Image from"The Internet is God's present to China."
--The prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo
"The Internet is an extension, not a revolution."
--ManIC blogger Laura McGinnis
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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS
Obama to host summit for Muslim entrepreneurs - http://www.worldbulletin.net/: "President Barack Obama will lay a key plank of his strategy to mend ties with the Islamic world on Monday when he hosts a summit to boost economic development in Muslim nations. The president will address the summit at the end of the first day to underscore his commitment to 'deepening our engagement around the world with Muslim-majority communities,' Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said. In a step the White House hopes will help shift relations beyond decades of talk about 'terrorism' and conflict, Obama will bring entrepreneurs from 50 countries to Washington on Monday and Tuesday to spur economic ties. 'This is not simply an exercise in public outreach or public diplomacy,' said Ben Rhodes, one of Obama's top national security advisors.
'We believe that this is the beginning of forging kind of very tangible partnerships in a critical area.' "The president pledged to host the summit in a landmark speech in Cairo last June, when he also called for a 'new beginning' to relations between the United States and the Islamic world." See also (1) (2) (3). Image from
"A New Beginning" in America's Relationship With The Muslim World - NewsBlaze: "A key priority for the Obama Administration, as outlined in the President's Cairo speech of June 4, 2009, is launching 'a new beginning' in America's relationship with the Muslim world. The State Department's public diplomacy professionals in Washington and at U.S. Embassies around the globe are actively pursuing a variety of cultural, education and information programs to showcase respect for diverse cultures, faiths and traditions. As part of these efforts, American country and pop singer/songwriter, Kareem Salama [http://www.kareemsalama.com/], will depart the U.S. for Cairo, Egypt on Monday, April 26 to begin a seven-country, one-month tour of the Middle East. ... Source: U.S. Department of State"
Reported Egyptian-Saudi-Syrian summit makes regional tension eyed - People's Daily Online: "When Obama first entered the world of Middle-Eastern diplomacy, it was with a very public bang. On June 4 last year, he gave what the White House labeled as a key message to the Muslim world. Speaking in Cairo, he made clear his thoughts on the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim and Arab worlds.' 'It was all about public diplomacy and public appearances. He made a lot of noise and a lot of declarations,' said Meital
[Dr. Yoram Meital, who heads the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy at Ben-Gurion University in southern Israel]. Since then, though, Cairo and Riyadh have attempted to take him towards a more realistic approach. 'This is true both regarding Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,' he said." Meital image from
Was Obama Really Unsuccessful at the Nuke Summit? - Journal of Turkish Weekly: "[I]t can be claimed that the Nuclear Security Summit was a nice way to form the base of the international nuclear policy. The main target was the individuals of the international community and this approach is a tenet of Obama administration’s public policy approach such as directly talking to the Muslim society in Egypt and congratulating the Iranian people in Nowruz. Here, along with convincing the governments we may regard a public diplomacy. It is hard to reject the efficiency of talking to public regarding the globalized world and Obama’s positive image among the world. Moreover, it is the best way to convince countries in the long run, especially the democratic ones."
‘Get In There and Mix It Up’: Hillary Clinton on Obama, Iran, and a world of troubles - Michael Hirsh, Newsweek: Clinton: “In Pakistan we have a long way to go, but we've made a lot of progress. I got there in the fall, and I did things that nobody, even their elected officials, had ever done before [like holding town-hall meetings].
And it still is reverberating. We now have a public-diplomacy effort that is worthy of the name ... If people are saying things about the United States that are not true, we don't just say, 'Oh, well, what are you going to do?' Get in there and mix it up.'” Image from
Changing course on Iran sanctions - Patrick Disney, Lara Friedman, The Hill: "American NGOs are the world’s leaders in promoting human rights, basic humanitarian assistance, and vital aid for some of the Iranian people’s most vexing problems. But sanctions prevent groups like Relief International and Mercy Corps from working in Iran. These and other groups assisted the victims of the Bam earthquake in 2004 under a rare special exemption from sanctions issued by the Treasury Department. Never before has the United States carried out such effective public diplomacy than when American relief workers dug through rubble in Iran to the cheers of Iranian onlookers. However, after the 180-day exemption period expired, the Americans were told to hastily pack up their things and return home, lest they violate U.S. sanctions. ... Much more than the 'crippling' sanctions that nearly everyone supports but that no one believes will work, Congress and the administration should make reforming existing sanctions a central element of their Iran strategy."
