January 30

“A master of the damp squib and the farcical media hype, you bring dishonour even to the white shirts you wear. Intimate with the powerful, you have bathed in obscene wealth since childhood and typify what slightly low-brow magazines … continue to call the ‘caviar left’ …. A philosopher without thought but not without connections, you are also the author of the most ridiculous film in the history of cinema.”

--Michel Houellebecq (L) regarding Bernard-Henri Lévy (R); cited in The Times Literary Supplement, January 23, 20009, p. 13

DOCUMENT

What if Hamas was in your neighborhood? at; from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Obama's Personal 'Public Diplomacy': A Very Preliminary Assessment - Robert Satloff, Policy Watch #1467, Washington Institute for Mideast Policy: “Collectively, the new president's actions and words constitute an unusually high-profile and personalized ‘public diplomacy’ campaign to correct what he perceives as a serious strategic problem for the United States: a souring of the relationship between Washington and ‘the Muslim world.’ … It is regrettable … that Obama did not deliver his first interview to an Arab audience on al-Hurra, the U.S. government-funded Arabic-language satellite channel. … [A]s important as the president's early comments have been in setting a new tone and style to America's engagement with Arab and Muslim peoples, these statements need to be supported by officials who can translate them into policy. In relations with Arabs and Muslims -- and specifically vis-a-vis the contest against radical Islamist extremism -- this means the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, who is, by statute, effectively the U.S. government's ‘commander-in-chief’ in the battle of ideas. So far, no person has been named to fill this position, which carries national security responsibilities far beyond those of most third-ranking officials in the State Department.” PHOTO: Robert Satloff

Outreach, Yes. Apology, No. We've Never Been Islam's Enemy: - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post: “If Barack Obama wants to say, as he said to al-Arabiya, I have Muslim roots, Muslim family members, have lived in a Muslim country -- implying a special affinity that uniquely positions him to establish good relations -- that's fine. But it is both false and deeply injurious to this country to draw a historical line dividing America under Obama from a benighted past when Islam was supposedly disrespected and demonized.”

First interview choice met with excitement, enthusiasm: Obama reaches Arabs, Muslims via Al Arabiya - Courtney C. Radsch, Al-Arabiya, United Arab Emirates: “According to people in involved in the arrangements for the interview, the administration had made the decision to give the first presidential interview to an Arab television station. The U.S.-funded Al Hurra was not an option because it is not permitted to broadcast in the U.S. and has a negligible audience share in the Middle East … . The choice of venue and topic sent a powerful message not only to the Arab and Muslim worlds but also to the Arab and Muslim-Americans who felt marginalized during the campaign, when Obama was 'accused' of being a secret Muslim and his middle name, Hussein, was used as a slur.” PHOTO: Al Arabiya's Yamen Abdal Wahab (L), Nate McCray, Hisham Melhem and Muna Shikaki (L) with Barack Obama.

Obama's Impressive Beginnings as an Honest Broker in the Middle East: The Psychology of Perspective-taking Where Perspective is Hard to Find - Drew Westen, Huffington Post: “Watching President Obama's interview on Al-Arabiya this week was striking in multiple respects, not the least of which, of course, was that an American president actually did an interview with an Arab network with a largely Muslim viewing audience -- and did it in the first week of his presidency. … It has been so long since a U.S. president exercised in foreign affairs, let alone in the Middle East, that distinctively human faculty that begins in preschool but takes years to develop: the capacity to take the perspective of the other -- to imagine, reflect on, and respond in accordance with inferences about what the other person sees, thinks, and feels.”

Barack Obama: Diplomat in Chief - Jon Rainwater, Groundswell, from Peace Action West read it and stop weeping: “President Obama made his first personal foray into world diplomacy this week and he didn’t even have to leave the White House. On Monday he gave his first formal interview since being sworn in to the Dubai based Al-Arabiya network. … [I]n one symbolic act, Obama telegraphed his willingness to perhaps begin to reframe the 'war on terror' as actually a bit more about communication across cultural divides and a bit less battle on the battlefield. …

Too often the term ‘public diplomacy’ has been bureaucratic jargon for a mix of Voice of America programing and slick global advertising campaigns. That type of public diplomacy is thus a euphemism for propaganda. This was true especially during the Bush administration. What we really do need is a broader conception of ‘public diplomacy’ that improves cooperation across the globe through understanding how all our nation’s words and actions impact international relations.”

