April 24

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."

--Soren Kierkegaard; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Sudan: Darfur Advocates Ask Obama to Make Darfur A 'Top Personal Priority' – Press Release, Save Darfur: "Today Darfur activists from around the country, joined by actress Mia Farrow, sent an open letter to President Obama expressing concern about the Administration’s lack of action to end the Darfur genocide and bring peace to Sudan.

The letter coincides with Obama’s keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony. … The letter recommends [inter alia] that the Obama administration 1) Embark on a public diplomacy blitz to ensure that as many countries as possible will demand that humanitarian aid be unfettered by politics with a focus on isolating President al- Bashir for starving his own citizens, 2) Conduct a private diplomatic effort to explore how governments could downgrade relations with Sudan's indicted president and eventually end his 20-year presidency.” See also Boston Globe editorial; Huffington Post article. Image from

President Obama’s Diplomatic Outreach – Madhavi, The Trajectory: "President Obama is judiciously choosing the time, place and intensity of his diplomatic outreach; his policies can neither be classified as dovish nor hawkish, it’s simply pragmatic. President Obama has emerged as the one-man public diplomacy army for the U.S. The President’s style of uncategorized and unconditional diplomatic outreach would excel even the best designed public diplomacy campaigns of the State Department. Hopefully the ‘yes we can’ magic works for the U.S. foreign policy as did for Obama’s Presidential campaign." Image from

US Senators Casey, Bayh introduce Legislation to Track Progress of War on Terrorism – ISRIA: "U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) today introduced legislation to require an annual comprehensive report on the status of U.S. efforts and the level of progress achieved to combat and defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates under the Global War on Terrorism. … [Senator Bayh:] 'Our bill will ensure that Congress and the American people receive an accurate accounting of how our government is countering al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies using every tool in our arsenal— military, intelligence, economic, diplomatic, political, law enforcement, strategic communications, and public diplomacy.'” Image from

Frankensteins, or Davids? – James Glassman, TCS Daily: “Evgeny Morozov's thoughtful piece in Boston Review on Cyber Utopia … gives bows to Clay Shirky and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and places some nice emphasis on our favorite subject, Public Diplomacy 2.0.

The piece begins with this 20-year-old quote from Ronald Reagan: 'The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip.' Morozov then reviews the recent bidding — the enthusiasm over the ability of the Internet, and especially social networking — to bring salutary social and political results … But Morozov brings some appropriate sketicism to the endeavor. … His reservations are well taken, but I disagree. We engage in the Public Diplomacy 2.0 endeavor, the Grand Conversation, because we have a confidence that ideals like tolerance, free choice, respect, and democracy will, in a wide-open and fair discussion, triumph. Is this naive? I don't think so.” Image from article

Digital Divide Thwarts Online Diplomatic Efforts: The State Department Is Reaching Out On The Web -- But Who Are They Reaching? - David Herbert, National Journal: "The State Department is rapidly moving its diplomatic outreach efforts online, with a digital SWAT team of Arabic, Farsi and Urdu speakers to post on chat boards in the Muslim world and a social networking site and video contest to generate excitement about Western-style democracy. But for all the talk of the Web as a democratic medium, the Internet remains the domain of the developed countries. While three quarters of North America is connected to the Web, just 17.4 percent of Asians and 5.6 percent of Africans are online. … Ambassador James Glassman, who was undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs during President Bush's second term, acknowledged that online outreach efforts won't reach large swaths of the world. But, he added, that isn't much a shift for the State Department, whose public diplomacy has always been aimed at political and cultural elites. The idea that the State Department could tap the right people online who can diffuse the agency's message offline is not unlike 'buzz marketing' in advertising, which taps a handful of influentials to spread the word about a product or service.” Image from

Bringing Social Networking To Iraq? Could Work: In Context of Iraqi Culture, Not Ours - blackvector: "First off, do not get me wrong here, I applaud social networking and what it can deliver and fully support integration into existing processes for Public Affairs/Public Relations/Public Diplomacy and this group is a step in the right direction. However, one thing that has always bugged me is how we go into the overseas environment and attempt to take Western processes into other cultures. … The state department has taken a delegation of 'social networking' types into Iraq to 'provide conceptual input as well as ideas on how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale-up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building.' All that is lofty press release jargon for something, but i’m not sure what. … Public Affairs must shift from reactive to a more proactive and culturally-centric form of outreach in the deployed environment. I happen to agree with Matt Armstrong, from MoutainRunner.us, that PA officers and SNCOs should probably be trained more like Public Diplomacy officers rather than Journalists.” Image from

Does torture work? – ziferstein, drudge - Comment by Chris Ford: "If we had a law on the books explicitly authorizing torture by our government, the damage, from a public diplomacy point of view, would be incalculable. By 'damage', I don't just mean US tourists pretending to be Canadian in order not to get yelled at or something. What I mean is that on several levels, economic, military, security, intelligence, cultural, etc. we would receive less cooperation from other countries. Since we count on such cooperation to detect and preempt terrorist plots in the first place, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot."

Elephants in the Room: Of course the Pentagon cuts are about budget pressure - Jim Talent, Heritage Foundation: "[Defense Secretary] Gates has repeatedly and correctly referred to non-military tools of national influence -- what he calls 'smart' or 'soft' power -- that should be used in dealing with some of these dangers. Techniques include communicating effectively about American intentions, helping failing states build economic and political institutions, engaging in consistent public diplomacy, building alliances, improving interagency cooperation, and constructive engagement.

