"Public diplomacy can have the effect of letting the world know what you think; it can have the effect of satisfying your own personal views and playing to your base, wherever you are, but it may have just the opposite effect in the country where you're making comments about."
--Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Hillary Clinton, Obama's road warrior, snags 'most traveled' title - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor: "[T]he job of secretary of State in the 21st century is not one for a fear-of-flying homebody – or for the teleconference convert. In the post-cold-war world of rising middle powers and an aspiring superpower, China, the top American diplomat must fly the Stars and Stripes in more corners of the world more often. A greater reliance on soft power and public diplomacy to further America’s interests means the secretary of State
has to put in more face time in more places. Being a road warrior can take its toll on the administration’s top traveler. Clinton has recently joked about how 'many days I feel' the effects of her status as most-traveled secretary. Some days she looks fresh and rested when she bounds onto some foreign stage, and other times she looks, well, tired."
Top Image from article, with caption: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton boards her plane for a trip to Haiti at Andrews AFB, Md., on Jan. 30. Clinton logged 165 travel days over 40 trips by the end of January, she is now the most-traveled top US diplomat for the first two years in office. Other image from
Raymond Davis saga: lessons to be learnt - Moeed Pirzada, Daily Times: "When Secretary Clinton came to Pakistan in July of 2010, I again got an opportunity to moderate a discussion with her. But that morning I struggled hard to find an opening sentence that could encapsulate the rather sedate mood since her earlier visit in October of 2009. And I opened by saying, 'Secretary, I am afraid you are coming to a somewhat boring Pakistan; today no one is talking of Blackwater and of Americans running with Pakistani nukes.' She laughed and said, 'Thanks! Boring is good.' Unfortunately, thanks to the Raymond Davis saga, and the way we all handled it — and that includes both Pakistanis and the Americans — this is not boring anymore. Seven months ago, almost like a public barometer, I could feel that relentless engagement and public diplomacy by Clinton, Holbrooke, Mullen and Petraeus on the one hand and countless Pakistanis within and outside the government on the other. There started to appear a level of trust and stability on the horizon of the US-Pakistan relationship, the kind of stability which if sustained can do much good for countless millions in this troubled region. But the events of the past few days have re-ignited the old fears, mistrust, paranoia, and conspiracy theories. The genies of ‘Blackwater’ and ‘denuclearisation’, however unfounded they may be, have again become part of the public discourse. Viewed from the tunnel of time and space, Pakistan looks like Somalia and the US like
imperial Rome. ... [T]he tragedy in Lahore — a double murder, arguments of self-defence that look less than convincing to many, illegally possessed weapons, a third death by manslaughter, issue of fake identity, association with a Blackwater-type organisation, and a diplomatic status that, at best, is controversial — is clearly a unique challenge. ... Let us not kid ourselves; this is not going to be settled inside the Vienna Convention. This needs to be resolved inside the bilateral relations. I wish the indefatigable Holbrooke were around today. Anyway, it is not a secret that Washington has much leverage in Islamabad, so a rough solution may be emerging within the next few days. But as both sides wriggle to get out of this, it is imperative that a small tactical victory should not be allowed to jeopardise the gains of diligent public diplomacy of the last few years." Image from
Egypt Analysis: How the US Should Be Engaging Cairo (Ezell) - "Since 2009, the State Department’s aim was to engage elites while putting forth symbols to pacify Muslim communities. With the approach, Washington ran the risk of winning the 'hearts and minds' of Arab elites through monetary and political persuasion, while creating a deficit of trust with Middle East and North African publics. To move forward, key US officials must take note that neither a dose of White House public interference or a shot of public diplomacy is healthy in this situation. Richard Haass, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, is correct to insist that 'less is more'
from Washington. The White House must cognizant that the Egyptian people must decide the best course of political action for Egypt. ... Appreciating the perspectives of secular Arab youth, grassroots organizations, and Islamist leadership requires must go beyond the State Department’s reactive tools in its high-tech, digital diplomacy, social-networking campaign. Social networking outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have their uses. However, they function in a reactive capacity, allowing Washington to gather the inside story from one direction in real-time. To be proactive, US departments and agencies must exercise broad engagement at an in-depth level. ... With a communication strategy that reaches deep enough into the core of Islamic society, US policymakers can ascertain and appreciate its goals, ensuring Washington is in front of the curve of change. Neither the US use of social media nor its public diplomacy, as they stand, will bring this about. It will take two-way communication, cultivated by direct interaction with those beyond the elites. Are the White House and State Department are prepared to engage directly with these people, even if the Americans encounter a 'radical' Arab nationalism, which challenges the perspectives of Israel and the US 'interests' in the region?" Image from