Obama reaches out to the Arab World - Daya Gamage, Asian Tribune: “Although reactions to the interview were largely positive, reports the Los Angeles Times, Fawaz Traboulsi, columnist for the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, disagrees. ‘It is strange to see [Obama] address the Arab world and not have a word to say about the plight of the people in Gaza or the embargo on the Gaza Strip,’ comments Traboulsi.”

U.S. not your enemy, Obama assures Moslems – The Guardian, Nigeria: “The [Obama Al-Arabiya] interview, according to the Associated Press (AP), was a dramatic piece of public diplomacy aimed at capitalising on the new American president's international popularity, though it balanced America's traditional commitment to Israel, whose security Obama called ‘paramount.'”

Obama on Al Arabiya: more discussion - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

VOL. V NO. 03, January 16- January 29, 2009 - Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media

Expanding the Sample Group – Rob, Arabic Media Shack: “How can we measure whether the new public diplomacy strategy is working? Or the new US foreign policy in the Arab world? I would suggest that the best, if not only way to measure this is to look at the consistent responses of the top Arab intellectuals.”

More Than Guantanamo – d-day: “[T]he revelation that we're using Bagram [Air Force Base in Afghanistan] as an off-the-books Guantanamo, would be grave for public diplomacy and our relationship with the world.”

Mr. Obama, Set Vietnam Free: American soft power can spur democratic change - Duy Hoang, Wall Street Journal:

Among the recommendations: “The U.S. should engage with all facets of Vietnamese society. Education is a key area. Programs for Vietnamese youth to study at U.S. colleges should receive increased funding. At the same time, opportunities need to be created for U.S.-based academics and experts to share ideas with audiences in Vietnam, for example through forums organized by the U.S. embassy in Hanoi.”

Opportunity not to be missed by Obama - Anak Agung Banyu Perwita and Bantarto Bandoro, Jakarta Post: "The Obama administration might have learned from the fact that Indonesia and the US have, in the past ten years or so, been unable to avoid irritants in their bilateral ties. Maybe they do not understand each other well enough. Perhaps this can also be a major test for Obama's public diplomacy, to win the hearts of the Muslim world."

Do VOA and RFA [Radio Free Asia] lack street cred in China? - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

GOP, Can You Spare a Dime? - Nancy Snow, Huffington Post: “Kudos to James Glassman, the outgoing undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. First, his position could use a shorter title or acronym. Image czar has been put forward, but that doesn't make sense for a democratic society. Nor does Glassman's suggestion that the public diplomacy undersecretary engage like a military commander in a war of ideas. But Glassman is correct to say that President Obama should drop the use of the phrase, ‘Muslim world.’"

Clinton Science Czar Offers Ideas To Obama – National Journal: “Christopher Bronk, a Baker Institute technology fellow, believes the new administration should place a renewed emphasis on information technology. … [H]e recommended that the U.S. be more pragmatic with its IT policy by appointing a federal chief technology officer -- a position that Obama plans to fill. [His] report also recommends that the State Department create an entity to engage in digital public diplomacy and a clearly enunciated national policy on Internet monitoring.”

Q&A: "U.S. Must Take Seriously What the World Thinks" - William Fisher interviews John Brown, public diplomacy expert – IPS: “Brown spoke with IPS about how Obama can restore the U.S. image overseas, which sunk to a new low under the eight-year tenure of the George W. Bush administration.”

Military 2.0: Should You Fear the Killer Robots? - Mother Jones: “In his new book, Wired for War, Singer takes an in-depth and at times frightening look at the growing use of robotics by the military—a development that he argues will be looked on as ‘something revolutionary in war, maybe even in human history.’ Recently, he spoke with Mother Jones about the unforeseen ripple effects of these new technologies … Mother Jones: Was there anything in particular that surprised you or scared you as you researched the book? Peter Singer: …[T]he international ‘blowback’ issue was much bigger than I suspected, which became very clear after interviews with folks in the Middle East. I knew, of course, broadly that there were serious issues with our public diplomacy, but how dire it was when it came to our new military technology was a little bit surprising even to me.”

