July 21-22

"And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."

--Friedrich Nietzsche; image from

REPORT

Engaging Foreign Audiences: Assessment of Public Diplomacy Platforms Could Help Improve State Department Plans to Expand Engagement – U.S. Government General Accounting Office

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

Cutting Hillary Clinton some slack - Mosharraf Zaidi, The News International:

"Poor Americans. This is the fellow [the Pakistani Foreign Minister?] that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has to stand beside as she tries to squeeze more juice out of a Kerry-Lugar Bill that had its lifeblood squeezed out of it last year by the Pakistani establishment, when it first became US law. The frustration from that reaction still riles the Americans. So much so that Hillary Clinton, who is a role model and an inspiration, can't seem to let go. On every trip she reproduces a Bin Laden outburst that is militarily and strategically irrelevant for the US, but that serves as an enduring cancerous tumour for America's public diplomacy goals in Pakistan. ... Perceptions won't change. $500 million worth of pet projects is a supremely sweet gesture. But even $500 billion worth of aid, delivered through Beltway Bandits, NGOs, budget support or otherwise can't change the lives of Pakistanis." Image from

US commits $50m to JS Private Equity‎ Dilawar Hussain - DAWN.com: "JS Private Equity Fund II LLC, has been promised $50 million out of the $500 million committed by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the US administration’s plans to use the country’s private sector for promotion of economic growth. ... US Secretary of State made the announcements at the second US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, a forum on multiple issues, including energy and public diplomacy. The allocation was a follow up of the convention mentioned in Obama’s Cairo speech last year of stimulating innovation and technology transfer, predominately in Muslim countries."

Public Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics – Helle Dale, The Foundry, Heritage.org: "While U.S. public diplomacy since September 11, 2001, has focused on countering terrorism and the radicalization of the Muslim world, China has been moving ahead, taking a page out of the U.S. playbook.

Aiming to promote their model of governance, the Chinese have invested heavily in public diplomacy. Extravaganzas such as the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo are only the most visible manifestations of this strategy. World Affairs Journal’s July/August issue explores the Chinese advances. ... The objective is clear: allowing Chinese influence to flow out, while preventing information and ideas from flowing back in to 'contaminate' China. ... It is high time the U.S. government took this challenge seriously. History did not come to an end with the election of President Obama, not did the war of ideas." Image from

Supervising State: The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy on Performance Measurement - Morgan Roach, The Foundry, The Heritage Foundation: "These days 'accountable' is rarely an adjective used to describe the state of American diplomacy. With government waste running rampant, it’s easy to forget that there is congressional oversight intended to hold U.S. agencies accountable for their spending. Today, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bi-partisan board, created by Congress whose members are appointed by the President, met to discuss the State Department’s performance on outreach and engagement with foreign publics. ... As the Administration has stated, foreign engagement is a major policy priority, and it is necessary that the State Department’s initiatives be as effective as possible. As a result, reliable quantifiable data is needed to ensure that the USG’s initiatives are working. While these measurements are a contributing factor to U.S. public diplomacy’s effectiveness, they do not guarantee policy success. At State, the wheels move very slowly. It took over a year for Under Secretary Judith McHale’s lackluster Strategic Framework to be written. Real change will likely take considerably longer."

U.S. Exchange and Public Diplomacy Programs on Earth Day 2010 Around the world participants from U.S. exchange programs and other public diplomacy initiat - Planetécole:

"Around the world participants from U.S. exchange programs and other public diplomacy initiatives take part in Earth Day and other international events." Image from

Following up on Lee Bollinger's proposal to create an "American World Service" from PBS, NPR, VOA, and RFE – Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "In the Wall Street Journal, 14 July, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger proposed to bolster US journalism, especially international coverage, through a government-funded 'American World Service' combining PBS, NPR, VOA, and 'Radio Free Europe.' (See previous post.) This would be along the lines of the BBC and government- or license-fee-funded broadcasting entities in many other countries. The op-ed provoked many comments, almost all negative."

