December 1

"Batman is Batman, regardless of if Bush is in the White House or not.”

--Jeffrey Schlesinger, the head of international television at Warner Brothers

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Sens. Chambliss, Graham and McCaskill on "Fox News Sunday" – RealClearPolitics: Columnist William Kristol re the terrorist attacks in Mumbai: “[O]ur government has not done enough to show solidarity with the Indians; the world's largest democracy, a good partner and ally of our economically and strategically. And the idea that Secretary of State Rice isn't yet on her way over there to visit and show solidarity, I'm a little surprised by that. I think she'll do it this week. But I really think it's very important. This is a -- you know, the criticism of the Bush administration is always, what happened to the public diplomacy? This is a moment when we can really show solidarity with what is maybe our most important strategic ally in the world. And I think we could do a little more to do that.“

U.S.-funded youth center aims to lure Palestinian teens from extremism - Associated Press, Haaretz: "A U.S.-funded youth center that has opened in the West Bank village of Beita is meant to show America at its can-do best: It will teach English and computer courses, hoping to provide an antidote to political extremism along the way. The Beita center is one of five to open across the West Bank, with a total investment of $5 million by USAID, the international aid arm of the U.S. government. .... James Glassman, who leads the U.S. State Department's effort to improve America's image abroad, attended the ceremony [opening the center]. Glassman has been promoting what he calls a war of ideas, or confronting violent ideologies and trying to lure young people away from extremism by offering them economic opportunities. Youth centers and exchange programs are an important tool, he said." VIA

Noting Washington - DIP's Dispatches from the Imagination Age: “On January 12, 2009 at 11:00 am, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman will be a guest on a live internet broadcast from the virtual world of Second Life that features eight Egyptian political bloggers who covered the US Presidential Election and are learning about how the American political system works. This event is sponsored by the American University in Cairo, funded by USAID and produced by Dancing Ink Productions. It will include real-time chat between a live internet audience and event participants in the virtual world of Second Life. The US State Department is collaborating on Glassman's participation in this event.” RIGHT: Image from Second Life

PD Council Posts "Proposals for the Obama Administration" – GlobalPerspective, Reinventing Public Diplomacy: “The Public Diplomacy Council released in early November a series of ‘Proposals for the Obama Administration’ on how to improve U.S. public diplomacy in both theory and practice. … the piece argues for the abolition of the Broadcasting Board of Governors as its exists, and instead advocates a ‘new nonpartisan oversight commission that would assume more of an advisory role, leaving daily management in the hands of a commission-appointed professional CEO, the VOA director, and the presidents of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcast Networks (Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV), and Radio-TV Marti to Cuba.’This author is curious as to whether the proposed changes more closely reflect a model of ‘things as they once were’ under USIA, or if they represent a true ‘step forward’ in creating 21st century U.S. Government-sponsored broadcast institutions.”

Knowing Too Much – Broadnax, World-Wide-Matel: “We found more than thirty official or authoritative studies of American public diplomacy compiled after 9/11. This doesn’t even include the whole cottage industry producing popular speculation, magazine articles and general gnashing of teeth about 'why they hate us.' Maybe we know enough to draw conclusions. Maybe we even know too much. This is what I am thinking about as my group prepares to make our own contribution to this huge library.”

Sideline Chatter: Grocery stocker Kurt Warner coming out of retirement? - Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Times reader Bill Littlejohn, on oft-injured outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.'s appointment as an American Public Diplomacy Envoy: ‘Shouldn't he be Surgeon General?’"

Where now for India-Pakistan? – thariel, contrapuntal:“The Pakistani state has rendered itself deeply unpopular in the eyes of its own people whenever it has appeared to be engaged in counterinsurgency/counterterrorism operations at the behest of an external actor such as the US. This will hold even truer if the demand comes from India. … Should India feel the need to engage in coercive diplomacy (surrender the people we want for questioning, or else...) it needs to do this very discreetly. Its public diplomacy should be all about making common cause with Pakistan. This shouldn't be difficult to do.”

In conversation with Marcin Wasilewski - Stuart Nicholson, jazz.com: "Today, as Poland sheds the remnants of its communist past, jazz enjoys a special place in the nation’s affection, thanks in no small part to Willis Conover’s Music USA and Jazz Hour broadcasts on Voice of America—the short wave radio station heard by an estimated 100 million people behind the former Iron Curtain during the darkest days of the Cold War. As a result of Conover’s broadcasts, Poles will probably always associate jazz with freedom and an idealized vision of America as the 'citadel on the hill' and the 'last best hope for mankind.'” PHOTO: American radio jazz commentator Willis Conover (center) surrounded by friends, from left: Andrzej Jaroszewski from Polish Radio, Jacek Wapinski, Jan Byrczek, Alexander Skale from Yugoslavia, Barbara Wittwer, JF Art Editor Rafal Olbinski and Ryszard Gruszczynski. VIA

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. media thrive worldwide, but not U.S. image - Tim Arango, International Herald Tribune: In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured. Hollywood movies routinely sell far more tickets overseas than at home. Joseph Nye, Jr. the Harvard professor who coined the phrase "soft power" in 1989 to refer to the ways beyond military muscle that America influences the world “American culture remains attractive … American values remain attractive. Which is the opposite of what the president has said -- that they hate us for who we are and what we believe in."

Global Classrooms: Going Off to College for Less (Passport Required) - Tamar Lewin, New York Times: With higher education fast becoming a global commodity, universities worldwide -- many of them in Canada and England -- are competing for the same pool of affluent, well-qualified students, and more American students are heading overseas not just for a semester abroad, but for their full degree program.

A handpicked team for a foreign policy shift – David Sanger, International Herald Tribune: All all three of Obama’s choices -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; General James Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert Gates, the current and future defense secretary -- were selected in large part because they have embraced a sweeping shift of resources in the national security arena. The shift, which would come partly out of the military's huge budget, would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.

Will Obama and Clinton work as a team? They’ve had differences, but Obama is expected to name her as secretary of State - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor: Where question marks do arise is over how Mr. Obama and Clinton will overcome the foreign-policy differences that arose over the course of a long, heated primary campaign. Those differences -- sometimes sharp -- ranged from the decision to go to war in Iraq to the wisdom of speaking to America’s enemies without preconditions.

Obama's Foreign Policy Team Earns High Praise, But Concern About Clintons - Sam Stein, Huffington Post

Clinton, Gates -- The Unveiling - James Warren, Huffington Post: Questions for Hillary Clinton

Hawks for Hillary: Why are conservatives heaping praise on Obama's new secretary of state? Barron YoungSmith, New Republic: “What's with the right's newfound love for Clinton? I spoke with a number of conservative foreign-policy eminences to find out. Many of them were surprisingly optimistic about Obama's new top diplomat.”

Mumbai Terror Could Cascade Across Region - Robert Dreyfuss, Nation: The attacks could vastly complicated the problem that Obama will face in Afghanistan, where US and NATO forces are losing the war, and in Pakistan, where Islamist militants have seized control of large areas in that country's northwest region. Obama is already committed to an escalation of the Afghan war, and if the prospects for negotiations recede, he may be tempted to send even more US forces into that quagmire.

The Horror in Mumbai - Editorial, New York Times: In coming days India will have to look inward to see where and how its government failed to protect its citizens. The United States is still learning the lessons of its own failures before 9/11, but it can help in the process. Washington’s most important role will be to urge the Indians and Pakistanis to step back from the brink.

Jihad’s True Face - William Kristol, New York Times: In nations like India (and the United States), governments will have to call on the patriotism of citizens to fight the terrorists.

New India in the Crosshairs: Terror in Mumbai - Rich Lowry, National Review: With a security agreement setting a goal of a U.S. exit from Iraq by 2012 and Bush leaving office, jihadists are still at their monstrous handiwork. They have an ideological goal larger than any one conflict or any American president.

It’s Not the Cold War: Updating strategy to fight the ideology - Mark Steyn, National Review: The Islamic imperialist project is a totalitarian ideology: It is at war with Hindus, Jews, Americans, Britons, everything that is other. So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists don’t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet held talks without preconditions with.

Will NATO do more for Obama? Obama's popularity abroad may not get him the extra forces in Afghanistan from NATO allies - Gordon Lubold, Christian Science Monitor

Why Somali Pirates Are Good For Obama: Will piracy in the Gulf of Aden help the incoming administration make nice with Iran? - Bruce Falconer, Mother Jones: The pirates' recent seizure of an Iranian-chartered cargo vessel might encourage Tehran to take part in anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia.

News Analysis: U.S.-Iraqi pact has many uncertainties - Steven Lee Myers, International Herald Tribune

Pass FTA and amend Plan Colombia For human rights' sake - Shannon O'Neil and Sebastian Chaskel, Washington Times: Two years ago President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe negotiated a free trade agreement (FTA). Yet when Barack Obama steps into the White House in January, it will still await congressional ratification. Experts agree that both countries will benefit from the pact.

Tbilisi's Tail No Longer Wagging the U.S. Dog - Vladimir Frolov, Moscow Times: Russia has learned that the best PR strategy is getting the truth out early.

The Blogging Revolution and Voices of Crisis - Antony Loewenstein, Juan Cole’s Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion: The online culture, chaotic and disjointed in its aims, is unlike that of any previous social movement. Allowing people to write and speak for themselves without a western filter is one of the triumphs of blogging, though many western journalists feel threatened by its potential. While some want the right to criticise their leaders, others simply want to flirt and listen to hip-hop. That is revolutionary for much of the world.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“My life is one long escape from myself.”

--Samuel Johnson; cited at