January 17

“Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere.”

--Soon to be ex-President George W. Bush


PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice waves and bids farewell to a lobby filled with employees after her last scheduled work day at the State Department in Washington, January 16, 2009. COMMENT: “This is it! Condi’s last day!"

--Princess Sparkle Pony’s Photo Blog I keep track of Condoleezza’s hairdo so you don’t have to

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

To Make Smart Power Work, Get the State Department in the Fight - Rep. Mac Thornberry, Roll Call: “As a member of the Smart Power Commission, sponsored by the Center for Strategic International Studies, I worked with Republicans and Democrats with wide experience in and out of government to develop a vision, and some specific recommendations, on how smart power might help us meet the national security challenges of the 21st century.

Smart power refers to the effective integration of hard power, such as military and economic actions, with soft power, which involves methods of persuasion and includes things like culture and diplomacy, in order to achieve national objectives. By our definition, smart power recognizes that the United States needs both — and the good sense to know when and how to use them together. … We agreed that five key areas need attention: alliances and institutions, international development, public diplomacy, economic integration and innovation.”

Ellison gets Foreign Affairs seat: Congress' first Muslim member said the appointment was a good fit for his immigrant-rich district - Mitch Anderson, Star Tribune: “As the first Muslim member of Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has long used his high-profile status to enhance America's image in the Middle East. On Friday, he was appointed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ellison, who has made a half-dozen government-sponsored trips to the Middle East, recently became the first member of Congress to participate in the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca. He has also been a key component of the Bush administration's public diplomacy efforts, despite his opposition to the war in Iraq."

Brand America: It’s Not About Advertising - David Vinjamuri, ThirdWay Advertising Blog: “Instead of limiting U.S. brand efforts to the State Department and the Office for Public Diplomacy, President Obama should put a real, live brand manager in the West Wing.

The incoming administration understands that the largest part of perception of the U.S. will be shaped by the President and by foreign policy. These issues are obviously out of the reach of any brand manager. Therefore, the U.S. brand manager should focus on becoming the ‘God of Small Things.’ These small things can have an enormous impact on the way that the United States is viewed internationally and they are routinely ignored. What do I mean by this? The new U.S. brand manager should focus on small improvements in the way that the U.S. government interacts with its own citizens and foreign nationals. … By comprehensively studying the individual interactions between U.S. government employees and foreign nationals, a new U.S. brand manager could improve the tone and quality of these interactions. This would make a real contribution to U.S. Public Diplomacy.”

Sign a letter to President-elect Obama - Bethlehem Peace Watch – “Yes, we need official government initiatives, but we also need to revive public diplomacy and increase people-to-people exchanges and citizen diplomacy in order to build the international partnerships the United States needs.”

Blog Feature: Music Diplomacy - Judah Grunstein, World Politics Review: “Public diplomacy has become something of a buzzword in foreign policy circles.

But to lighten things up at the end of the week, I'm launching a new blog feature called Music Diplomacy. Each week I'll post a song that has something to do with foreign affairs or foreign policy.”

Catto talks about Obama - David Frey, Aspen Daily News: ”Former U.S. ambassador Henry Catto, an Old Snowmass resident, offered up some advice for Barack Obama when he takes office on Tuesday. Among Catto’s recommendations: talk to Iran, help bring order to Afghanistan, work with Russia and try to find an Arab-Israeli peace deal. ‘I would certainly try hard to change the thrust of American public diplomacy abroad,’ Catto said Friday night in a sold-out appearance in the first event by the new nonprofit Roaring Fork Cultural Council.”

Obama White House Going Back To Stone Age Public Diplomacy: "Spread The Truth About American Values" (Plus: Obama's "Ominous Evasiveness" About Cast Lead) - Omri Ceren, Mere Rhetoric: “[I]f they [Islamist fanatics] knew that we let our women vote, our Jews practice, and our homosexuals live - then they'd like us more.

Now you might say ‘but anti-American propaganda already includes that stuff as reasons to hate the West, which implies that there are fundamental ideological differences between us and Islamist fanatics that the State Department can't do much about.' But since State has already spent part of the huge influx of cash that they're getting under Obama - and to the extent that they're giddy about asinine new public diplomacy initiatives - it's better to ignore those details.”

Passing the Baton -- notes part two - burning bridge: “This is part two of my notes from a presentation at the USIP [United States Institute of Peace] event 'Passing the Baton.' … Recommendations: what do citizen media need to flourish?... Theories of mass media based on scarcity of information and communications don’t take the networked public sphere into account. Different technology calls for different approaches. Re-examine continuing relevance of mass media solutions such as international broadcasting, attempting to restrict information and speech, and public diplomacy based on messaging and strategic communications.”

MIT grad student recommends C-Spanization of US international broadcasting - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy. SEE ALSO: John Brown, “Fixing Alhurra: Some Small Steps” (American Diplomacy, June 2, 2005)

Hudson Institute dichotomy: 1) VOA is about "us." 2) RFE/RL and RFA have an audience - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: “If U.S. international broadcasting is to be successful, it must consist of straight, objective, balanced news. It must contain no whiff of public diplomacy or strategic communications.”

"We can't rely on VOA alone" - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: Both U.S. public diplomacy and U.S. international broadcasting have already moved into the internet, social networking, and delivery to mobile devices. These media are 'growing rapidly,' and that's part of the problem. A couple of decades ago, VOA could compete because, for many audiences, news would be available only from 1) the domestic state-controlled broadcasting system, 2) BBC, or 3) VOA. Now improved domestic media, access to the internet, and mobile devices provide hundreds, even thousands of channels of content. In some markets, U.S. international broadcasting might have to latch on to the most successful of these rather than try to compete on its own."

Chinese students learn English with VOA's help - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

VOA is a factor in plight of Zimbabwe activist - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Happy Birthday Ayatollah? Is BBC Persian TV a mere gift to mark the Islamic Republic's 30th?

- Peyvand Khorsandi, iranian.com, News Analysis, New America Media: “Funded by the UK Foreign Office – to the tune of £15m ($22m) a year – PTV [Persian TV], which launched this week, has assembled a veritable army of newly trained journalists (some 100 of its 150-strong staff are in editorial) that looks set to knock head-on rival VOA off its perch. … Professor Annabelle Sreberny, who teaches international communication at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies and is co-author of Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication, Culture, and the Iranian Revolution[:] ’The BBC aims to offer a UK perspective on global issues,’ she says. In her view, the launch represents an act of ‘British public diplomacy’ that is ‘much more subtle’ than BBC Persian radio was as the height of its notoriety. ‘Its impact will be a slow one,’ she says, ‘because in Iran there is a welter of channels competing and the BBC is one voice among many -- and PTV faces huge problems, not least in obtaining original footage of people and events within Iran.’”

International Broadcasting: Influence and Power in the Age of Information – Shawn Poers: "This is the blog for my course, International Broadcasting: Influence and Power in the Age of Information (PUBD 516). The course is being taught in the Master's in Public Diplomacy (MPD) program at the University of Southern California. The purpose of this blog is to monitor how different international broadcasters are covering and framing global events."

Galileo, Iron Bladder Diplomacy and Cricket - Paul Rockower, Levantine: “Class might have ended yesterday, but the week is still going strong. This semester feels busy already. I spent last night editing submissions for the Public Diplomacy Magazine. I led the charge to nix one article, which simply was not good. I also finished my book review. … Today I had the opportunity to interview

Ambassador Edward Djerejian with my classmate Rima. It was fantastic, it's not every day that you get to interview such a distinguished fellow. He was the consummate diplomat. I won't get into the crux of the interview here, I will post it with the magazine.”

India-US. Of trade embraces, lobbying, and spin - Subaltern Media: “On 25 September, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had famously said to Bush: ‘People of India deeply love you’ (The Hindu, Link). His comments, rather than illuminating some kind of public diplomacy victory, paper over what goes on behind the scenes for opinions to be shaped. For example, a look at behind the scenes shows hectic media relations exercises and lobbying by American firms to the Congress to sell arms to India.”

RELATED ITEMS


Retired Officers' Media Role Deemed Appropriate - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post: The Pentagon did not violate internal policies or regulations in a program that gave briefings to retired military officers who served as news commentators on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor did those analysts use their access to benefit their business interests, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon's inspector general.

Network VP Dismisses Military Pundits Scandal: ‘Everyone Understands’ Pentagon Spreads Propaganda - Ali Frick, Think Progress: The point is not whether the Pentagon is expected to distribute negative news; it’s that everybody did no [italics] t “understand” that the Pentagon was the source for the analysts’ knowledge.

A Propaganda War? - Harry Haller, Whistle & Fish Werewolf Tales: "On Tuesday, when the Pentagon announced that several former Guantánamo detainees had returned to terrorism since their release, I detected the odor of bovine excrement in the air. So did Mark Denbeaux and a group of researchers from the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research. In a recent report they suggest the Department of Defense is a little war of 'propaganda by the numbers' on the public. Now, more than before, I want the Pentagon to get specific."


The Hamas Death Factory - Ari Bussel, Doc’s Talk: Hamas has turned Gaza into a Factory of Death. The war that rages on has its front lines in Argentina and UK, India and USA, China and Venezuela, Russia and Egypt. It is a war in the area of public opinion, and we are all soldiers in the Public Diplomacy Front. We are all part -- and are likely victims -- in a greater struggle between Sunni and Shiite Islam to achieve world domination.

Hamas' dead baby strategy: Cynical ploy must be exposed and rejected - Alan M. Dershowitz, Washington Times: The Hamas "dead baby" strategy -- to cause as many civilian casualties as possible by firing its deadly rockets from schools and densely populated areas -- is producing understandable outrage around the world. What is not understandable is why the outrage is directed against Israel, which is a victim of this strategy, rather than against Hamas, which is its perpetrator.

Department of Extremist Propaganda, Hamas Division – Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic: "Some of my readers apparently believe that I'm hyping the more pungently anti-Semitic aspects of Hezbollah and Hamas philosophy. So as a public service, I thought I would periodically post excerpts from their writings, in order to let people judge for themselves. Here is a paragraph from Article 28 of the Hamas charter: 'The Zionist invasion is a cruel invasion, which has no scruples whatsoever; it uses every vicious and vile method to achieve its goals. In its infiltration and espionage operations, it greatly relies on secret organizations which grew out of it, such as the Freemasons, the Rotary Clubs, the Lions and other such espionage groups. All these organizations, covert or overt, work for the interests of Zionism and under its direction, and their aim is to break societies, undermine values, destroy people's honor, create moral degeneration and annihilate Islam. [Zionism] is behind all types of trafficking in drugs and alcohol, so as to make it easier for it to take control and expand.'" SEE ALSO

Israel’s Propaganda War - Jamesisaacneutron’s Weblog: The basic strategy of the ‘hasbara apparatus’ is to coordinate all of the Israeli agencies that deal with communication relations and public diplomacy, so that they form and present a unified message to the media. However, with the recent escalation and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it is becoming more and more difficult for Israel to "explain itself" to the world and justify their actions as any kind of reasonable response to the comparably insignificant Qassam rocket attacks by Hamas.

Gaza & The One-World Media’s Propaganda - Frank Salvato, New Media Journal: Despicably, in the end -- and even though the information surrounding the events in Gaza and the greater Middle East concern everyone in the free world -- the truth of the situation in Gaza and Israel, the truth about Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and radical Islamist aggression, doesn’t fit into the one-world media’s Progressive-Left agenda.

Amid broad Israeli support for Gaza war, a rare dissenting voice: Sari Bashi of the group Gisha argued before the Israeli Supreme Court Thursday that Israel is still responsible for Gazan civilians because it controls the enclave's borders, airspace, and sea space - Joshua Mitnick, Christian Science Monitor

End Israeli-Palestinian conflict: An appeal to President-elect Barack Obama - Sam H. Zakhem, Washington Times: The United States is the only country that can bring about the conditions where Palestinians and Israelis respect each others' right to live in peace, free from threats, intimidation and harassment.

Propaganda war rages behind Russia gas dispute – Press Release, Eurobusiness: From Europe's frozen borderlands to Gazprom's fortress headquarters in Moscow to the corridors of power in Brussels, an epic PR war is raging behind the scenes of the Russia-Ukraine energy dispute. Gone are the unanswered calls and the press statements in poor English of post-Soviet renown. The propaganda war in this latest confrontation between Russia and the West is all about hi-tech and smooth talking. Even Volodymyr Litvyn, speaker of Ukraine's parliament, admitted during the crisis that Ukraine had "completely lost" the PR war and was only "responding weakly" to Russian accusations of being an unreliable partner.

Leadership and Legitimacy -- Obama on foreign affairs: Obama must rebuild old alliances and forge new ones, bringing the U.S. in step with a multipolar world - Editorial, Los Angeles Times

Leadership and Legitimacy -- Obama as a war president: What lessons have we learned since 9/11, and when should he send American troops into harm's way? – Editorial, Los Angeles Times: The first lesson for Obama is that a war against a concept, such as evil, or a tactic, such as terrorism, is going to be endless.

Who Should Obama Look to for Advice?: Jimmy Carter – Ivan Eland, Antiwar.com: Obama might learn that domestic benefits might accrue from eliminating U.S. overextension abroad -- for example, improvement in the nation's finances and economy.

Beware the JFK Analogy - Jonathan Steele, Guardian, UK/Common Dreams: The world has become multi-polar or even non-polar. On many global problems we don't need US leadership but a US that is willing to be a partner, and sometimes lets itself be led.

‘They Want Us to Be Stupid Things’ - Editorial, New York Times: We agree with President-elect Barack Obama that Afghanistan is the real front in the war against Al Qaeda.

Admit It: The Surge Worked - Peter Beinart, Washington Post: If Iraq overall represents a massive stain on Bush's record, his decision to increase America's troop presence in late 2006 now looks like his finest hour.

Mr. Bush at His Best and Worst – Editorial, Washington Post: Bush was and is essentially correct to define Islamist terrorism as an unappeasable menace. Alas, that same certitude led Mr. Bush down many blind alleys and, in the worst moments, caused him to debase his country's moral currency.

A bin Laden Subtext – Editorial, Boston Globe: The deep-seated hostility between the Al Qaeda current of Islamism and the more nationalist tendency represented by Hamas suggests that Israel, the United States, and others might do well to shape policy with these distinctions in mind.

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