Near to the Madding crowd - Charlie Metzger, The Daily Princetonian: "[I]t’s sometimes difficult to prioritize human rights in countries such as Egypt. For all the unpleasantness of his regime, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been a valuable U.S. ally and a greater friend to Israel than Iran or Syria. But instead of sitting on our hands while millions suffer, there’s a third way, as the Egypt and Tunisia protests have demonstrated: to focus on education with an aim toward fomenting movements for democratic reform. And though the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are already engaged in public diplomacy to that end, American universities can help the project in two ways. The first is greater expansion abroad. U.S. universities such as New York University and Cornell have been roundly criticized for opening satellite campuses in Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Detractors argue that, for instance, the quality of education offered by NYU Persian Gulf is vastly inferior to that offered by NYU Greenwich Village. In some cases, granted. But whatever the differences between core and satellite campuses, offering young people in the Middle East a Western-style college education is a boon, because the baseline quality of domestic universities is so low. If anything, American education should be pushing outward, not retreating inward. Second, we should increase the ease with which foreigners can come to the United States to study and then send many of them back once they’ve finished academic work here."
US "Hedge Fund" Diplomacy in Egypt - Michael A. Clauser, MountainRunner.us: "It's clear by watching the news that President Mubarak's time as the guarantor of stability in Egypt has come to an end. Not only was he unable to prevent the destabilizing mass protests and rioting, the consequences of his long rule were in part the cause of them. Many in Egypt have come to believe that the continued existence of his regime has become destabilizing in itself. This has significantly reduced his value to the United States. At the same time, America's long-term investments in public diplomacy--freedom of speech and the Internet
to name but two--are rapidly maturing. And each new day brings news reports of ever-swelling crowds in Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere. As a long-time friend to America and its interests, the U.S. must ensure President Mubarak's personal safety. But as an investment, President Obama should seize on this moment to restructure the American position from its short-term orientation and bet the farm on democracy in the long-term." Image from
Egypt Eruption: Dilemma For Democracy - Farooque Chowdhury, CounterCurrents.org: "The elated Egyptian people challenged state power, kept it perplexed for days, made cracks in the wall of authority, but offered it opportunity to reassert its power of authority. While a section of the ruling elites appeared appeasing the revolting people the other, stupid thieves, relied on thugs to quell people’s rising. People’s political initiative faced hard days and significant sacrifice: at least three hundred citizens died for democracy. One journalist has virtually been murdered. The king makers from an Empire afar used all diplomatic tact and powers including public diplomacy to manipulate the boiling situation. People gradually retreated to the backyard of uncertainty with their unfulfilled desire for democracy as jockeying for leadership overwhelmed people’s political actions and people were used as weight in emerging balance of political forces. First scene of first act of contemporary Egyptian politics has virtually come to an end."
Rumsfeld: Mubarak's Behavior Shows He Will Step Down – Eventually - Sara Sorcher, National Journal: "When asked on ABC’s Good Morning America if Rumsfeld thought that it was Mubarak’s 'time to go,'
Rumsfeld avoided the question, stressing that the course would be best handled through private diplomacy. 'Our interest is having that country evolve towards freer political and freer economic systems,' he said. 'In fact that’s true of the whole region,' he said. 'How they get from where they are to where they have to go is something that I think probably is best handled through private diplomacy rather than public diplomacy.'" See also. Image from
Did DC Public Relations Firm Fully Disclose Its Work For Egyptian Steel Tycoon? - Susan Crabtree, TPM: "Qorvis Communications, a powerful player in the DC media world, had a two-year contract with Egyptian steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz from 2007 to 2008. Egyptian protesters have torched the Cairo headquarters of Ezz's multinational steel company three times in the last month, displaying a particular hostility for Ezz and the politically powered wealth he represents . ... Qorvis partner Don Goldberg declined to comment about the contract with Ezz.