Obama Failed to Notice the Hitler-Stalin Pact but Remembers The Elbe Anniversary - TedLipien.com:
"President Obama announced his decision to scrap the U.S. missile defense system in Central Europe on September 17, 2009, the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. He then signed an arms control agreement with Russia in Prague, the prime site of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. On the day of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s funeral, he went to play golf. All of these decisions were public diplomacy disasters. So here is a short history lesson, which the White House could have used before issuing the joint statement on the Elbe River anniversary and may want to consult before making future decisions on relations with Poland and other Central European allies who have sent troops to fight and die alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Hitler-Stalin pact and the Nazi and Soviet inasions of Poland in 1939 helped to start World War II. President Roosevelt rewarded the Soviet Union for fighting Moscow’s former ally Hitler by giving Russia control over Poland and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe for almost the next half a century." Image from
Ratification of the Disabilities Convention Would Erode American Sovereignty - Steven Groves, Heritage.org: "On July 30, 2009, the Obama Administration signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an international treaty purporting to guarantee the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the disabled. However, U.S. membership in the Disabilities Convention would not appreciably advance U.S. national interests either at home or abroad. ... From a purely public diplomacy calculus, one can argue that the United States will enhance its reputation within the international community by holding itself to a high standard of human rights. However, in the case of the Disabilities Convention, the United States already has effective legislative measures in place to protect the rights of the disabled."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee To Mark Up And Vote On Legislation - press release, BigNews.biz:
"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Ranking Member Dick Lugar (R-IN) will mark up the Foreign Relations Authorization Actfor Fiscal Years 2010-11(S.2971) at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27, in Room S-116 of the U.S. Capitol. The mark up will authorize funding levels for the State Department and related accounts and demonstrate the strong commitment of Congress for our diplomatic and foreign policy priorities. ... The Foreign Relations Committee has not passed an authorization bill for the State Department since 2005. The legislation includes important increases to our diplomatic corps, provides vital funds and resources to international organizations, addresses critical pay equity issues for Foreign Service officers, and enhances our public diplomacy and consular efforts." Image from
Dark matter for Tuesday - Economist (blog): "[T]he American embassy in Jakarta has more Facebook fans than all other American embassies combined. Thomas Crampton has an interview with Tristram Perry, the embassy's public diplomacy officer. Facebook right now is king in Indonesia in terms of social media users. Of the 25 million people who can access the internet here, about half are on Facebook. The difference is the speed of increase in users — now at #7 in the world — and that is largely due to the leapfrogging of the PC by mobile devices that can browse the web in Indonesia. I believe Blackberry use is among the fastest it the world here, and with the improvement of mobile-device browsers on more basic phones, this will only increase."
Democracy isn't just a tweet away - Jeffrey Gedmin, USA Today:
"It's true that authoritarians can no longer maintain a monopoly on information. Social media are empowering large segments of society like never before. 'Fence-sitters' are emboldened by friends and like-minded souls to join social movements and political protests. But our thinking about social media and democracy movements needs a reset. For starters, let's not get carried away by the hype. ... Twitter won't tell the opposition how to govern, how to develop democratic institutions or how to inculcate and defend the values, habits and behaviors that belong to democracy. ... Don't be surprised either if some of the utopianism about social media starts to fade. That's not a bad thing, but rather a call to action. Promoting democracy is an American interest, and the U.S. needs to make adequate resources available to match the commitments made by authoritarians. ... Jeffrey Gedmin is president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. This article is adapted from a speech he delivered at a conference co-sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute and Freedom House on Cyber Dissent and Democracy." See also. Image from
Despite Forecasts, Freedom Takes More Than Technology - Jeff Jacoby, Patriot Post: "For all the wonders it makes possible, information technology is only a tool, and like all tools it can be used to promote the cause of freedom, or to oppose it. That was the sobering theme of a conference on cyber-dissidents organized in Dallas last week by the George W. Bush Institute in conjunction with the human-rights organization Freedom House. The conference brought together online dissidents from an array of unfree or authoritarian countries — China, Syria, Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, and Iran — as well as experts on Internet strategy, nonviolent resistance, and international relations. ... The speakers traded war stories and discussed ways to use cyber-technology to rally supporters and share intelligence. But running through the whole program was the Dickensian sense that today's dissidents are living in the best of times and the worst of times: The social-media explosion makes it easier for champions of freedom to organize opposition and get information to the outside world, yet the very same online technology arms repressive governments with sophisticated new methods of censorship, surveillance, and disinformation. Far from ushering in a golden age of democracy, remarked the Bush Institute's James K. Glassman, a former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, the Internet era has coincided with a 'freedom recession.' Interactive Web 2.0 applications have facilitated the rise of 'Authoritarianism 2.0.'"