But many of these tools will not work except in partnership with the armed forces; it is impossible, for example (as America has found in Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan) to build democracy in the absence of security. And the foundation for all of the smart-power options, many of which I support, is the world's confidence in the willingness and ability of the United States, as the animating force in a free-world consensus, to swiftly and effectively defeat, contain, or deter violent threats to its security, its vital interests, or its allies. Security, and the stability it yields, is the foundation for all positive development, whether that is the effective use of foreign aid or the steady movement toward representative forms of government across the globe." Image from

U.S. Travel Association Commends Department of Homeland Security’s Streamlined Entry Process for Frequent International Visitors: Travel Industry Encourages Expansion of ‘Global Entry’ Program to Other Countries as Win-Win for Security, Economy and Public Diplomacy – Travel Reviews

Vol. V.9 , April 10-April 23, 2009 - The Layalina Review on Public Diplomacy and Arab Media: McHale Appointed amidst Debates; Pentagon Closes Down Propaganda Machine; Iraqi Government Spars with Media; Media Forum Addresses Global Crisis; Arab Media Neutrality: Myth or Reality; Egypt Turns Off Hezbollah TV ; Restoring the Prestige of Science through TV; Saudi Arabia Cracks Down on TV Decoders; New Media Horizons in the Gulf ; Rethinking Democracy Promotion; Skilled Diplomat or Apologist?; New Media Law Tightens UAE Government Control.

Are your opinions being managed? - Clarity: "To quote others on the issue, '…the phrase 'perception management' has often functioned as a 'euphemism' for 'an aspect of information warfare.' A scholar in the field notes a distinction between 'perception management' and public diplomacy, which 'does not, as a rule, involve falsehood and deception, whereas these are important ingredients of perception management; the purpose is to get the other side to believe what one wishes it to believe, whatever the truth may be.'” Image from

Main Responsibilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China: “3. To coordinate with rel[e]vant government departments according to the overall diplomatic planning, and report and give suggestions to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on major issues including foreign trade, economic cooperation and assistance, culture, military aid, arms trade, Chinese nationals abroad, education, science and technology, and public diplomacy. … 9. To release information about important diplomatic activities, elaborate on foreign policies, conduct information-related work about important diplomatic activities, organize public diplomacy activities, and take charge of the affairs related to foreign journalists in China and resident foreign news agencies."

Immigrant Diplomats.... – Manith, Perspectives on Public Diplomacy:

"If Turkey tries to mobilize its immigrant population in other countries as a form of public diplomacy to become a member of the EU, I can see it having negative effects from both the immigrant population and the countries they are trying to influence." Image from

Foreign Policy Advisory Group - nvids.info: cites report, Brown[:]Changing Minds, Winning Peace: Reconsidering The Djerejian Report

UW Brazil Initiative Launch - Event Details, The Daily Page, Isthmus: ”'Nabuco & Madison' conference [includes] … Session: Nabuco, Diplomacy, and Foreign Policy Chair: Prof. Mary Lou Daniel, Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison Diana Page, Foreign Service Officer, Department of State, Washington, D.C.'Public Diplomacy: Ambassador Nabuco’s Enduring Legacy.'” Image from

Absence is the Highest Form of Presence: Teabaggin’ for Lebanon – All the Beirut News: "Maalouf, the ‘godfather of 1559.’ … was the head of public diplomacy for USAID and MEPI in Lebanon."

RELATED ITEMS

Horrors! A Handshake! – Editorial, New York Times:

Mr. Obama got elected on a pledge to do things differently. At last week’s hemispheric summit, years of antagonism gave way to eagerness for new relations with Washington. Mr. Obama undercut Mr. Chávez’s bluster with that handshake and his promise of a “new beginning” with Cuba. Image from

Obama's world tour - R. Emmett Tyrrell, Washington Times: Mr. Obama has become the first sitting president to criticize America while on foreign soil, and he does it with the practiced zeal of a person who has been feeding on anti-American myths for years.

The UN is used again – Editorial, Boston Globe: The United Nations conference on racism wrapping up in Geneva has once again been hijacked by hateful anti-Israeli rhetoric. It proves that President Obama was right to avoid attending the conference, even though -- or especially since -- he is the first black American president.


Tyrants Get Another U.N. Platform: America should rescue the human-rights agenda from its hijackers - Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Wall Street Journal: Rightly anticipating that the Geneva conference would be a forum for anti-Western and anti-Israel propaganda, the U.S. and a score of Western democracies boycotted the conference entirely. Unfortunately, lost in this circus were the real victims who suffer at the hands of autocratic and theocratic regimes. Image from

Stupid Iranian government propaganda machine displays great stupidity - DPGI - the aftermath: Is Iran’s new drone really an Israeli aircraft?

Yes, Condi Approved Waterboarding, but Don't Worry, She'll Never Get in Trouble for It - Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog I STILL keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to: Condi's been strangely untouched by the whole torture scandal thingy. Oh, look, here's an article about how she encouraged its use when she was national security adviser. But it's OK, because nobody will seriously take her to task for it, and then she'll come out with her delightful book about her parents, go on Oprah, go on the Today Show, get profiled by Ladies Home Journal, and nobody will ever really ask her any serious questions about torture, the end. Left image from

American Idol Judge "Mystified" by Dream Date with Condi - Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog I STILL keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to: Condi is a weirdly-obsessive American Idol fan.

Was Hans Holbein's Henry VIII the best piece of propaganda ever? As we mark the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII,

historian Derek Wilson claims that Hans Holbein's portrait of the king was a blatant piece of propaganda - Derek Wilson, Daily Telegraph; image from article.