He told TPM the account was run by Matt Lauer, the former executive director at the State Department's U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy who joined Qorvis as a director in 2004 and was later promoted to managing director. Goldberg said Lauer was traveling in the Middle East and could not be reached immediately." Ezz image from article
Steven Metz: Islamophobia and the crumbling of American strategy - Posted by Aaron Ellis, Thinking Strategically: "[C]ounter to American assumptions that closed political systems spawn anti-Americanism, the more democratic a government in the Islamic world, the more it reflects and responds to the deeply anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments of its public and the less likely it is to attack extremism directed only against outsiders. A closed political system like those in Egypt or Saudi Arabia can, to an extent, ignore public opinion. They normally exercise control over their military and intelligence services. More democratic states like Pakistan cannot, thus making them vulnerable to the whims of public opinion and willing to overlook any relationship that their militaries and intelligence services has with extremists. The notion that public diplomacy and strategic communication would address these problems also proved false. Ultimately it does not matter whether the perceptions of the United States which are common in the Islamic world – that Washington is in the thrall of Israel, deliberately seeks to keep Islamic nations weak by any means available, and wants to politically dominate the Islamic world so as to exploit its resources – are accurate. The naive American trust in the power of objective truth does not work in a deadly struggle with extremism. Beliefs matter more than reality. Hostility, anti-Americanism,
and misperception are simply parts of the strategic terrain, as immutable as mountains or swamps. Changing deep set perceptions and attitudes is like changing physical terrain: it may be possible over an extended period of time and at great cost and effort, but is normally not the wisest course of action. Yet the United States continued to rumble along with a strategy based on wishful thinking rather than cold reality." Image from
Reagan is Out, Obama is In - U.S. Embassies in Central and Eastern Europe Ignore 100 Anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Birthday - TedLipien.com: One would think that the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birthday could be a perfect public diplomacy theme for all U.S. embassies in Central and Eastern Europe — a great opportunity for embassy-sponsored events to strengthen ties with America among diverse nations that owe their current independence and freedom in large part to President Reagan’s vision combined with his steadfastness in standing up to the 'Evil Empire.' And yet, both highly-trained and highly-paid U.S. diplomats working in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc[...] by and large completely ignored the anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birthday. ... The U.S. Embassy in Kyiev, Ukraine had a posting on the upcoming visit of Mary Wilson of The Supremes and 'The Story of The Supremes Exhibit' — certainly, a better example of American culture than hip-hop — but again nothing on Ronald Reagan. Keep in mind that all of these are U.S. public diplomacy events subsidized in some way by U.S. taxpayers. ... The U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania, features on its website a link to the State Department website page 'Dreams for My Mother, Dreams for My Daughter' on empowering women and girls as a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, but again nothing about Ronald Reagan. (I wonder how this public diplomacy theme in support of women’s rights squares with sponsoring hip-hop events by U.S. diplomatic posts. Mr. Obama likes hip-hop, but would Hillary Clinton approve spending U.S. taxpayers’ money on promoting musical culture described as 'ignorant, misogynistic, casually criminal and often violent'?) ... In Poland, a special website devoted to the 100 anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birthday
urged the Poles to sign an online thank-you card to honor the memory of the former U.S. president. ... NGOs, government bodies, and private citizens throughout the region organized numerous other events to celebrate Ronald Reagan’s legacy, thus putting U.S. diplomats, the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale, and the rest of the State Department to shame. ... I would argue that almost nothing was done by U.S. embassies in Central and Eastern Europe for this important anniversary because U.S. public diplomacy has become the domain of self-serving bureaucrats working within a broken, non-functioning system at the State Department." Image from article
The Peculiar Case of US Embassy Luxembourg – Three Wrongs Don’t Make It Right - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View: "The State Department can and should be blamed ... for assigning as public affairs officer [to the American Embassy in Luxembourg] an unqualified – and painfully incompetent consular coned foreign service officer with only two stints under her belt – neither in public diplomacy - before being sent to head the albeit miniscule public affairs office at American Embassy Luxembourg. ... According to the inspectors, a public diplomacy strategic planning document – which had been left by a predecessor – was in rough form at best. (Note: such documents crucial for well functioning public diplomacy disappeared after the destruction of USIS in 1999 only to resurface near the beginning of the Obama administration). The strategic planning document in Luxembourg such as it is, was ignored by the current PAO [Public Affairs Officer], according to the Inspectors."
