December 12

“[T]here are a lot of great jobs outside of government, including going back to the life of the mind.”

--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

“Wait a minute! Did Condi just say ‘going back to the life of the mind’???Did she just call the Bush admin MINDLESS???”

--Fran, a reader of Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
I keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to

"I tell my students that policy-making is 90 percent blocking and tackling and 10 percent intellectual."

--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when she was teaching at Stanford

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

A Reality Check on Public Diplomacy - Hans N. Tuch, Whirled View: “1. Public diplomacy (by definition of the word 'diplomacy') is a Government process to communicate with foreign audiences in an effort to gain understanding and support for our nation's ideas and ideals, our institutions and culture as well as our national goals and policies. 2. The focus of U.S. public diplomacy is in the field--carried out by professional Foreign Service public diplomacy officers at our embassies and consulates … 3. Public diplomacy, in an attempt to affect the attitudes and opinions of foreign publics, involves the entire communications spectrum. … 4. Information and Cultural programs are inter-related … 5. For U.S. public diplomacy to be effective it must include the very important ‘learning experience.’ If we strive to be successful in our efforts to create understanding and support for our society and for our policies, we must first understand the culture, language, history, psychology and motives of the people with whom we wish to communicate.”

Hillary? - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View: “Obama’s charisma and Hillary’s personal acquaintance with a whole host of foreign leaders from her time as First Lady and Senator will only last so long and take them and this country so far. Above all there needs to be a coordinated public diplomacy effort: State has conclusively demonstrated over the years that it cannot deliver.”

Pentagon May Have Mixed Propaganda With PR - Walter Pincus, Washington Post: “The Pentagon's inspector general said yesterday that the Defense Department's public affairs office may have 'inappropriately' merged public affairs and propaganda operations in 2007 and 2008 when it contracted out $1 million in work for a strategic communications plan for use by the military in collaboration with the State Department. … Last year the Senate Armed Services Committee eliminated $3 million requested for a Defense Department strategic communication program. The committee wrote that responsibility for 'public diplomacy rests with the president and Secretary of State and any DoD efforts to formulate a message should be framed and informed by those efforts.'"

Human Security, Environmental Security, and National Security – Adam Elkus, Rethinking Security: "The military is a blunt instrument--it can adapt to stability operations but it should not be the primary means through which American aid should be channeled. It is better, as Robert Gates advocates, to better develop civilian institutions to deal with these problems than to militarize them. DOD is doing the heavy lifting in public diplomacy and aid because State and USAID are underfunded, not because militarized PD and aid is a desirable outcome."

Tweets on foreign policy – Hoi Polloi Report: “The State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Colleen Graffy is a Twitter user, and is microblogging during her three nation trip this week. Her posts are also linked to a Flickr account. Not many pictures so far, but hey! … Unfortunately, the innovative use of social media comes pretty late for the Bush government. But at least it is laying the groundwork for the new government (whose insiders are anyway vastly more familiar with new media) and senior officials who will have to step up to the plate. Let’s just hope Hillary (she who experimented with Yahoo answers, lest we forget) is practicing with some of these tools, considering that her campaign blog was given a 'B' grade by Search Marketing Gurus that thought it to be a tad 'uptight.'”



Government, the Public Interest and You - Craig Stoltz, Web2.0h…Really?: A Skeptical Look at Emerging Web Technologies: “Today I was lucky enough to appear at a Washington forum on government, non-profits and social media. [Among the] nuggets I picked up: 1. The government is innovating with social technologies more than I realized. I heard about internal knowledge sharing at the State Department, a CDC effort to collect on-the-ground intel from first responders and the DOD’s Pentagon Channel. And the EPA’s blogging program. Here’s a wiki that planks out what various federal agencies are up to with social media. 2. In prepping for the conference, I learned about The Twittering Diplomat. Colleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy at U.S. State Department, is Tweeting away as she tours eastern Europe on a diplomatic mission. Yes, it opens Twitizens’ eyes to what a diplomat really does. What led her to do it? I have no clue. … Of course, the Twitter profile could be a front, a persona created to head-fake the Iranians or something like that. I’d be delighted if this turned out to the first case of Twitter Espionage.”

Failure of Privatizing U.S. Image Abroad: White House Publishes Self-Serving But Questionable Claims from the Broadcasting Board of Governors - Ted Lipien, FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog: “The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages U.S. government-funded broadcasts for overseas audiences, has launched a campaign to defend its strategy of privatizing and outsourcing public diplomacy efforts, which it claims is designed to improve America’s image abroad using advertising and other private sector solutions. Nearly everyone in the U.S. and abroad agrees that these efforts have been a disastrous failure, but the White House continues to publish self-serving and misleading assertions crafted by the BBG staff in an attempt to portray the agency as incredibly successful and forward-looking in its approach to public diplomacy.”

