September 5

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God."

--Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, speaking in a church last June about the U.S. miltary in Iraq

“The only good thing about reading the news is that occasionally you come across a Russian word you don't know.”

--Moscow-based translator and interpreter Michelle Berdy

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

U.S. Broadcasting Board Out of Sync with White House on Georgia and Russia - Ted Lipen, Free Media on Line Blog: Due to the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors) -ordered cuts, VOA Georgian service has already been reduced to only 4 persons. And in an incredible foreign policy blunder, the BBG ended all VOA radio broadcasts to Russia just 12 days before the Russian troops attacked Georgia. If the war had not started, the BBG would have also cut VOA Georgian radio broadcasts.

"RFE/RL Indispensable in 20 Countries" – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: article from Süddeutsche Zeitung under the headline: "The Fortress -- Paid for by America, Headquartered in Prague, Indispensable in 20 Countries: A Visit to Radio Free Europe."

Israel turns Gaza into prison for Fulbright Scholar - Zohair M. Abu Shaban, The Electronic Intifada: “As a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, I could not have been more proud to learn last June that I had earned a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States. … Hundreds of students like me, with scholarships to study abroad, are being arbitrarily denied the right to leave Gaza to fulfill our educational aspirations.”

How I Lost My Fulbright Scholarship: Israel Hinders Academic Pursuits - Osama Dawoud, counterpunch: “Through a Ph.D. at the University of Utah, I hoped to expand my expertise and help solve Gaza's acute water pollution. My individual loss, however, is part and parcel of Israel's decision to keep Gaza impoverished and ill-educated.”

Heavy metal 'hasbara' - David Brinn, The Jerusalem Post: On Swedish rockers Sabaton’s 2006 song "Counterstrike," their praise for the military victory achieved by the IDF in 1967's Six Day War reads like a speech that Israel's representative at the UN might give in defense of her country. It's highly improbable that the Foreign Ministry is aware of this song, the latest hasbara (public diplomacy) tool in Israel's arsenal.

Selling a Vision of Hope To Advance Clean Technology and Peace in the Middle East - Green Prophet Guest, Green Prophet: Cleantech and Green Living from the Land of the Prophets: Selling a Vision of Hope to advance clearn technology and peace in the Middle East has five parts to it, like the five fingers of your hand. The ring finger is for public diplomacy: As we begin to sell our Vision of Hope, it becomes incumbent on us to sustain the vision by launching a series of public diplomacy programs which are specifically designed to prop the vision up, and to carry it forward, such as media campaigns and programs to empower women.

'Pigs' en Financial Times‏ - Felipe Santos, diplomacia pública: Cada vez es más importante en las estrategias de diplomacia pública la coordinación de acciones desde estamentos diferentes como el propio servicio exterior y las empresas españolas, sobre todo las que tienen una nutrida presencia en el extranjero. Un ejemplo es la asociación norteamericana Business for Diplomatic Action.

Australian High Commission launches website in Hindi – Australian Visa Bureau: Currently, the website is used by Indians who wish to travel to Australia for tourist, educational or business reasons, and as a tool by the Australian Government to promote Australia’s involvement in development projects in India and public diplomacy initiatives.

IPRA in Beijing – VirtusViews: The XVII International Public Relations Association (IPRA) World Congress, Nov. 13-15 includes presentations on PR trends in Asia, brand globalization, PR and public diplomacy, new media and PR online, developing new leaders in PR, communicating with the next generation and that continuing baffler, how to prove the true value of PR (via measurement, assessment, and evaluation).

Former professor becomes diplomat - Nathan Grossman, gwhatchet.com: Former School of Media and Public Affairs professor Robert Callahan recently transitioned to his new role as the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua and said his time at GW helped him prepare for the diplomatic post. Callahan worked as a Public Diplomacy Fellow at SMPA before receiving his ambassadorial appointment on July 24.

Foreign Affairs officer gets top scholarship - Barry Bateman, Independent Online, South Africa: In two weeks, department of foreign affairs employee Sewela Sebola, 27, jets off to the United Kingdom to embark on a masters degree in strategic marketing and consultation at the University of Birmingham's business school. Sebola is a deputy director in the public diplomacy unit and her duties include finding platforms for communicating South Africa's foreign policy.

RELATED ITEMS

Exploring Sarah Palin’s Worldview: Early Report: World Views of the Republican Ticket – Melinda Brouwer, Foreign Policy Association: Public Diplomacy and the 20008 Presidential Elections

Foreign policy factions try to influence McCain – David E. Sanger, International Herald Tribune: Many Republicans -- and some of McCain's own advisers -- have been looking for hints as to whether he will appeal to the base by leaning toward the more confrontational, go-it-alone approach of President George W. Bush's first term, or whether he will adopt the somewhat chastened, let's-negotiate tone of the second term, an approach that has driven many of the hawks in the party to despair.

The Next Front: Seven years after 9/11, John McCain still doesn't get the war on terrorism - Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The New Republic: McCain's approach toward terrorism fails to take into account the many factors that affect the jihadists' ability to promote their cause and carry out attacks. Above all, it ignores the motivational power of the jihadist "story" -- the contention, made by Osama bin Laden and others, that the United States is a predatory power which seeks to occupy Muslim countries, destroy Islam, and steal the Middle East's oil wealth.

U.S. In Somalia: Republic of Blowback - Ken Menkhaus and Karin von Hippel, International Herald Tribune: American diplomatic, intelligence and military activity designed to reduce Islamic radicalism and the threat of terrorism in Somalia have instead helped to catalyze a much more powerful, popular, shockingly violent and stridently anti-American jihadist movement.

Collateral Tragedies - Mark Thompson, Time: Whatever the tally, officials both inside and outside the U.S. military say attacks that kill civilians occur with distressing regularity; they generate headlines only when dozens die. Such attacks yield propaganda gold for the Taliban, which feeds on anti-American rage.

Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison getting makeover - Bushra Juhi, Associated Press: The notorious Abu Ghraib prison is getting a face-lift: work to reopen the facility and construct a museum documenting Saddam Hussein's crimes -- but not the abuses committed there by U.S. guards. The photos from Abu Ghraib brought another serious stain to America's reputation after worldwide protests against the March 2003 invasion.

How to Manage Savagery - Bret Stephens, Commentary: Much of world conflict is now overwhelmingly characterized by fighting and competition not between or among civilizations but within them. And nowhere is this truer than in the Muslim world. Meanwhile, precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would have been seen by jihadists and their fellow travelers in a similar light to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988 -- as proof that it was possible to defeat a superpower, and as a harbinger of their enemies’ complete rout.

Going on an Imperial Bender: How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice - Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: There are 194 countries on the planet (more or less), and officially 39 of them have American "facilities," large and/or small. Americans have, of course, always prided themselves on exporting "democracy," not empire. So empire-talk hasn't generally been an American staple and, perhaps for that reason, all those bases prove an awkward subject to bring up or focus too closely on.

History Of Marketing Propaganda And Public Relations - Dmitry Davydov, Best Free Documentaries: Marketing propaganda was developed during World War I by the Creel Commission of the Wilson administration to bring the USA into the war against Germany. This propaganda was so successful that American business incorporated its techniques, calling it public relations.

VIDEO

We Deserve Better Propaganda Than This – Radio Galaxy: “The other night I went to the movies. Before the show started, they screened an ad for the National Guard, which they have been doing, at this theater, for years now. Some of them have been pretty good. Emotionally affecting. Putting a human face on the people in uniform, and all that. But this one was different, an absurd stew of some of the clumsiest propaganda to hit the screen since the 1950s.”