The Big Jingle-Jangle over Ankle Cuffs: How an Incompetent Public Affairs Officer Can Make an Awkward Situation Unbelievably Worse - Patricia Lee Sharpe, Whirled View: "Note to State Department personnel officers: PAOs
[Public Affairs Officers] should know the country to which they are posted. They should also have a sophisticated knowledge of U.S. culture. Then they can put the two together in an appropriate way when the unexpected happens. And deadly boilerplate statements from Washington are no substitute for quick-thinking, well-informed, sensitive, intelligent officers." Image from
Feb 05 2011 / Mayor of Charlotte Receives Visit and a Song from YES Students - Bina Antarbudaya: The Indonesian Foundation for Intercultural Learning: "Kennedy-Lugar YES students Mervenur Luy from Turkey and Azka Bastaman and Ayeshadira Putri from Indonesia, hosted in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, recently had the chance to visit with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx."
Azka Bastaman used her vocal skills in the interest of public diplomacy by singing the US National Anthem." On the YES program, see. Image from article
What About Darfur? A new video raises questions about the level of attention the White House is giving the suffering region - Rebecca Hamilton, New Republic: "[L]ast Wednesday, the White House posted footage from rural Darfur. The video, part of a series called 'West Wing Week,' follows Scott Gration, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, as he travels throughout the country during the referendum. ... [T]he White House video says that recent Sudanese government actions in Deribat were undertaken with the intention of doing something good for the civilian population. Why that population is no longer in the town is left unexplained. ... 'West Wing Week' is a tech-savvy tool in the U.S. government’s public diplomacy. It is surely the responsibility of the White House, which commissions the weekly videos and then posts them online, to review what is being presented in its name."
VOA's girl-child education project in Nigeria - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Cable de presiones de EE UU para que Guatemala vete ley impulsara los medicamentos genéricos - "Date: 2005-03-11 19:09:00 Origin: 05GUATEMALA659 Source: Embassy Guatemala Classification: CONFIDENTIAL ... SBU) Summary: Guatemala's Congress passed legislation by an overwhelming majority to reinstate data protection for drugs and agrochemicals, paving the way for consideration of the CAFTA in the U.S. Congress. This was the end of a drama played out over years that was fraught with misinformation, conflict of interest, partisan politics, and a pronounced lack of decisiveness by top political leaders. It has consumed in aggregate more of our full-time attention than any other issue in recent months. ... Public Diplomacy Blitzkrieg 1.(U) Parallel to the U.S. private diplomacy effort to get satisfactory new legislation drafted and ready, we launched a major public diplomacy effort to spread the message that data protection wasn't the obstacle to affordable public health that opponents were claiming.
Starting with columnists and editorial writers from the print press, we then placed an op-ed by the Ambassador in a leading daily, appeared on many of the most widely heard radio interview and debate programs, and debated Asinfargua and a pro-generics NGO (coached by Doctors Without Borders) on the country's leading television public affairs program (Dionisio Gutierrez's 'Libre Encuentro'). We also methodically approached leaders of the major political parties and their congressional whips to debunk the myths circulated by the opponents of data protection and IPR. Many had come to believe that data protection amounted to a ban on generics and were surprised to learn that no drug that had received data protection under the vilified decree 9-2003 was available in generic form in the U.S., the world's largest consumer by value of generic medications." Image from article
Russian Officials To Attend Town BD Meeting - pfeiner.blogspot.com: "Visiting local elected officials and administrative offices from Russia ... will attend the Town Board work session Tuesday morning and the Town Board meeting Wednesday evening. These leaders (including Mayors from Russian towns) are participating in the Open World Program. The goal: to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the United States and Russia. The leaders are gaining significant, firsthand exposure to America's democratic government and our free market system. Funded almost entirely by the U.S. Congress, Open World links Members of Congress to Eurasian leaders and is an instrument for Americans engaged in citizen diplomacy. Since its founding by Congress in 1999, the Open World program has enabled some 16,000 current and future Eurasian leaders to experience American democracy, civil society and community life; work with their American counterparts; stay in American homes; and gain new ideas and inspiration for implementing change back home. More than 6,000 American host families and their communities in all 50 states have partnered with Congress and Open World to make this ambitious public diplomacy effort possible."