VOA Albanian during the Hoxha years, and other VOA in news and history - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Guerrilla Diplomacy Revisited - Daryl Copeland, Guerilla Diplomacy: "It has now been a year since the release of Guerrilla Diplomacy. I have spent much of this time trying to promote the book’s main arguments in support of restoring the diplomatic ecosystem and de-militarizing international policy. Following are a few reflections on those efforts. In countless presentations in Canada, the USA, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, perhaps the main thing I learned is that diplomacy remains a very hard sell.

It is still regarded as somewhat of an exotic, rarely discussed and widely misunderstood, even by those whose job is supposed to be doing it. ... I have tried in the book to get beyond both traditional and public diplomacy, and why I will continue to advocate in favour of equipping our envoys for the 21st century and moving them into centre field. Absent that, this small planet is likely to look more and more like a smattering of razor-wire enclosed green zones, with security by Blackwater/Xe and sanitation by Halliburton, precariously vulnerable and exposed while attracting the anger and resentment of the excluded majority." Image from

Dimensions of International Communication - Journalism Notes...: "In simple words, international communication is communication between more than two countries, which could include diplomats, media, trading companies. Nations communicate across borders to enhance national interests and foster cultural ties and economic interest. In the age of satellite invasion, delivery of TV programming can be another reason which may be added, even advertising for multi-country products. Dimensions: International communication played apart in the movement toward more democratic government & a free market economy that swept the whole world. It has created a sort of structural imperialism where one has become a central power & rest have become peripherals. Political Dimension:
1. International Communication has increased pressure of democratization.
2. Politics is dominating part of media content across the world.
3. Helpful in disseminating & propagating political ideas & ideologies.
4. Increased Public diplomacy.
5. Decreased political homogeneity."

In the interest of informed debate - Graig Hayden, Intermap: "I am curious to hear the following statement ... clarified a bit more: [']All too many academic theories about PD are incomprehensible, pompously-expressed 'concepts' from persons — among them rightfully esteemed tenured professors whose intelligence is all too often joined with a tactless inability to handle the last three feet of person-to-person contact — who have never actually worked as diplomats in the field of 'public diplomacy,' which they pontificate about, often too assuredly, from their ivory towers on comfortable campuses so distant from what some call the 'real world.'[']...

[W]hat is the real problem that bothers Dr. Brown [the author of this quotation]? What sort of creeping threat is posed by public diplomacy theorists? Is it a particular theory and or scholar that threatens the bedrock of practical pedagogy in public diplomacy? Is it the pervasive valorization of technological approaches to public diplomacy, which might focus state sponsors to direct scarce resources away from proven public diplomacy practice and training? ... I actually think Brown’s objections about 'abstraction' reflect a long-standing debate amongst academics on the philosophy of social science inquiry. Do we scholars pursue deductive-nomethetic prescriptions, covering laws about the workings of social world, or, should the purpose of social science (and scholarly investigation more generally) be geared towards more middle-range theories applicable to the complex and messy realities of foreign policy. As I have stated before, I really doubt there is such theorizing about public diplomacy at the level Brown is concerned about – though I agree with his skepticism in a purely academic sense.” Image from

The impossible task of blocking websites - Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Bangkok Post: "In a recent article published in The New York Times, an American diplomat who is tasked with spearheading a public diplomacy programme, admitted his country would gain nothing from shunning the social media everyone else uses. He said, 'The 21st century is a really terrible time to be a control freak.' He referred to the way people are now communicating with each other through social/entertaining network sites - Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to name but a few. The Thai government may block a million websites but the people will still find other ways to spread their messages."

Menendez presses US Ambassador to Turkey nominee on Armenian Genocide‎ - Public Radio of Armenia: "U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide, Cyprus, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate took center stage at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing earlier today as Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) pressed U.S. Ambassador-designate to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, on a range of concerns dealing with America's increasingly strained ties with its NATO ally, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). ... Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Robert Casey (D-PA), who served as chairman of the hearing,

pressed Ambassador-designate Ricciardone for information on U.S. efforts to end the Turkish government's restrictions on the Ecumenical Patriarchate and oppression of Christian minorities. Responding to their inquiries, he stated: '... I would speak with the Turks on human rights issues, particularly religious freedom issues, one of the points that I found most salient, and that really hit home with the Turks is to appeal to their pride; and historic tolerance, they see it as part of a national branding of the Turkish character, if you will. And when Catholic Spain was burning Jews, and Muslims and heretics, only half a millennium ago, which in Middle Eastern time is less time than for us, Turkey welcomed the Jews of Spain to come there and profited greatly from that. The Ottoman Empire also profited heavily from having Greek Christians, Armenian Christians in their highest offices of government as ministers until the end of the Ottoman Empire. Turks take pride in that, but don't always live up to it in the modern time. So I would certainly remind the Turks of that great tradition that they had. Beyond that, it's public diplomacy.'" Image from