An Interview with RFE/RL Chief Jeffrey Gedmin - Juliana Geran Pilon, World Politics Review: “While many observers of U.S. foreign policy have in recent years lamented the state of U.S. public diplomacy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is widely seen as a bright spot amid a dim post-Cold War record of communicating and promoting U.S. values and interests to the world outside the United States.”

Report Calls Alhurra a Failure - Dafna Linzer, ProPublica: "A study commissioned by the U.S. government concludes that America’s Arab-language broadcasts to the Middle East fail to meet basic journalistic standards and are seen by few. The study by researchers for the University of Southern California was based on a review of a full month’s broadcasts by Alhurra, the 24-hour news network created by President Bush to boost America’s image abroad. ‘The quality of Alhurra’s journalism is substandard on several levels,’ the researchers wrote. Its broadcasts ‘lack appropriate balance and sourcing,’ and ‘relied on unsubstantiated information too often, allowed on-air expressions of personal judgments too frequently and failed to present opposing views in over 60 percent of its news stories’ A copy of the 70-page report was obtained by ProPublica.’“

For many of us, the fun is just beginning... who will be the next Under Secretary? – Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner: “So now the big question is who will be the next Under Secretary? As far as I can see, suggestions that the next SecState wants to bring in her own people aren’t highlighting any particular candidate. Interest in who will be America’s coordinator of persuasion in the global struggle for minds and wills (a far better, if wordier, phrase than ‘war of ideas’ or ‘battle of narratives’) grows by the day (at least those interested in public diplomacy, strategic communication, etc.). … The United States now has a Chief Public Diplomacy who can effectively communicate on his own. What we need is a leader, manager, and facilitator.”

A Call for More Youth Foreign Service Opportunities – AIDBLOG: “A humanitarian corps would serve several purposes. First, it would bolster U.S. relations and global security with a long-term ‘hearts and minds’ approach. Second, it would alleviate strains on our troops by allowing them to focus on military concerns. Third, and most importantly, it would provide an invaluable opportunity for youth to engage in public diplomacy and become more informed and involved in the world around them.”

Jenna's Up, Condi's Down: Bush-Era Winners and Losers - Washingtonian.com, DC: “9. Karen Hughes—If she’d stayed in Texas after leaving the administration in July 2002, her reputation as a spinner extraordinaire might have remained intact. Her second lap, as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, will be remembered as a giant missed opportunity.” SEE BELOW ON RICE.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili says ready for dialogue with Russia - Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan: “APA reports quoting Interfax agency as saying that in his meeting with the citrus producers in Batumi, Saakashvili said they were ready for any dialogue based on the territorial integrity of Georgia. He said they sent to Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev a message with the Georgian patriarch Ilya II. 'We agreed the message sent to the Russian President with His Holiness. I am glad that the patriarch delivered our thoughts to the president of the country occupied the Georgian territories and continuing the occupation. He exactly stated that no one of Georgian people will accept occupation and misappropriation of his lands. I am very grateful to the patriarch that he took this diplomatic mission. It is a public diplomacy'. Saakashvili said he was planning to lead the Georgian Culture Season in Russia, but didn’t specify its date.”

Malaysia's Stand As A Modern Open Democracy Allows Growth, Says Abdul Rahim – Bernama, Malaysia: “Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said the country's pragmatic and farsighted foreign policy initiatives had directly benefited the country tangibly in terms of investment and trade links, social and educational links and tourist arrivals. They have also intangibly contributed in terms of the goodwill and respect garnered over Malaysia's views and positions taken on global issues of concern to the international community, he said when opening the Information Dissemination and Public Diplomacy programme here Friday.”

Training youth to be trustees of the earth - Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka: “The Weeramantry International Centre for Peace Education and Research (WICPER) recently held a successful Training for Trusteeship four-day residential workshop. … The seminar was held in conjunction with the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO, the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) and the Public Diplomacy Section of the American Centre. … This is a pioneering workshop aimed at inculcating in the minds of young people, a realisation that we are all trustees for the future. The environmental problem has grown so urgent that the public at all levels has to be sensitised to the need for each individual to make a positive contribution towards addressing this problem.”

RELATED ITEMS

Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite? - Ray McGovern, Antiwar.com: Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating that the overseers of torture be kept on.

Obama, Iraq, and the Cyprus Solution: Out of Iraq? Not so fast … - Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com: With Congress scrambling for free money, and the President-Messiah now expected to perform miracles on the economic front, the foreign policy realm will be forgotten, buried under the rubble of the US economy.

The Real Obama: A Centrist? No. A Transformer - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post: Take the foreign policy team: Hillary Clinton, James Jones and Bush holdover Robert Gates.

As centrist as you can get. But the choice was far less ideological than practical. Obama has no intention of being a foreign policy president. Unlike, say, Nixon or Reagan, he does not have aspirations abroad. He simply wants quiet on his eastern and western fronts so that he can proceed with what he really cares about -- his domestic agenda. Obama didn't get elected to manage Afghanistan. He intends to transform America. And he has the money, the mandate and the moxie to go for it.

Intervention: A Problem of Means? - William S. Lind, Antiwar.com: If the Obama administration is serious about its "one great foreign policy experiment," it must start be reforming the internal culture of the State department and all related agencies. And we cannot remake societies in our own image, regardless of the means employed.

America the arbiter? Hubris has no place in foreign relations - Daniel L. Davis, Washington Times: If the Western world has learned anything over the past seven-plus years of war in the Muslim-dominated countries of Afghanistan and Iraq, it's that they despise "occupation" forces and will not hesitate to use violence to force them out. Talk of setting ourselves up as the sole and global arbiter over who is and who is not worthy of sovereignty leads us down a dangerous path.

Afghanistan not Iraq – but - Michael O'Hanlon, Washington Times: The glass may not be half-full in Afghanistan right now. But we can and should take heart, if President-elect Obama does as he has promised and commits the United States to this war in a truly serious way for the first time.

It's All Spelled Out in Unpublicized Agreement: Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq - Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch: As for the US, its moment in Iraq is coming to an end as its troops depart, leaving a ruined country behind them.

The fruit of a poisonous tree [review of Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq by Jonathan Steele] - Mohammed A Salih, Asia Times: For those seeking different and deeper reasons why Iraq ended up where it is today, other than the often-cited but somewhat cliched list of blunders like the disbanding of the Iraqi army and dissolving of the Ba'ath party, Jonathan Steele's Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq is a must-read.

Does Obama understand his biggest foreign-policy challenge? The president-elect wants to work with the Pakistani government to "stamp out" terror. It's not nearly that simple - Juan Cole, Salon: If Pakistan -- and Pakistani-American relations -- are to have a chance, it will lie in the incoming Obama administration doing everything it can to strengthen the civilian political establishment and ensure that the military remains permanently in its barracks.

Stop pampering Pakistan's military: The Mumbai attacks underscore the importance of rooting out institutional support for terror - Brahma Chellaney, Christian Science Monitor: US diplomacy remains limited by Washington's continuing overreliance on the Pakistani military.

The great wall between Iran and the US - Mahan Abedin, Asia Times: The high priests of the Islamic Revolution in Iran have paid a heavy price for their consistent and unabashed opposition to American power in the Middle East and beyond.

And every major political, strategic and economic indicator points to the direction of ever-escalating costs, as the Islamic Republic enters into the fourth decade of its confrontation with the "Great Satan.”

Fallout from Pentagon's gaffe spreads - Kosuke Takahashi, Asia Times: As the latest round of six-party talks on North Korea's scrapping of its nuclear arms program ended on Thursday without any discernable progress, growing controversy over a United States defense report "mistakenly" listing the Hermit Kingdom as one of Asia's five nuclear powers has experts from the region fretting that the error was a Freudian slip.

A clear vision for US and Africa - Donald Steinberg, Boston Globe: A clear vision of Africa means recognizing that America has multiple interests there: to ease the suffering of those in dire straits; to create markets for American exports and investments; to ensure access to energy supplies; and to promote stable societies that can resist extremism and terrorism, and close the door to trafficking in people, drugs, and arms.

In Congo, a Test for 'Obama Country' - Michael Gerson, Washington Post: Expectations for the president-elect are high not just in America. And eastern Congo will be an early foreign policy test for the administration -- its suffering not only engages our conscience, it is the most urgent expression of a difficult question: What does America do with failed states and regions?

Secretary of state salary cut for Clinton - Laurie Kellman – AP: Hillary Rodham Clinton will earn less money if confirmed as secretary of state than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice. That's because Congress has cut her future salary for the Cabinet post by about $4,700 to comply with an obscure clause in the Constitution. Under it, no member of Congress can be appointed to a government job that would provide a pay increase during the lawmaker's current term.

Condi On the Record: Barack Obama is lucky he isn't inheriting Saddam Hussein - Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal

Jenna's Up, Condi's Down: Bush-Era Winners and Losers - Washingtonian.com, DC: 3. Condi Rice -- The person thought to be one of the top foreign-policy thinkers of our time leaves after eight years in office -- first as national-security adviser and then as Secretary of State -- with a reputation as ineffectual and often out of the loop. Even as Time named her one of the world’s most influential people, it criticized her for squandering her influence -- and, as a big Soviet scholar, she faces new criticism for allowing relations with Russia to sour. Says one former White House aide, “History won’t judge her well.”

Condi Farewell Tour Simply Exploding with Glamour - Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog I keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to. PHOTO: “US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice laughs next to Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez Merizalde (L) and Honduras' Foreign Minister Angel Orellana at a foreign, and trade and commerce ministers from Latin American nations summit in Panama City December 10, 2008. REUTERS/Alberto Lowe (PANAMA).” COMMENT: “Is Condi saving all the superlatives for last? Because that is THE ugliest pantsuit I've seen her in yet. I dislike the single-button coat, the blowzy pants, ew. That is just not a good outfit.”

AMERICANA: Jukyward & baseball


--From the Huffington Post