”The Greek city states from the sixth century onwards adopted the pratice of choosing as their Ambassadors the finest orators, the most plausible forensic advocates, that the community could produce.
The task of these envoys was to plead the cause of their city before the popular assemblies of foreign leagues or cities. They were not expected to acquire information regarding the countries which they visited or to write reports on their return; all that was expected of them was that they should make a magnificent speech.”
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
The New Ethic of Public Diplomacy - Joshua S. Fouts, Policy Innovations: “Public diplomacy in its most successful form is authentic communication of our culture with other cultures.
This will require an unprecedented level of nuance and open-mindedness to be successful in the post-Bush era, and it gets to the heart of the battle over what public diplomacy is: Is it messaging or dialogue? A conversation or propaganda? … If public diplomacy is to include information warfare, then we must also supplement it with something fresh to ensure that we are communicating with the world in an authentic way—in a way that the world will at least listen and, at best, trust.”
Ten Reasons Why We Don't Need an Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs - John Brown, Notes and EssaysInternational broadcasting can be strategic communication. Or it can have an audience - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: “US international broadcasting cannot be autonomous if it is not under an independent, bipartisan board.”
Flournoy Aims To Curtail Or Nix Pentagon’s Public Diplomacy Shop - InsideDefense.com: "Newly appointed Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy is pushing an idea to downsize or eliminate the department’s public diplomacy shop [From Google entry]. TEXT AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH SUBSCRIPTION. COURTESY LEN BALDYGA
Lies, Damn Lies and Stereotypes - In Harmonium: Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist: “I’ve been thinking about the effects of ‘net interactivity on perception and the formation of meaning systems for a long time now (about 20 years).
A lot of this thinking has been focused on population level, structural changes that have taken place, i.e. a shift from redistributive communications systems to reciprocity based communications systems (e.g. here, here, here, here, and here). Recently, I have been pushed back into thinking about the specifics of how such reciprocity based systems operate thanks, in part, to discussions with Max Forte and Matt Armstrong. Max and I have been engaging on discussions about, amongst other things, rhetoric and logic, while Matt and I have been talking about Propaganda vs. Public Diplomacy. Recently, Matt posted a link to an excellent blog post by John Matel entitled Public Diplomacy & New Technologies [PD&NT]. John makes several interesting points that I would like to extrapolate on.”
Богиня выпечки: Некоторые сотрудники нашей редакции Эрикову выпечку пробовали и подтверждают: она способна отвлечь и от истории и от политики - С.-Петербургские ведомости: Eric Johnson, “Consul for Cultural Affairs” at the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg, discusses baking recipes. VIA: Joe McCormickIs Bar Refaeli an Israeli 'trojan horse'? - Mondoweiss: “In theory, [Israeli model Bar] Refaeli will change this by showing people in the US that Israel is ‘just like you’ (if by 'like you' they mean Israel also enjoys objectifying women). John H. Brown, a senior fellow of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, calls this practice 'pubic diplomacy'. While Brown points out that many countries now use this strategy, he believes that Israel began the practice at May 19, 2007 at 9:00 pm when the Israeli consulate in New York hosted a party celebrating an issue of Maxim magazine that featured Israeli models as IDF soldiers.
At that party David Saranga, Israel's Consul For Media And Public Affairs at its New York Consulate, was quoted as saying 'the beautiful models in Israel were a ‘Trojan horse' to present Israel as a modern country with nice beaches and pretty women.' What this does to build international support for Israeli war crimes is still unclear.”BOMCA/CADAP Chief: Technical Advisor for Tajikistan - UNDP Jobs: Job includes “Advocacy for change: representing the BOMCA and CADAP assistance programmes locally and regionally, Public Diplomacy and Public Speaking on behalf of BOMCA and CADAP.”
