September 28

“It robs me of my greatest excuse for everything — I’m broke.”

--McArthur $500,000 grant winner David Cromer, 45, a theater director and actor recognized for his work Off Broadway and for revivals of classics, regarding his award; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Pakistan Security Brief -- September 27, 2010 - Critical Threats Project: "Officials in Washington are calling on aid agencies to advertise [flooding] relief that is funded by the United States. American officials have called on international organizations and USAID

to label goods provided by the U.S. in order to bolster US public diplomacy efforts. The United States has pledged nearly $350 million in disaster relief, and senior officials, including Richard Holbrooke, believe that labeling goods will help change local perceptions about America. A number of aid groups have resisted the effort, saying that such labeling would put them at risk from groups who have vowed to attack relief workers." Image from

The Shrinking of Humanitarian Space in Pakistan - Current Intelligence (September 7): "Preventing humanitarian diplomacy by neutral agencies with groups to whom the US is politically opposed has drawbacks for the US as well. Under such circumstances, the aid organizations most likely to get access to civilians in those areas will be those funded by non-Western sources. In terms of public diplomacy, or what the US calls 'hearts and minds work,' this risks wasting the opportunity for Western-backed aid groups to provide secular assistance and protection to the Pakistani people. This role is likely to be picked up instead by those elements of the (admittedly diverse) Islamic humanitarian sector who are least dependent on Western funding sources… including elements in Pakistan that may be using humanitarian 'soft power' for very different ends."

Trying To Keep Out The World - Yoani Sanchez, Huffington Post: "We live in the midst of a real war of radio frequencies on this Island. On one side we have the broadcasts of the station called Radio Marti -- banned, but very popular among my compatriots,

they are transmitted from the United States -- and on the other side the buzzing they use to silence it. The radio receivers sold in the official stores have had the module that allows you to hear these transmissions removed, and the police are in the habit of searching the roofs for the devices that help to better capture these signals." Via; image from

Calculating - Laura McGinnis, manIC: "Public diplomacy enthusiasts spend a lot of time focusing on the need to drum up foreign support for foreign policy, but it's important to remember that domestic support is equally important. ... Is the United States capable of developing and sustaining a cohesive foreign policy strategy without the support of the public?"

Gates charity's other mission: Funding free presses in the developing world - Shelley DuBois, CNNMoney: "On the list of items that US foreign aid gives to the Middle East, radios might not come to mind first. But they're a key part of reinforcing stability in the country, according to Jeanne Bourgault, CEO of a non-profit organization called Internews. Internews tries to build a free press in countries all over the world that don't have one. Last week, the leaders of the non-profit's new project 'Media Map' spoke at Mashable's Social Good Summit in New York about the two main challenges facing the organization.

First, it has to justify its reasons for investing its foreign aid money in other countries' media operations. Second, it has to figure out a sustainable business model for media outlets in resource-strapped countries at a time when media outlets in the developed world are rapidly changing. ... The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated over $600,000 to fund Media Map. For the project, Internews will take two years to study how independent journalism across the world can help build strong, economically stable democracies. ... Internews is still roughly 90% funded by USAID government grants, and 10% funded by private donors. So building a free press is 'linked to other priorities,' says Susman-Peña [Tara Susman-Peña, the director of research for the Media Map project], but 'we definitely still divorce it from public diplomacy.'" Image from

The President And I - Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, countercurrents.org: "On September 21, 2010, on the occasion of President Ahmadinejad's participation at the UN General Assembly, I was given the opportunity to conduct a candid interview with Mr. Ahmadinejad. ... The time had come for me to verify or refute a research I had conducted as a Public Diplomacy graduate student while attending USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. At that time, I had examined the media's role in fashioning the image of Mr. Ahmadinejad. It is a rewarding experience to bring one's research to a practical conclusion. ... I firmly believe that Ahmadinejad is misrepresented by the corporate owned media."

Think Tanks Flourishing in China - ‎Jaya Ramachadran, IDN InDepthNews: "China has become a key player in international politics. But beyond the countless articles and reports on the economic and political rise of China, very little is known about the intellectual revolution unfolding in parallel. Though, since the opening up of the country in the 1980s and the end of Maoism as a political model, China has rediscovered its Confucian, intellectual tradition and is now buzzing with new ways of thinking. A new study points out that, with expanding numbers of graduates, it is hardly surprising to see that bright, well-travelled and polyglot young analysts join the ranks of Chinese research institutes and think tanks, thereby bringing new blood and new working methods to their host institutions. According to Thomas Bondiguel and Thierry Kellner, associated fellows at Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies (BICCS), by 2010 China had 428 think tanks,

which placed it on a number two position behind the United States. ... Besides delivering expertise, think tanks are also expected to convey the government's viewpoint to audiences abroad. Experts have become an important part of China's public diplomacy, says the study. It points out that few people inside and outside China have realized the extent to which informal diplomacy and think tanks permeate the Chinese diplomatic structures. The image of a mammoth monolithic state structure is increasingly further from the truth as Beijing tries to accommodate the mounting complexity of issues now faced by the country, and the tremendous speed with which this process is taking place." Image from


Public diplomacy: Means and ends - Malcolm Cook, www.lowyinterpreter.org: "I read Annmaree O'Keeffe and Alex Oliver's report (which Richard Grant has recently blogged on) with great interest. My own career has been shaped greatly by public diplomacy (I received a full scholarship to study in Japan) and I had the pleasure of watching my first ever Wallabies game in Manila on ABC Asia Pacific in 1999 as part of my cultural awareness preparations for my pending move down under. We are not a major power in East Asia and have much less ability to influence the trajectories of these societies, societies that have a much broader selection of media choices. If I remember correctly, ABC Asia Pacific was channel 50-something out of the 70-some on my cable TV package in Manila, and I only discovered it after I knew I was coming to Australia and thought I should learn something about my next home. I was a regular watcher, though, of the BBC, CNN and many Philippine news sources, all of which came well before ABC Asia Pacific in the channel listings. ... Maybe AusAID might be a more reliable funder for the Australia Network and Radio Australia than DFAT and the ABC. While DFAT's budget, and particularly its public diplomacy one, has been having a tough time of late, both major parties in Australia are committed to boosting aid funding significantly."