Branding Taiwan through gastrodiplomacy - Paul Rockower, Nation-Branding:

"In the ongoing efforts to better facilitate Taiwanese public diplomacy, the Taiwanese government recently unveiled a plan to promote Taiwanese culinary diplomacy. Through the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan is set to invest NT$1.1 billion (US$34.2 million) through 2013 to engage in Taiwanese gastrodiplomacy and promote Taiwanese cuisine at the global dining table." Image from

The Greater Harlem Chamber Of Commerce & New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Pay Tribute To The Late Hon. Percy E. Sutton At Gracie Mansion with Gala Reception & Lawn Party Kicking Off Harlem Week 2010 - IMI Press: Image ManageMeant International Press: "Liz Beker-Gold [is] Information and Project Coordinator Department of Public Diplomacy – Israel. Ms. Beker-Gold is interested in networking with the local community media."

Perceptions of perception: Artist ponders how we see things in hybrid creation - praguepost.com: "'We don't really have an exhibition space; usually, we collaborate with other galleries or museums,' said Pavla Bartůňková, public diplomacy officer for the [Canadian] embassy in Prague."

Blog: New Holland Lx565 Skid Steer - mushingholland.info: "The Scaife Family Foundations. Sarah Scaife, Carthage and Allegheny are funded by industrial tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife, who inherited $200 million from his mother in the 1960s. He was a presidential appointment of the U.S. Advisory Commission for Public Diplomacy during the Reagan and first Bush administrations."

RELATED ITEMS

A strain across the (oily) pond – Melanie Phillips, USA Today: The British people took the president's President Obama's tongue-lashing of "British Petroleum" — a name BP had not used for many years – very much amiss, suspicious that he was unfairly singling out BP for blame as a proxy for bashing Britain itself.

Military Mulls New Name for Psychological Operations: MISO - Noah Shachtman, Wired: “Psychological Operations” sounds awesomely creepy. In actuality, the military discipline can be pretty mundane: designing leaflets and driving sound trucks around, not plying your enemies with LSD.

Now the Pentagon brass is mulling a name change that would make the cadre seem even more humdrum. If the switch goes through. Psychological Operations would become Military Information Support and/to Operations. PSYOP would become MISO. Image from article

Military Information Support Operations - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us (June 28): Real change will come only if the PSYOP/MISO force is properly trained, equipped, supported, and integrated.

MISO: Making Intelligence Sound Obscure - Truth Excavator, OpEd News: The military has rebranded "PSYOP," shorthand for "Psychological Operations," to MISO: "Military Information Support and/to Operations." Propaganda warfare is a genius military idea, and innovations in the psychological warfare industry are essential to keep the fraudulent and criminal war on terrorism going. The fact that propaganda warfare has been waged on the American people by the national security state in order to influence, and shape public perceptions about unlawful government polices, so as to further secure their support, is one of the greatest scandals of our age.

Fox News on Pornistan: Propaganda or Truth? - Mohammad Yusha, chowrangi.com: ”Fox news has stated that Pakistan is at the top when it comes to searching for sex, and has stated that it should be called pornistan. I searched and saw that Pakistan is not even in the top ten. Even if it was, the reason why it would be misleading is because it could be used for purposes of sex education, which is not given in schools. A true depiction would be a search for porn or other related words. Even with those words, again, I could not find Pakistan even in the top ten.”

101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design: Oblique strategies for changing and controlling behavior - Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

New: Comic Art Propaganda sample - sekventiellt.se:

“I just found out that there´s a preview of my book Comic Art Propaganda to be found at Comics Alliance. It's the story of the controversial comic book Hansi - The Girl who Loved the Swastika.” Image from