American killing machines: Robotics are revolutionizing today's battlefields, but what kind of blowback might this kind of science-fiction warfare bring? - P.W. Singer, Los Angeles Times: "In the long term, robots even affect the very human 'war of ideas' so crucial to winning the fight against radical movements. What is the message we are sending with our 'unmanning' of war, compared to how it is being received by people around the world?"

Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding: Conceptual Similarities and Differences - Gyorgy Szondi, Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding: Conceptual Similarities and Differences, Clingendael Discussion Paper in Diplomacy November 2008, posted at International Communication Policy Forum: "Depending on the degree of integration, five conceptual models are outlined, each with potential pitfalls as well as advantages. According to the first approach, public diplomacy and nation branding are unrelated and do not share any common grounds. In other views, however, these concepts are related and it is possible to identify different degrees of integration between public diplomacy and nation branding. In the final version, the concepts are exactly the same, public diplomacy and nation branding are synonyms for the same concept."

Building engagement and trust through the exchange of knowledge and ideas – Cultural relations Blog: “[I]t was great to hear Hillary Clinton acknowledging the valuable role of culture in the new Obama Administration’s approach to international relations. Can she and he take it a little further? I think they need to. … During campaigning, President-elect Obama pledged to 'renew American diplomacy to meet the challenges of the 21st century.…rebuild our alliances….meet with all nations, friend and foe, to advance American interests', but also admitted that 'resources for cultural diplomacy are at their lowest level in a decade.' Cultural relations means listening, being open enough to talk, to change yourself and your own views as much as you expect others to change. It also requires engagement of significant proportions of Americans with significant proportions of aspirational and influential people from all around the world – genuine people-to-people engagement, at scale, is the transformational step in U.S. international relations. For cultural relations to really work there needs to be a clear distance between the organisations charged with this activity and the government of the day.”

Office space snafu at State - Carolyn O'Hara, Foreign Policy:

“Proximity to the Secretary is everything on the 7th floor of the State Department building, and we hear that the much-respected Burns, the under secretary for political affairs (or 'P'), and his staff have been bumped from the relatively central office suite normally reserved for P and unceremoniously reassigned to the less-desirable 'G' suites down the hall. The folks in the G offices (normally for the under secretary for global affairs) are apparently being bumped even farther down the hall to the 'R' offices, normally occupied by the under secretary for public diplomacy. Where the R folks are going is anyone's guess, but it's presumably the far-from-coveted 6th floor -- hardly a good message to send about the importance of public diplomacy under a new administration.”

"Media as Global Diplomat" February 3 - Paul D. Kretkowski, Beacon: “I'll be attending the ... USIP-sponsored conference at the Newseum next Tuesday, featuring Amb. James Glassman (late of Karen Hughes's old job at State) and Amb. Edward Djerejian of the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. Ted Koppel moderates panels such as ‘Public Diplomacy 2.0: Rethinking Official Media’ and ‘Independent Documentary and Participatory Media.’”

Europa Und Die Usa: Neue Wege Zur Zusammenarbeit – Nina, Nina in Washington: "In meinem neuen Kurs 'Global Perspectives on Public Diplomacy' steigen wir, ganz wie es sich für die heutige multimediale Welt gehört, in die Blogger-Welt ein. Einmal in der Woche muss jeder Teilnehmer der Veranstaltung etwas posten. Mein erstes Thema lautet: A new Era of Transatlantic Relations? Basierend auf einer Studie des German Mashall Funds (GMF) und einem Artikel des GMF foreign policy Chefs stelle ich die Frage, ob die USA und Europa wieder auf einen Nenner finden und welchen Einfluss Barack Obama drauf hat. Hier geht es zu meinem Beitrag."

A New Era of Transatlantic Relations? – Nina, Perspectives on Public Diplomacy: "President Obama’s inauguration on January 20 has been well received in many European countries -- including Germany. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, the image of the U.S. among the European public has suffered. ... The wide-spread popularity of President Obama in European countries literally raises hope of an improved transatlantic cooperation."