Oh motherland Ethiopia, till when insane “Politika”!!‎ - Eyassu G. Feleke, Nazret.com: I have served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia in Addis and the Ethiopian Consulate Office in Frankfurt, Germany, for a total of seven and half years. In all these years I have been assigned to different positions until I was finally assigned at consular and public diplomacy posts at the Consulate in Frankfurt where I served for three and half years. ... Let me just mention the degree of party domination in the Ethiopian civil service by taking the Ethiopian embassy in Germany as example. Out of a total of eleven diplomats ten are members and affiliates of the ethnic based parties that formed the EPRDF. To work independently with out cadre influence and harassment amid a house full of party members is unthinkable. ... I made my mind and said to the regime, I QUIT!!!"

ISA Workshop on Public Diplomacy - Robin, Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "I'm still wrapped up with the beginning of the academic year but I thought that I’d just advertise that registration for the International Studies Association

Workshop on Public Diplomacy: Interdisciplinary Research, Teaching, Practice is now open here. The workshop will take place before the Montreal ISA Convention in March next year." Image from

Getting a Global Perspective while Interning at the Department of State - Melissa Pettigrew, InternPulse: "This summer I interned with the Department of State’s Office of Innovative Engagement. They are the office that set up the texting town hall before President Obama’s trip to Ghana; where African citizens texted in their questions to Obama and he answered several in a podcast! So during my internship, Facebook and Twitter use is not only permitted, but strongly encouraged! In early August, I had the unique opportunity to be involved in the President’s Forum with Young African Leaders.

I was recruited to get the captions for the event’s photos that the delegates and the public can see on both America.gov and Flickr. For four days I followed the photographer Matt Whatley and got the names of delegates and speakers and that job led me on an incredible adventure! I went to the Museum of African Art, Newseum, Peace Core Headquarters, the Dirksen Senate building, DC Central Kitchen and the Capital Area Food Bank. I was in the audience when Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to the 115 African delegates from 46 countries and I was able to hear Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Donald Payne, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero speak. Though hearing all these important political and public figures speak was a fantastic and unforgettable experience, the delegates were the ones who really made an impact on me." Image from

And t[h]e journey continues - johnniedowspelleddough: "I remember an I-Tunes University class recommended to me by an old boss – call 'Nuke, Kooks & Democracy in Iran'. This lecture was given, ironically enough at Stanford university by an person who lived in Iran through the last 30 years of history – much of it having US involvement. ... really would encourage you to listen to the lecture it is free and available on I-Tunes University – you will look at that region differently and have a better understanding of what public diplomacy – apparently intelligent people use and briges to a real outcome."

Obituary - Email from Leonard Baldyga: "Dr. Frances Ann 'Fay' Lewis, who ran AF academic exchanges at USIA for a time and then went on to work at Meridian International Center (focusing on Africa), died on Saturday evening. She was married to Ambassador Arthur W. Lewis (Sierra Leone)."

RELATED ITEMS

Annals of Innovation: Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted - Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker: The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo.

Gladwell Misses the Vesica Piscis - Rita J. King, theimaginationage.net: The Internet is used in extremely creative ways by those who realize that Facebook and Twitter are not the sum total of the opportunities created by this new dimension in human interaction. Via JS

It's time to fight back against death threats by Islamic extremists: A federal law is needed to cover threats against free-speech rights. Across media and geographies, Islamic extremists are increasingly using intimidation to stifle free expression - Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Daniel Huff, latimes.com

China's quiet power grab - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post: The scariest thing is the power

China has already accumulated without ever deploying its military or its diplomats at all. Image from

Iran rejects malware infected N plant‎ - Press TV: Iran has rejected reports that a complicated cyber worm has damaged computer systems at the country's first nuclear power plant. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the report was part of the “soft war” and a “propaganda stratagem” against Iran.

Kim’s sister seen as regime guardian - Christian Oliver, Financial Times: Now that Pyongyang has given an important public title to Kim Jong-il’s son, the state propaganda machine will most probably cast him publicly and very visibly as the dauphin.

Image from

A Close-Up On Kazakhstan In New 'Borat' Film - RFE/Rl: A Kazakh director is shooting an unauthorized sequel to the Hollywood film "Borat," which left some Kazakhs feeling insulted by its depiction of a naïve easterner bumbling through America. In response, director Erkin Rakishev has set out to show the “real” Kazakhstan to the world. Via MP

Author's Soundtrack for Modernism, Media, and Propaganda - Mark Wollaeger Homepage: "In conjunction with the publication of my book, Modernism, Media, and Propaganda: British Narrative from 1900 to 1945 (Princeton University Press, 2006), I have put together a sequence of songs that resonates with key points of my argument. Technological limitations and copyright prevent me from posting the actual songs. Here instead is the playlist that accompanies the book in my imagination.

Sadly, Noam Chomsky could not be talked into singing his contribution." Image: Noam Chomsky gets interviewed by Ali G