December 22

"That was one of things I saw -- he's such a natural athlete."

--First Lady Laura Bush, regarding her husband’s shoe-avoidance prowess, recently displayed in Badghad

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Secretary Rice: U.S. international broadcasting elements "admired because they were contrary to propaganda" - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy. Image from

War of What Ideas? Whose Ideas? What War? - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View: “I have never been a fan of the Bush administration's misnamed 'war on terror.' For the record, I am likewise no fan of the 'war of ideas.' In fact, the administration's overuse of military jargon as an excuse through which to approach the world makes me ill. Not only is it wrong, but it's also a fantastic way to create enemies who never previously existed. Just brand their views as ideas that we need to eradicate: that'll do it.”

Fundamental problems - Environment and nature: “Refreshingly, the issues people in East Asia care about these days aren’t so far removed from those people in the US care about. The food issue in particular — I keep telling people what a huge opportunity food safety represents for international action and US public diplomacy. But they won’t listen!”

Visas - the discordant note: paper by Freemuse, ECA & ELMF on visa issues and artists mobility - On-The-Move: “The white paper entitled ‘Visas – the discordant note’ deals with visa issues and artists mobility and highlight a number of problems faced by creative companies working with artists from Non-EU and Non-Schengen countries. … According to [Freemuse programme manager] Ole Reitov it is equally important to understand that visa issuing offices — and hence the EU countries — are judged by their attitude to artists. ‘Several European countries wish to improve their cultural and public diplomacy, but many artists are treated with a lack of respect. They experience the paradox of being invited by mayors of European City councils, government-financed cultural bodies in the EU and respected cultural organisations and the contrast on the ground reality once they enter our Embassies and are looked upon as potential illegal immigrants.’”

Negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian Breakthrough - Alon Ben-Meir, Turkish Weekly: “The United States should bring necessary pressure to bear on both Israelis and Palestinians to change the nature of their daily encounters and overall relationship. The US must become very active and push hard to reduce their differences by focusing on building trust and confidence to both ends. The Obama administration must insist that both sides begin with public diplomacy, which is sorely absent in the current atmosphere.”

'Situation in South is unacceptable' - Yaakov Katz And Brenda Gazzar, Jerusalem Post: “[T]he government [has decided] to embark on an international hasbara (public diplomacy) campaign ahead of a possible major operation in the Gaza Strip following the end of a six-month-long cease-fire." SEE ALSO

Fixing Indonesia's image problem - Anak Agung Banyu Perwita, Jakarta Post: “In the new era of international relations, the role of public diplomacy is becoming more relevant and crucial. It is an important element of soft power and the power of globalization, especially in infor-mation technology, that has strongly propelled the relevance of public diplomacy. Since our Foreign Ministry established a special director general for public diplomacy in 2002, much has been done to promote our national image abroad. Still, Indonesia can do more to better our position in the global arena.“

The People Will Reestablish Relations, new Commission Says - The Georgian Times: “The official part of the meeting between representatives of the Georgian and Russian public started with joint Orthodox prayer … . The decision on the establishment of a joint public commission on overcoming the effects of the conflict in the Caucasus became the first positive outcome of the meeting. ‘For us this is not a mere formality. The Georgian side acts with fear, calculating the odds. We do not have any guarantees that our authorities will listen to what we will bring from Russia. Therefore our very first steps must have concrete outcomes,’ Mamuka Areshidze, Director of the Tbilisi Centre of Strategic Research, pointed out. ‘Public diplomacy is in a position to settle purely concrete questions,’ Viacheslav Kovalenko, the former Russian Federation Ambassador to Georgia, mentioned in his turn. Kovelenko is in Moscow after the severing of diplomatic ties between Moscow and Tbilisi.”

RELATED ITEMS

We Don't Need Guantanamo Bay: Here's how to hold the detainees elsewhere, without damaging U.S. security -
Thomas B. Wilner, Wall Street Journal: We can reduce Guantanamo's population significantly simply by sending home detainees who had no business being imprisoned in the first place. And we should.

Deterring Torture Through the Law - Coleen Rowley and Ray McGovern, Antiwar.com: Priority must be given to determining how our country ended up torturing people.

What Motivates the Torture Enablers? - Scott Horton, Harper’s Magazine: The weaseling of the torture enablers presents a threat to America’s security. It robs us of moral stature just as it robs American service personnel of the protections that Americans labored for two centuries to create.

The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It's time to stop the mission creep - Thomas A. Schweich, Washington Post:

Many of Cheney's and Rumsfeld's cronies still work at the Pentagon and elsewhere. Rumsfeld's successor, Robert M. Gates, has spoken of increasing America's "soft power," its ability to attract others by our example, culture and values, but thus far, this push to reestablish civilian leadership has been largely talk and little action.

Hillary Clinton, Saudi Arabia and "Foggy Bottom": Raymond J. Learsy, Huffington Post: Can Hillary Clinton assure us that there will not be any Saudi preferential access to Foggy Bottom in spite of the myriad millions visited on the Clinton foundation?

Trying to redefine role of U.S. military in Iraq - Elisabeth Bumiller, International Herald Tribune: As Obama has begun meeting with his new military advisers -- the top two, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are holdovers from the Bush administration — it has become clear that his definition of ending the war means leaving behind many thousands of American troops.

U.S. Will Post Envoy in Crimea – Moscow Times:

The United States intends to open a diplomatic post in Ukraine's Crimea, a region that is home to many ethnic Russians as well as Russia's Black Sea fleet and is a source of tension between Kiev and Moscow. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. diplomatic post would be a small one with a range of work from "cultural events to doing political reporting," and denied any intention to upset Russia.

That first foreign challenge – Editorial, Boston Globe: Because the missile defense system is flawed and because key European allies already oppose NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, Obama will have a chance to trade low-value cards inherited from Bush for crucial Russian cooperation on proliferation, terrorism, and energy security. Obama has the cards. Now he has to play them right.

Dissecting Obama's ‘perestroika' - Dmitry Shlapentokh, Asia Times: Obama will most likely find that state resources are quickly dwindling and this could well lead to a sharp decline in the US's global presence.

RUSSICA

Russian President’s Plane (sample photo below)