Maybe we should reconsider the Coke-buying strategy... - Laura McGinnis, manIC:
"The pre-Internet era was characterized by borders, international strife and undemocratic politics. And rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated. Earlier this month, I posted some preliminary stats suggesting that Internet access does not promote global goodwill toward the United States. Evgeny Morozov elaborates on that theme in Foreign Policy, where he argues that the Internet has done little to usher in an era of peace and global harmony. Morozov also notes that Twitter has not unseated any dictators: 'Tweets don't overthrow governments; people do. And what we've learned so far is that social networking sites can be both helpful and harmful to activists operating from inside authoritarian regimes.' Take note, unreserved advocates of social media for international communication. Nor can the Internet be relied upon to ensure government accountability or improve political participation. The Internet is an extension, not a revolution." Image from
Public Diplomacy in Second Life - ta3beer.blogspot.com: "Earlier this week at the CCT symposium on the 'Crowd and the Cloud' at Georgetown University a representative from the State Department talked about Public Diplomacy initiatives in the cloud and specifically on Second Life. ... Is this a more affective form of diplomacy or will it simply be dismissed as a game? Currently, the majority of people think this cannot be taken seriously - but that view does not appear to coincide with the growth of places like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Virtual worlds are a place where people earn money (real and virtual), invest time, and most importantly build relationships - all of which increase trust - which is one of the main goals of any diplomatic effort. Will the Middle East respond to this cyber-diplomacy with some of their own or better, will they one-up them by having a virtual Al-Jazeera talk show on Second Life?"
APDS hosts annual conference - Kastalia Medrano, Daily Trojan: “Authorities on cultural diplomacy, communication and international relations spoke Friday about the transnational advocacy networks and their impact on the field of public diplomacy as part of the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars’
annual conference. APDS aims to bring together students interested in the field to form a network promoting public diplomacy. This weekend’s event was the second annual conference. Colin Robertson, the keynote speaker and a senior research fellow of the Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute, spoke about his experiences with public diplomacy and international relations. 'Transnational advocacy is a very timely concept in public diplomacy right now,' Robertson, director of the Canada-U.S. Project, said. 'Technologies like Facebook, Google, iChat, etc. are changing transnational communication in so many ways. Our societies are becoming increasingly global and diverse, which puts a premium on diplomacy with other countries.' Robertson’s opening address was followed by two panels, 'Hollywood, Human Rights and Transnational Advocacy' and 'Social Media and Transnational Advocacy Networks.'” Image from
Public Diplomacy training: emphasis on strategy - jjohnson47: "I teach a seminar on strategic planning for public diplomacy, a topic that seems to be gaining attention within the Department of State. ... It may surprise the reader that public affairs section personnel often lack training in fundamental public relations disciplines like audience analysis and behavioral research, and don’t always know how to measure their programs’ impact. But that’s my observation after teaching about 75 people over the past year. Whatever you think about the U.S. Information Agency, which was consolidated into the State Department in 1998, the old agency mandated annual strategic plans and marketing studies and conducted various types of research. Outgoing Foreign Service Officers were generally well prepared, because their careers were focused on public diplomacy. All those conditions changed under State Department jurisdiction. When the performance of public diplomacy drew criticism after 9/11, the General Accounting Office urged State to adopt best commercial practices in this area. A couple of years ago, the Foreign Service Institute developed new teaching materials on communication strategy and planning, drawing from a variety of commercial public relations sources."
