'll overlook the fact that their message about free speech, ethnic diversity, and love for youth culture is full of truisms that can also be found in the pablum about the Internet itself, but if you are a propaganda channel, don't you want to make sure that you are actually encouraging people to distribute your propaganda? This is a message that the British government understood in the public diplomacy realm, by creating a mechanism to distribute B-roll to news broadcasters around the world. Why is this a message that the U.S. is incapable of learning because of its continuing resistance to remix culture?"
Mahtab Farid's Photos - Wall Photos, Facebook:
"Citizen Public Diplomacy... 18 years old Afghan artist draws President Obama's portrait." Image from entry
Center to mark 50 years of work - Katherine Nichols, Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "Half a century after its inception, the East-West Center is more relevant than ever. Since Congress formed the public diplomacy institution in 1960, nearly 60,000 students, scholars, journalists and political, civic and business leaders have participated in cooperative research and leadership and educational programs to enhance relationships and promote cooperation between the people and countries of Asia, the Pacific and the United States."
Marilyn Diamond on Public Diplomacy - The Dean's International Council: An Advisory Board for the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago: "Dean’s International Council member Marilyn Diamond
unravels the changes in public diplomacy with an op-ed in the most recent issue of The National Strategy Forum Review, citing the benefits of using humanitarian aid and civil-military relationships to form diplomacy campaigns abroad." Diamond image from article
[Tweet] - nils_gilman: "Being in charge of public diplomacy under Bush must have been as much as being the Pinto brand manager for Ford in the 1970s."
'We've made enough gestures to Abbas' - Jerusalem Post: "[Israel's Foreign Minister] Lieberman said Israel 'does not need to give any more' in order to speak to Abbas. 'We have paid enough.
We have made many gestures and received nothing in return,' he said at an ambassadors conference held at the Foreign Ministry. ... 97 delegates arrived at the conference, and discussed issues ranging from Iran's nuclear pursuit to public diplomacy and Israeli commercial exports to developing countries." Image from
Gaza war, plus one – Helena Cobban, Fair Policy, Fair Discussion: "The anniversary of Israel’s assault against Gaza last year has been a somber one, so far. … My main point of comparison in this was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 1982. That had been my first year living in the U.S. Night after night I watched 'news' coverage of Israel’s battering of Beirut, produced by the U.S. media, that was openly supportive of the Israeli campaign. … Last winter’s assault on Gaza provoked a notably different reaction– even here in the U.S. Sure, there were the usual crowd of 'Stand with Israel' people talking on some of the talk shows. But there were also many writers and columnists openly questioning Israel’s actions. And the questions have continued and even multiplied since then. No amount of Israeli hasbara (also known in the US as 'public diplomacy') seems to have succeeded in turning that situation around. Oh sure, AIPAC still has a near-lockhold on the US Congress– except for heroic, principled members like Brian Baird or Keith Ellison."
Vova & Dima summarizing the year! – Lena, Global Chaos: "A hilarious programming [comic video of Medvedev and Putin]
for the New Year's eve on the state channel OPT. And well, nice 'public diplomacy' move by Kremlin, indeed!" Image from
Spinning Untruth on Russia: How Propaganda Works. - Karl Naylor, Eastern Europe Watch: "Nearly everything Luke Harding writes for the Guardian is propaganda favourably contrasting the reformers of the 1990s under Yeltsin with Vladimir Putin who is absurdly blamed for every Russian ill that is, in fact, a longer term consequence of Gaidar's shock therapy. ... What Harding does not mention is that experts on Russian affairs, who are not especially pro-Putin at all but critical of the West's treatment of Russia, appear fairly often, those like Mark Almond and Anatol Lieven who resisted the tide of partisanship in favour of Saakashvili in 2008. ['] Next year the Russian government will spend $1.4 billion (£866m) on international propaganda – more than on fighting unemployment. ['] That might well be true, but compare that with the billions spent in the West on public diplomacy, spin, adverts and on propaganda in the corporate media. Presumably, Harding has confined the actions of Rupert Murdoch to the Orwellian memory hole."