Hollywood: Cultural Diplomacy at Its Loudest and Angriest - Alex Franklin, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "[T]hose who consume our [Hollywood] entertainment content in mass quantities are more interested in stories about sex and violence than they are in stories of responsibility and civil obedience. And that will never change. ... [P]ractitioners of public and cultural diplomacy have to figure out a new way to understand the people like me who create Hollywood content. In the coming months, I’m going to examine some of Hollywood’s most violent and extreme movies and television shows, its loudest and angriest cultural exports, and talk to the working class men and women who made them.
I’m going to ask them about their reasons for making these movies and television shows, whether they’ve ever considered the potential global impact of their content, and whether they care. And I will report what I find here on the CPD Blog. For such a long time it has seemed like the agendas of Hollywood and Public Diplomacy are completely incompatible. And maybe that’s true. In exploring this topic, I have absolutely no idea what will come of this. But bite your nails and cross your fingers, because this will not be gentle." Image from
Prime Minister should visit Iran - M K Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline: "US is no position to project another sanctions resolution on Iran. Our [']pro-US’ and ‘pro-israel’ lobbies, especially within the establishment (as well as some ex-establishment figures with their personal agenda) and the media should realise the great damage they have caused to national interests. Delhi must shift gear to repair the damage.
A cosmetic touch here, a dip into public diplomacy there - No, Sir, that won’t do. The bedrock of India-Iran strategic understanding has always been the bonding between the two leaderships at the highest level. Strange as it may sound, it actually requires very little effort for India to make up with Iran - an overdue return visit by our prime minister to Iran must be undertaken." Image from
Public Diplomacy and the London Olympics - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "The concept is for a large part of the PD activity to be delivered by posts allowing them to develop activities that address the the situation in the host countriy. Of course the issue is to what extent posts actually do this. ... The central unit supporting Olympic PD has three people and its budget was taken away during last Autumn’s spending review. Given that a lot of PD is going to be post based and use existing budgets then you wonder what being a priority country really means."
Fractious ex-GPO head secures senior post at ministry - Gili Izikovich, haaretz.com: "Danny Seaman, the controversial former director of the Government Press Office, was recently appointed deputy director general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and has been serving in the position for a week. ... Officials at the Public Diplomacy Ministry,
which is part of the Prime Minister's Office, said Seaman won the tender for the job despite opposition from the director general, adding that it would be up to Seaman to define the new position." Seaman image from article
Erdan turns down UN post to work on environment - Gil Hoffman, Jerusalem Post: "Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan ended months of speculation about whether he would accept an offer to become ambassador to the UN when he announced on Tuesday that he had decided to remain at his ministry. ... 'It would have been an honor to represent Israel at the UN,”
Erdan said at an environmental business conference at Netanya’s Island Hotel. 'We are facing a serious challenge there in our public diplomacy. I had a difficult time deciding. But in the end, I decided to follow my conscience. The environmental revolution is the most important thing for me, and I want to complete all the reforms I initiated and help Israel become more green.'” Erdan image from article.
Isn't Nepal Prez Yadav answerable? - Telegraphnepal.com: "As a communication process, writes John T Rourke in his book 'International Politics On the World Stage' ... diplomacy has basically three elements which were, first the negotiation, the second is signaling-saying or doing something with the intent of sending message to another government, and the third element is surely the public diplomacy wherein diplomacy, writes the author, moves away from its traditional mode of communication, which is between governments, and enters the more modern practice of trying to persuade a wider audience, including public opinion in another country and world opinion in general which later turns into a sort of propaganda."
Strategy and International Cultural Relations - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: "I’ve mentioned before that part of my reading over Christmas was J.M. Mitchell’s International Cultural Relations. Mitchell worked for the British Council from 1949-1985 rising to become Assistant Director-General so on one level this is an insider’s perspective but because Mitchell is also concerned with the cultural relations
practice of France, Italy and Germany it doesn’t become too UK centric. ... A 25 year old text on cultural relations may not be the top of your reading list but for those of us who’ve come at Public Diplomacy from more ‘political’ angle International Cultural Relations is well worth the investment of time." Image from
Slovakia - Martonyi and Schwarzenberg will appear at the GLOBSEC Security Forum - isria.com: "The sixth edition of prestigious GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum, held on 2nd - 4th March at the Kempinski Hotel River Park Bratislava, will be in the sign of the V4. The Visegrad Group itself commemorates 20 years of its existence, the political situation in the four countries creates a positive environment for deepening cooperation and Hungary and Poland are taking the Presidency of the EU. ... The event will be organized by the Slovak Atlantic Commission in cooperation with the European Commission Representation in Slovakia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and the NATO Public Diplomacy division."