Brainier Brawn - Elizabeth Dickinson, Foreign Policy: "To its boosters in today's Washington, smart power is a way to better husband U.S. resources in a changing world; to detractors, it's a slick marketing phrase masking a policy of weakness. Either way, smart power
is now not just a theoretical construct but a way to cash in. The U.S. defense industry has seized on smart-power-style contracts, monetizing a catchphrase that has become the hallmark of the Obama administration. ... November 9, 1989: Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the U.S. emphasis on soft power plummets; the number of Foreign Service officers working in public diplomacy, for example, drops about 25 percent, and educational and cultural programs lose funding every year until 2002. 1991: In Bound to Lead, Harvard University political scientist Joseph Nye defines two types of power. Hard power is the kind 'associated with tangible resources like military and economic strength,' while soft power includes things like 'culture, ideology, and institutions.'" Image from
Does Glenn Beck Know Anything At All About Cass Sunstein? - News Hounds (blog): "Because of a more pressing work schedule, I'm now, along with Aunty Em, keeping an eye on Glenn Beck instead of Bill O'Reilly. ... Pulling out a picture of Woodrow Wilson, Beck hyped the claim that the last administration to 'recruit goons on soapboxes' and 'preach government good news' was that of Woodrow Wilson, and went on to gripe about Wilson's 'Committee on Public Information.' Beck decrided President Wilson's attempts to influence the public discourse through the use of '4-minute men.' So, Wilson was the last Administration to do that, huh? Hmmm . . . 'cause what Beck forgot to mention was that the LAST administration before the Obama Administration -- led by the guy known as George W -- got into the 'reshaping public opinion' game early on. As reported by globalissues.org, 'Within weeks of Sept. 11, Charlotte Beers, celebrated as the 'queen of branding' among the public relations cognoscenti, was named undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Her job was explaining and selling the Bush administration's foreign policy, especially its war on terrorism. The problem of 'Why they hate us' was rephrased, in ad speak, as 'How we reposition the brand.' To help win market shares from jihad, the former chairwoman of the J. Walter Thompson Worldwide advertising agency recently received a $520 million congressional appropriation to focus on 'disaffected populations,' especially in the Middle East and South Asia. As Beers testified, 'a poor perception of the U.S. leads to unrest, and unrest has proven to be a threat to our national and international security.' 'And what about the 'stoic, stern-faced retired generals, colonels, majors, military advisers, former Pentagon officials' who were trotted out to play up the PR side of Bush's wars? As the New York Times reported, 'Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.'"
Bureaucrats chafing under 'unprecedented' PMO/PCO communications control - Jeff Davis, Hill Times: "Tory political staff have seized almost total control of routine government communications
and now require nearly all public comment to be pre-cleared by the Prime Minister's Office or the Privy Council Office, say some current and former communications bureaucrats and diplomats. ... The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade appears to have been particularly affected, and diplomats complain that the requirement of message approval from Ottawa severely hampers Canadian diplomacy abroad. Diplomats said the most cutting edge tactics for improving perceptions of Canada amongst foreign publics—known broadly as public diplomacy—are near impossible to do on an inflexible script. 'It's killed public diplomacy, outreach and media relations,' said one diplomat who did not want to be identified. 'Why is that? Because you can't do any of those things if it's pre-scripted.' Aware of the approval headaches involved, much action stops before it gets off the ground. They said this 'chill' is pervasive, and deters officials from taking advantage of proactive or rapid response communications activities. 'Most say, 'Forget it, it's not worth it: I'm not going to do any public diplomacy or outreach,' 'the diplomat added. 'Anything that's remotely sensitive ends up in PCO.'" Image from
Rebranding Canada: More K'naan less canoe - Olivia Ward Toronto Star: "When asked if you're Canadian, do you: a) Bare your maple leaf tattoo. b) Offer to share your poutine. c) Nod and say 'I'm sorry.' If you answered 'c,' you need help from Evan Potter, author of Branding Canada: Projecting Canada's Soft Power through Public Diplomacy. Potter, an assistant professor in Carleton University's communications department, is a finalist for this year's Donner Prize, awarded annually for the best book on Canadian public policy. His book makes a strong case that Canada can only shine on the international stage if it takes a bolder, brassier approach."
Corporate India and New Public Diplomacy - Madhurjya Kotoky, The Public Diplomacy Blog: "Corporate India has become a major non state actor shaping perceptions about the country.
With the recent scholarship in Public Diplomacy moving away from the narrow traditional state-centric conception of public diplomacy to include a range of non-state actors with some standing in international politics and economics, the role and potential of Indian companies in shaping foreign public opinion needs a more focused attention." Image from
The Armenian Genocide. Whose public diplomacy? – Lena, Global Chaos: "This year marked the 95th Anniversary of the Genocide*, and so I was hoping to get something different in this regard: something new, that would help to make the issue stand out and be genuinely newsworthy. But nothing seemed new. What is more, Turkey appeared to be stealing the show!"
After Madoff, AJC looks for merger - Haviv Rettig, Jerusalem Post: "The American Jewish Congress, founded in 1918 by Jewish luminaries such as Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter and Rabbi Stephen Wise, lost much of its assets when the multibillion-dollar Bernard Madoff investment fraud
collapsed in December 2008. ... Now, The Jerusalem Post has learned, the organization is speaking to the American Jewish Committee in an effort to initiate some type of merger with the much larger advocacy group, whose 2008 Form 990 showed net assets of $117m. The 104-year-old committee is one of the largest and most influential US Jewish organizations. The contacts are still in the initial stages, though congress officials have been considering a merger for some time, according to sources. Congress officials hope such a move would save some of the organization’s programs, such as an annual workshop for Israeli public diplomacy officials and work on US-Israeli scientific cooperation."
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Opposition members will attend Ebralidze's assembly - Messenger.ge: "Two leaders of the opposition National Council, Koba Davitashvili and Kakha Kukava, left for Russia on April 22 to attend the Assembly of the Georgian Diaspora in Saint Petersburg which will take place on April 23 and 24. It is organised by the Congress of Georgian Peoples, led by Aleksandre Ebralidze. ... Some Alliance for Georgia representatives have refused to comment on this [Assembly], but Manana Nachkebia has told The Messenger that she has nothing against this meeting if it is part of public diplomacy. 'We have always said that the restoration of relations is needed, and if this meeting is part of public diplomacy, and significant issues will be discussed, I can see nothing negative in participating in it. However the restoration of relations depends more on the authorities of the two countries rather than the opposition or Diaspora. If some anti-Georgian issues, like revolution and so on, are discussed this will be unacceptable of course,' Nachkebia said."
Developing Public Diplomacy Studies - pdnetworks.wordpress.com: "At the moment there is a movement towards building Public Diplomacy studies as an area of research and teaching in Universities. There are two MA programmes up and running in the US and I know that there are others in development. How should the field develop? In order this to answer this question we need to take stock of where PD studies are. The current wave of PD studies has two roots. Firstly, the interest in mid and late 1990s on the transformation of diplomacy in the face of the media,
the internet and the end of the Cold War. Secondly, the war on terror and the identification of PD as a way of managing the problem of Islamist extremism. It is this second wave that has driven the recent growth of PD literature. ... PD scholarship ought to be able to contribute to the improvement of the practice of PD but that contribution ought to be rooted in a solid body of evidence and theory." Image from
RELATED ITEMS
Who will take credit for improved views of the United States in BBC World Service poll? (updated) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Farsi fluency sought, but classes must fill in for immersion method - Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post: Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the study of Middle Eastern languages has increased, as have government investment and training. Between 2002 and 2006, the number of college students learning Farsi grew by more than 80 percent to about 2,000, according to the most recent survey by the Modern Language Association. The number of students learning Arabic during that time grew by 130 percent, to 22,000. But icy relations with Iran pose challenges for such academic programs. Universities cannot buy journals or textbooks from Iran because of economic sanctions, and there are currently no exchange programs between the countries. American students can travel to Iran on their own to study, although the State Department -- and many parents -- caution against it, citing that country's record of detaining Iranian American citizens and journalists. Students hoping to work for the U.S. government are discouraged from traveling to Iran at all, because it could put future security clearances at risk. The earliest Russian-language programs created during the Cold War had similar restrictions. Students could not travel to the Soviet Union, so the U.S. government created intensive training programs in the United States. When relations eased in the early 1970s, language programs opened in Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Courtesy LB.
U.S. propaganda machine falters in Afghanistan - Scott Taylor, thechronicleherald.ca: Despite the massive allied effort to deny the Taliban such a valuable photo op, the insurgent propaganda machine scored a major coup last week. After five years of fighting to maintain a combat position in the Kornegal Valley, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander, decided to withdraw all American troops from the mountaintop outpost. The last of the GIs had barely been extracted by helicopter before the Taliban rushed in, accompanied by Al-Jazeera television crews, to proclaim their victory. See also.
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We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint - Elizabeth Bumiller, New York Times: A PowerPoint diagram meant to portray the complexity of American strategy in Afghanistan certainly succeeded in that aim.