Book - Threats in the Age of Obama - Zenpundit, Chicago Boyz: “I am both excited and very pleased to announce the release of Threats in the Age of Obama by Nimble Books [e]dited by my friend Michael Tanji … . Tanji recruited an impressive stable of experts, many with high level USG and private sector experience, in intelligence, cyberwarfare, terrorism, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, human terrain, information operations, public diplomacy, foreign policy and national security.”

RELATED ITEMS

Obama Used the Word Muslims Want to Hear: Respect - Deepak Chopra, Huffington Post: At his inauguration, President Obama said: "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."


How Cooking For the Taliban Gets You Life in Guantánamo - Andy Worthington, Antiwar.com: Although President Obama has set in motion a policy that addresses the prisoners' future, their long desire to have an opportunity to question the basis of their detention is currently being addressed not in the White House but in the district courts, following an epic, four-year struggle between the Supreme Court and Congress to grant them their wish.

Close Torture Loopholes, Physicians' Group Urges - William Fisher, Antiwar.com: While applauding President Barack Obama's recent executive orders banning torture and other harsh interrogation practices, medical authorities are calling attention to a little-reported section of the Army's Field Manual on Interrogation that they say still allows the use of tactics that can constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under U.S. and international law.

BBC Draws Protests With Decision Not to Air Aid Appeal for Gazans - Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post: Rage at the BBC reached a new level this week after the network decided not to air a humanitarian appeal for victims of the recent violence in Gaza. In response, more than 22,000 people have complained to the BBC, 162 members of Parliament have signed a protest letter and hundreds of viewers have canceled their television licenses or staged sit-ins at BBC offices.

An Open Letter to George Mitchell: Greetings and advice for President Obama's Middle East envoy - Gershom Gorenberg, American Prospect: Most of all, your arrival is a statement of conviction by the new administration that diplomacy can make a difference, that conflict is a choice rather than fate, that last year's mistakes are not inevitably the dress rehearsal for next year's madness.

Mitchell's Mission: Don't strengthen Hamas - Mark A. Heller, International Herald Tribune

For Palestinians, Obama's Message is Crystal Clear - Ramzy Baroud, Common Dreams: Aside from Obama's unparalleled clarity, thus far, on his utter and "unconditional" commitment to Israel, he, along with his officials, continue to borrow similar vague slogans that were used enthusiastically by the Bush administrations: national security, national interests, spreading of American ideals, values, and all the rest.

Five Myths About the Afghanistan Escalation - Brandon Friedman, Huffington Post: In order to move forward at all in Afghanistan, it's going to take more troops. Myth #4: The Afghan people don't want us in their country.

Obama's missing timetable for Afghanistan: With a coming NATO summit, he must be clear on his goals for a war that isn't going well - Editorial Board, Christian Science Monitor

Iranian Revolution@30: Simultaneously dangerous and decrepit - Clifford D. May, National Review: The Iranian Revolution is 30 years old. The new administration still has time to limit its final death toll.

NATO: Dead Man Walking - William Pfaff, TruthDig: NATO is not real; one might think it the more important organization, since it (or parts of it) makes war, but its independent existence is virtual; it is an adjunct of the United States, and serves no other purpose.

Rules of the Game – Editorial, New York Times: If the United States is going to have any credibility in arguing that others must restrain their nuclear ambitions, it must restrain its own.

Sino-American Relations Under Strain: Are Democrats planning for a trade war with China? - Irwin M. Stelzer, Weekly Standard

A mission to Burma - Editorial, Boston Globe: Obama would be acting within the tradition of nonviolent resistance if he aligned America with Burma's democrats.

Diplomatic Means, Militaristic Ends - Doug Bandow, Antiwar.com: Unfortunately, while the personnel have changed in Washington, the policies have not. The U.S. is still determined to micro-manage affairs around the globe. It just plans on ordering people about more nicely.

Teens Prefer Online Games to Social Nets: Also, the number of teens using e-mail has dropped significantly over the past four years - Mike Shields, AdWeek

IMAGE


FROM