An Ecology of Engagement: Notes from Social Media Week London event - joannejacobs.net: "Forthcoming & recent appearances [:] 1 March 2011 NATO Public Diplomacy Summit, Brussels Belgium (Keynote)."
Students visit Iraq over winter break NIMEP trip - Tufts Daily: "Eleven Tufts students with the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP) spent two weeks in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq on a fact-finding mission in January.
Participants met with several local leaders, including Kurdistan's regional president Massoud Barzani. ... NIMEP is an Institute of Global Leadership (IGL) program that aims to find solutions to conflicts in the Middle East. Part of NIMEP's mission is to perform an annual fact-finding mission, according to IGL Director Sherman Teichman. The Kurdistan trip, part of the Robert and JoAnn Bendetson Public Diplomacy Initiative, is the eighth in the group's history, Teichman said." Image from article, with caption: A group of students traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan over winter break on a NIMEP fact-finding research trip.
FSOT of the Damned - Saffron Monsoon, onlythetruthandnothingbut.blogspot.com: "Well... I took the FSOT yesterday. As you know by now, it was my second round, the first being in October 2009. Back then, I picked Consular. This time, I picked Public Diplomacy. I cannot reveal content due to the NDA, but hooooooey, there were some headbangers on that Job Knowledge section! That test certainly did not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. I remember walking out of the October 2009 test thinking, 'Hmm. That seemed alright. I don't feel too bad!' This time, I walked out thinking, 'Well, that was unpleasant.' EE was fine. Bio was fine. Essays were worded trickily, but they both went well enough. I did the usual five paragraph crank-out for both essays, and they were coherent. It seems that JK is going to be the wild card. We'll see how it goes. Results will be reported in 3-5 weeks."
College Global Briefings - USC Council of Academic Advisors: "College Global Briefings bring together scholars whose expertise will help students, staff, and faculty understand the history behind contemporary world events. The first briefing will be a panel on 'What's Really Going on in Egypt,' with faculty from History, International Relations, Political Science, and Public Diplomacy, scheduled for Thursday, February 17th."
The Big Picture - Molly Sisson, Public Diplomacy and Student Exchanges: Experiences of American Students in Britain:
"I can't believe this book even exists... And no, I'm not reading it. ... I'm fairly happy with my revised research question. Before: 'In this empirical study of American students in Britain, I will assess the extent to which foreign students fulfil public diplomacy aims during their academic sojourns.' (from my original PhD proposal) Now: 'What is the role of American Fulbright Program participants in the contemporary conduct of U.S. public diplomacy?' This is more focused on the public diplomacy side, rather than the student experience side. The PD lit was more interesting to me, and looking over the study abroad lit, this new question is more original. I remember Phil Taylor telling me, when I first suggested the topic, that I'd get 'points for originality, no matter how it turns out.' I'd like to think he'd approve of the new question, too." Image from article
A Personal Perspective on the Tunisian Revolution - Alyssa Alfano, e-International Relations: "As Obama said in his State of the Union Address, 'The will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator…The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia.' While it is encouraging to have the President’s distant support, Tunisians and protesters around the world have an even better tool at their disposal: social media. Alyssa Alfano is a junior studying International Relations and Journalism at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. She studied Arabic as a Critical Language Scholar with the U.S. Department of State in Tunisia in the summer of 2010. She is currently interning in the Press and Public Diplomacy section of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations."
Public Diplomacy Officer - Capstone Corporation Mission System - workforcongress.com [subscription]: "The Public Diplomacy Officer is a critical element of the command and is responsible for providing trusted advice and counsel on the public implications of organizational operations." Below image from
Jobs: Media Assistant - janglo.net: "The British Embassy in Israel is looking for a Media Assistant to join its Press and Political Section. The initial contract will be for one year, with a three-month probationary period. This is a good opportunity for a motivated self-starter to make a real contribution to the Embassy’s media and public diplomacy work. The successful candidate will assist the Media & Public Diplomacy Officer in implementing the Embassy’s communications strategy."