Canadian National I.D. & Sports - Jyoti Singh, Placenomics: "Jyoti Singh, a place theorist and has coined the term placenomics, which is a mix of place branding, public diplomacy, urbanology, nation building and much more. He aims to inspire, educate, and enlighten those who deal professionally with provenance and place of origin."
[Tweet] - Dbabeeta: "Avatar: public diplomacy would work if only hard power and soft power would compromise into smart power.
Amazing movie though - 3D rocked!" Image from
RELATED ITEMS
For Shanghai Fair, a Famous Fund-Raiser Delivers - Mark Landler and David Barboza, New York Times: With multimillion-dollar pledges from PepsiCo, General Electric, Chevron and other American corporations, the United States is on track to open a sleek, 60,000-square-foot pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, which runs from May through October. By all accounts, the effort to build a national pavilion was near death at the end of the Bush administration. The near-collapse of the global economy, the proximity of the expo to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the general ambivalence of the State Department had left U.S.A. Pavilion, the nonprofit group in charge of the project, with little support or money. Enter Mrs. Clinton, who made her first trip as secretary of state to Beijing in February and was eager to talk about trade, climate change and the North Korean nuclear threat. Instead, she got an earful about how bad it would be if the United States did not have a presence at the Shanghai Expo. There was little support within the State Department. So Mrs. Clinton turned to two major fund-raisers with long ties to the Clinton family: Elizabeth F. Bagley and Jose H. Villarreal.
Persuasion, not propaganda, in Iraq: Psyops: 4th Brigade soldiers take a gentle approach – usually without loudspeakers – to win over Iraqi civilians - Scott Fontaine, thenewstribune.com: For many, the idea of psyops still elicits the idea of broadcasting propaganda over the radio or blanketing leaflets across a town ahead of an impending attack. But Lt. Jose Perez, the brigade’s psyops detachment commander, said his troops don’t really do that anymore. It’s more about the art of gentle persuasion.
In search of the Obama Doctrine – Carlos Lozada, Washington Post: If there is an Obama Doctrine, it involves a combination of diplomatic engagement, biography-as-foreign-policy and anti-Bushism -- and few seem to think it's working terribly well. A recurring theme seems to be that Obama should stop trying to be the world's popular kid -- it's not working.
Obamas branch beyond TV news shows - David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun: "If ubiquity were the measure of a presidency, Barack Obama would already be grinning at us from Mount Rushmore," Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman wrote. "The president's problem isn't that he is too visible; it's the lack of content in what he says when he keeps showing up on the tube."
Soft on terror? Not this president – Editorial, Washington Post:
The country would benefit from a serious and bipartisan effort in Congress to ensure that the lessons of the Christmas attack are learned. A groundless campaign to portray Mr. Obama as soft on terror can only detract from that effort. Image from
U.S.-China relations to face strains, experts say - John Pomfret, Washington Post: The United States and China are headed for a rough patch in the early months of the new year as the White House appears set to sell a package of weapons to Taiwan and as President Obama plans to meet the Dalai Lama, U.S. officials and analysts said.
Waking Dragon [review of When China Rules The World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order by Martin Jacques] - Joseph Kahn, New York Times: In When China Rules the World, Martin Jacques, a columnist for The Guardian of London and a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, argues that China will not just displace the United States as the major superpower.
It will also marginalize the West in history and upend our core notions of what it means to be modern. It is accumulating wealth much faster than it is absorbing foreign ideas. The result, Jacques says, is that China is nearly certain to become a major power in its own mold, not the “status quo” power accepting of Western norms and institutions that many policy makers in Washington hope and expect it will be.
Foreign Exchange -- In India, Twitter ruffles feathers in the government: State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shashi Tharoor is a big fan of tweets. His superiors say the messaging service is no place for his government grievances - Mark Magnier, latimes.com: In his comments on Twitter, the Web-based short-messaging service, Tharoor, 53, criticized a visa policy unveiled this month prohibiting many foreign visitors from returning to India within two months of their last trip, ostensibly as a way to fight terrorism.
Russian dressing: How Hollywood portrayed the Soviets - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Avatar: Orgasmic Dazzle, Trashy Cinema, or Racist Propaganda? - lorenrosson.blogspot.com
Image from