RELATED ITEMS
An ‘Impulsive’ America? Too much dialogue and not enough leadership - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review:
President Obama’s laudable assurances of a new age of American diplomacy may often be ignored -- or exploited -- rather than always appreciated. Given the depressing nature of the world abroad, the more we now keep promising to be gentle, the bigger the stick we will later on have to carry.Free the Uighurs: They lose one in court. They should win in the White House – Editorial, Washington Post:
The Obama administration an opportunity to reverse some of the damage done by disastrous Bush administration anti-terrorism policies by granting asylum to Huzaifa Parhat, one of the 17 Chinese Uighurs held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay.Good and Bad News for Gitmo Detainees: Obama's Uighur Problem - Andy Worthington, CounterPunch: In many ways, Bush’s judges have thrown the problem of the Uighurs back into the hands of the Executive -- although now, of course, it is Barack Obama who will have to decide whether to find new homes for the Uighurs in the United States, or to keep them imprisoned at Guantánamo until, perhaps, various European countries step forward to relieve him of the burden.
Will Obama cave on Bush-Cheney terror policies? – Joan Walsh, Nation: The president campaigned to restore the rule of law, and to diminish the expanded and dangerous executive powers claimed by Bush and Cheney. Now he seems to be embracing some of them. It's disturbing.
Cartoon fromAfghan Civilian Casualties May Surge as Well - Ali Gharib, Antiwar.com: An increased U.S. presence in Afghanistan will likely result in more combat confrontations. That, in turn, leads to an increased risk to the civilian population of Afghanistan, human rights groups stress.
I Wanted to Stop Bush's Surge, but I Support Obama's Stabilization - Jonathan Powers, Huffington Post: The addition of troops right now is not putting the cart before the horse, though. The addition will allow us to provide some security through the expected spring offensive from the enemy, so that there's an actual Afghanistan situation to review, and not a failed state completely overrun by the Taliban.
New Iranian capability is troublesome – Editorial, Washington Times: Of great immediate worry is the possibility that Iran might begin to use drones for the same kind of pinpoint attacks the United States is currently carrying out in the war on terrorism.Welcome Back Khadr? Obama's Canada Trip Is a Perfect Opportunity to Repatriate Gitmo's Youngest Detainee - Dahlia Lithwick, Slate
Obama Needs to Keep Promise to Rewrite NAFTA - John Nichols, Nation: The new president sounds a lot better than Bush when it comes to trade policy. But Obama is still a little mushy when it comes to explaining how hard he will push to reduce the damage done by badly-drawn trade deals.
Mexico needs Obama's eye – Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle: Mexico is a reflecting pool for many of this country's problems. But for years, Washington's leaders haven't had the inclination to look. It's time for Obama to focus on the picture and take stock of a neglected relationship.
Can Chavez Be Stopped? Consolidating a dictatorship - Jaime Daremblum, Weekly Standard: While Washington has limited influence over Venezuela's internal political affairs, the Obama administration should work with Latin American democracies and launch a multilateral diplomatic campaign to pressure the Chávez regime on human rights.
Is Hugo Chavez the future? - Mona Charen, Washington Times: A decade ago Venezuela was a thriving and free (if somewhat corrupt) ally of the United States. Today, it is a bitter enemy, and its domestic corruption is infinitely worse. The results of the referendum and the consolidation of power by Mr. Chavez suggest Venezuela will plunge even deeper into despotism and poverty.
Chavez on despots' term-cutting edge: But sinking oil revenues may provide a slippery power base - Helle Dale, Washington Times: Despots like those running Venezuela, Russia and Iran are always in search of external enemies to justify to their people the despots' hold on power -- enemies usually identified as the United States or Israel. Still, their ability to weather declining oil revenues falls far short of that of the United States and other modern economies, a silver lining in dark economic times.
Burma's Agony - Rena Pederson, Washington Post: It is up to the Obama foreign policy team to put more backbone in the U.N. democratization efforts in Burma.
The Axis of Upheaval - Niall Ferguson, Foreign Policy:
Forget Iran, Iraq, and North Korea -- Bush’s “Axis of Evil.” As economic calamity meets political and social turmoil, the world’s worst problems may come from countries like Somalia, Russia, and Mexico. And they’re just the beginning.
IMAGE
This Japanese sushi chef has developed a fantastic Obama sushi: "Obama's skin is Amis (small shrimp) TSUKUDA煮use. 髪は黒ゴマで、歯はかまぼこ。 Hair is black sesame, fish paste teeth." From Boing Boing
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