Message from Sandie Dawe: VisitBritain Refocus - ivisitorguide.blogspot.com: "The following Special Bulletin was released by Visit Britain today. Expect more announcements shortly on other aspects of the changing tourism landscape. ... Staff in overseas offices will continue to gather market intelligence; look after trade and press contacts, arrange and facilitate sales missions and trade events; secure partners on-territory and look after public diplomacy liaison, as well as help deliver the marketing programme."
RELATED ITEMS
U.S. shouldn't interfere with man's trial in Pakistan - Selig S. Harrison, USA Today: A pistol-packin' private American security contractor on a motorcycle kills two Pakistani civilians allegedly attempting to rob him. Another Pakistani is killed when a U.S. diplomat from the nearby consulate in Lahore, rushing to the rescue, goes the wrong way down a one-way road. This debacle is the new symbol of a hated U.S. presence that feeds the propaganda mills of the growing Islamist forces in Pakistan. The Lahore killings, in one of the nation's most populous shopping districts, have made "Yankee Go Home" the new battle cry of the heartland. What the U.S. should do now is accept Pakistan's handling of the Davis case without interference and then phase out all private security operations to defuse Pakistani public opinion.
Commando Solo to restore internet in Egypt? Problematic - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: Commando Solo is a psyop (now called MISO, or military information support to operations) tool, to be used in areas where the US military is fighting or occupying. Commando Solo univited over Egypt would be a violation of sovereignty that would probably not appreciated by either the Egyptian government or the opposition. Protesters in Egypt could set up satellite nodes to reach satellite broadband internet services, or low-earth-orbiting satellites for e-mails and tweets. Individuals could connect to these by getting close to the nodes, and accessing via wifi or a LAN cable.
Could al Qaeda Hijack Egypt's Revolution? Terrorists in Pakistan and mullahs in Tehran want to see chaos in Cairo. A splintered army and premature elections would help their cause - Kenneth M. Pollack, Wall Street Journal: The uprising in Egypt is far from over,
and neither is America's necessary role. We must work to guard against the worst outcomes, which may seem remote but are all too likely in the unpredictable maelstrom of revolution. The U.S., as Egypt's friend and ally, must try to prevent a revolution made in the name of democracy from being hijacked by something much worse. Image from article
Needed: New national security thinking - Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post: The civilian side of U.S. diplomacy - foreign aid, human rights and the State Department - is a target of the deepest budget cuts by the Republican right. The uprisings in the Middle East expose, once more, the utter folly of the neoconservative doctrine championed by George W. Bush, which posited that democracy could be imposed at the tip of a bayonet (or more accurately, at the dropping of a bomb). America is exceptional, we're told, not because we are rich but because our country was founded on an idea. But we have become a status quo nation, invested in stability, above all, while the idea that people have the right to govern themselves is insurrectionary. The uprising sweeping the Middle East suggests that we better think hard about that contradiction.
Egypt's revolution to win or lose - George F. Will, Washington Post: In the National Endowment for Democracy and elsewhere, the U.S. government has access to reservoirs of talent for helping Egypt improvise an infrastructure of representative government. But this must be done with exquisite delicacy because, happily, the Egyptian regime is being shaken primarily by nationalists. Indelicate American assistance for democratization could cause a recoil from those crowds eager to be proud of an Egyptian outcome. We still do not know how the process begun by America's intervention in Iraq will end - or, for that matter, how to mark the "end" of a great historical convulsion. In Egypt, Egyptians will tell us how it ends.
Up With Egypt - Thomas L. Friedman: The Egyptian revolt is primarily about a people fed up with being left behind in a world where they can so clearly see how far others have vaulted ahead. The good news is that many Egyptians know where they are, and they don’t want to waste another day. The sad news is how hard catching up will be. Below image from
Mr. Suleiman’s Empty Promises - Editorial, New York Times: The United States and the European Union may not have been able to wheedle or push President Hosni Mubarak from power. Still, they badly miscalculated when they endorsed Egypt’s vice president, Omar Suleiman, to lead the transition to democracy. Mr. Suleiman may talk sweetly to Washington and Brussels. But he appears far more interested in maintaining as much of the old repressive order as he can get away with. That is unacceptable to Egypt’s people, and it should be unacceptable to Egypt’s Western supporters.
Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South) – 090130UTC Feb 11 - MILNEWS.ca Blog
AP Pushes Pro-Islam Entertainment Propaganda - Matt Philbin, Media Research Center: A recent Associated Press article uncritically detailed an initiative of the Muslim Public Affairs Counsel to bring "more representative picture of Muslim-Americans on the screen."The problem, according to the article, is that in the entertainment industry, "he Muslim-as-terrorist plot line has been an accepted story for years."The article offers no examples to back up that assertion and with good reason - there's a serious shortage of them. Hollywood has in fact been extremely reluctant to paint anything but a positive portrayal of Muslims since 9/11.
Students Seen ‘Suspicious’ Of Israel Education: ShareStudy released at national day school conference; technology, special ed also major themes - Julie Wiener and Gary Rosenblatt, thejewishweek.com: Mike, a junior at a Jewish day school, says he has a deep and unwavering connection to Israel, but also acknowledges that he feels he has been “spoon fed propaganda” about the Jewish state from his teachers over the years. That ambivalence is typical of day school students, according to a study unveiled this week at the annual North American Jewish Day School Conference here, attended by more than 600 educators from Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and community day schools across the U.S. and Canada.
Khodorkovski film shows a look behind the propaganda machine of Vladimir Putin - Danish, coffetoday.com: "Khodorkovski film by German director Cyril Tuschi, is showing a look behind the propaganda machine of Vladimir Putin, and how former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who in 2004 was the country’s richest man, became a public enemy and was imprisoned for tax evasion, after questionable processes, with a sentence until 2017, was stolen this weekend, and the director now fears for his safety."
New Roman Museum Highlights Baroque Church - Katie Parla, New York Times: Lovers of Baroque art and architecture can add one more stop to their Rome travel itinerary: the recently inaugurated Museo Missionario di Propaganda Fide. The new museum, which documents four centuries of the Catholic Church’s missionary work, has opened in part of the 17th-century Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture designed by the period’s leading architects, Francesco Borromini and Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Visitors to the museum will have access to halls and chapels in the Palazzo that are open to the public on a permanent basis for the first time. The Museo Missionario (www.museopropagandafide.it) narrates the history of Roman Catholic missions through documents, photographs, sculptures and models. The collection draws from the art cache and archives of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, a religious order established by Pope Gregory XV in 1622; it was later renamed the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples by Pope John Paul II. The Palazzo served as the headquarters of the Congregation, the purpose of which was to spread Catholicism and to protect missionaries from persecution.
Book Review [The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives Of A Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles]: Peddling the Soviet ‘big lie’ - Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times: One of the Soviet Union’s crowning intelligence achievements was the creation of a vast propaganda network, the Communist International, or Comintern, charged with putting an innocent face on a brutal ideology and enlisting the support of political naifs worldwide who were too misty-eyed to see through the scam. From the Comintern’s founding in 1919, Vladimir Lenin’s scheme was to present it as “another political party” working within the democratic process. As he wrote in the early 1920s, “In order to placate the deaf-mutes [we must] proclaim the fictional separation of [the Soviet] government … from the Comintern, declaring this agency to be an independent political group. The deaf-mutes will believe it.” (“Deaf-mutes” seems an apt description of people who often were described as “useful idiots,” a term credited frequently to Lenin but that scholars have never found in his published works.) Jonathan Miles,
a cultural scholar, vividly portrays the tangled life of Otto Katz, a German-speaking Czech Jew who at an early age was drawn into the vibrant literary and cultural life of post-World War I Prague. Here we have biography at its readable best: characters who were rogues and charlatans but unfailingly interesting. Mesmerized by the theater, chiefly because of “its ready supply of pretty women,” Katz became a figure on the European arts scene and especially the German film industry. One of his early crushes was the young Marlene Dietrich, who captivated audiences (the males, at any rate) by often “forgetting” to wear a wardrobe item that most women consider essential.
MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
"we need to work on building up these theories without terrorizing the field, our colleagues, and more importantly the practitioners."
Efe Sevin, "Theory & Place Branding: Theorizing or Terrorizing?"
"The media-saturated environment in which we live has been called 'the information age' when, in fact, it's the data age. Information is data arranged in an intelligible order. Journalism is information collected and analyzed in ways people actually can use. ... '[C]ontent' ... is what journalism becomes when it's adulterated into a mere commodity."
--Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten
