May 16

"Right now the image of America abroad is, I think, largely a closed one, and how can we really expect countries to greet us with open arms if we shut ourselves off behind walls the moment we get there?"

--Kelsey, a reader of The Hegemonist Blog; scroll down link for item; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Clinton remaining loyal to Obama administration – John Hughes, Deseret News: "One area on which Clinton is putting her own stamp is public diplomacy, the art of presenting truthful information about America to audiences around the world. In earlier years the United States Information Agency was America's principal vehicle for this. When the Cold War ended, Congress elected to run it down and merge its remnants with the State Department. Clinton says USIA was 'unfortunately marginalized' but does not see it emerging again as an independent agency. She is encouraging the use of new technology, such as blogs and social networking online, but faces criticism that traditional communications instruments like radio are being short-changed. She is promoting cultural exchanges, replicating such Cold War measures as the dispatch of jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie to Iron Curtain countries. Her nomination of Judith McHale, a media and communications executive, to be under secretary for public diplomacy, has drawn some criticism from public diplomacy practitioners. It is not at all clear that the personnel, resources, or techniques requisite for the task at hand are adequate. Whether another run for the presidency still lingers in Clinton's dreams, only she knows. But for now she is concentrating on being a smart diplomat and loyal foot-soldier in the Obama administration." Image from

Clinton: Be Citizen Ambassadors – The Hegemonist: "Secretary Clinton spoke at NYU’s commencement. Speeches at college are generally idealistic and all about changing the world, and this one is no different. That being said, she has some interesting things to say on participatory foreign policy. 'Now, when I was graduating so many years ago, diplomacy was the domain of privileged men working behind closed doors. Today, our diplomats are not limited, and our diplomacy is no longer confined to the State Department or our embassies. We are laying the foundation for 21st century statecraft.' ... The U.S. [in the blogger's opinion] can no longer spread propaganda overseas. Younger generations have better b.s. filters, and overseas audiences and domestic audiences have merged on the internet. Soft power has always been difficult to harness; the U.S. government doesn’t control movies, music, or television. Maybe mobilizing our younger generation is going to be the only way to reach the younger generations in other countries." Image from

What is Democracy? The State Department and YouTube Put it to a Vote – Steve, Citizen Tube:

“[T]he State Department's Democracy Video Challenge on YouTube has been … impressive - they asked a simple question last fall - 'What is Democracy?' - and got over 900 entries from around the world. Today, they've announced their 18 finalists - and you can vote on your favorites through June 15 at youtube.com/democracychallenge. We've been proud partners in this initiative along with several civic organizations and NBC Universal. … [T]he Democracy Video Challenge program wasn't set up to tell the world what democracy is, but rather to ask the world what democracy is.” Image from

Profile: Robert A. Wood – Symphony, Essential Presence: "Robert A. Wood is the State Department's Deputy Spokesman and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. Mr. Wood has been a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and the former U.S. Information Agency since 1988. From 2004-2008, he served as the Press Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Prior to his assignment to Berlin, he was Deputy Spokesman at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York (2001-2004). ... In Washington, Mr. Wood has worked as a public affairs advisor for the Bureau of African Affairs, as a special assistant to the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and in several positions dealing with the Balkans."

Statement by Assistant Secretary-Designate Jeffrey Feltman: Testifies before May 14 Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing – America.gov: "If I am confirmed, I would dedicate myself to the security, morale, and professional development of NEA [Near East Affairs] personnel. This would include a determined commitment to equal opportunity to maximize the diversity and talent of our team. It also would include efforts to ensure our representatives abroad have the skills and training they need, with special focus on the areas of foreign language and public diplomacy -- essential tools for our effectiveness in the region." Feltman image from

Calling A Spade A Spade – Nodoublestandards: Rants Of A Foreign Service Officer On The Things That Matter To You -- And Matter To You Not At All: "The consular section is the face of the embassy, and, apologies to our Public Diplomacy officers, the single most influential factor in how foreigners view America."

Egypt's few get gift of 'global voice' - Jack Shenker, Journalism By Jack Shenker: "From teacher-training programmes in the Nile Delta to English tuition classes in the poverty-stricken villages of Upper Egypt and the opening of language centres at the heart of Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Islamic world, Egypt is awash with vibrant and often competitive schemes – many paid for by British and American taxpayers – to increase and improve the learning of English as a second language. The man overseeing the US State Department’s Access Programme in Egypt since its inception two years ago knows that explaining to Americans why they are funding English teaching for underprivileged children in the southern city of Asyut, to the tune of $2,000 per student, isn’t always easy." Image from

Simon Study Abroad Act Included in Foreign Relations Authorization Bill: Legislation would send one million American college students abroad to study each year: PRNewswire-USNewswire -- "The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act was included in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (fiscal years 2010 and 2011) introduced yesterday by U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D - Calif.). While the authorization bill's primary purpose is to authorize funding for the operations of the U.S. Department of State, it also includes innovative programs like the Simon legislation that are critical to accomplishing U.S. foreign policy and public diplomacy goals. 'We applaud Chairman Berman for his strong support of the Simon bill and for including it in this important package,' said NAFSA Executive Director and CEO Marlene Johnson. 'By ensuring that the critical experience of study abroad is an integral part of the 21st-century education of our college students, this unique and innovative program would revolutionize America's capacity to understand, relate to, and lead responsibly in the world. We are encouraged by the support expressed for the Simon bill by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton when they were in the Senate.'"

Obama’s Coalition of the Unwilling – Stanley Kuntler, Truthdig: "Propaganda, according to Webster, is 'the spreading of ideas or information deliberately to further one’s cause or damage an opposing cause.'

Propaganda is no exclusive tool of hated regimes. What did Sens. Lieberman and Graham think they were voting for when Congress authorized untold billions of dollars to support the Voice of America, the U.S. Information Agency, Radio Free Europe and Radio Marti? For six decades, 'soft power' propagandizing has taken place; we call it the Fulbright Program." Image from

Public diplomacy as an academic discipline - CB3blog: "In the old days where diplomats spoke to diplomats and occasionally some PR-type would be brought in to do some outreach thing or media campaign for foreign audiences, it was acceptable that public diplomacy was not on any curricula – a good bit of experience and one would get the handle of it. Globalisation, the information age, technological advances and the spread of democracy have changed all that, and anyone expected to work in public diplomacy can expect a sharp learning curve. Yet as shown above, outside the US, there are few institutions providing that learning at high level, certainly not at the graduate level, preparing students for entering the workforce." Image from

The real pandemic – Sunita Narain, DownToEarth: "[N]ext to one of Mexico’s biggest hog factories, owned by the world’s largest pig processor, Smithfield Foods. …

Smithfield slaughtered some 26 million pigs and had a turnover of US$ 11.4 billion in 2006. It also made a profit of over US$ 500 million that year and expanded madly across the world. Just last week, The New York Times published a devastating tale of how the same company was using subsidies and public diplomacy to take over family pig farms in Romania and Poland." Image from

Afghanistan Embassy counselor to speak at May 21 - IAF - "M. Ashraf Haidari, counselor for political, security and development affairs at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington D.C., will be the speaker at an International Affairs Forum lecture …on the main campus of Northwestern Michigan College … titled … 'Governance, Security, and Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Challenges and Opportunities.' In his role at the embassy, Haidari … plays an active role in the embassy’s public diplomacy efforts in support of Afghanistan's reconstruction.".

Can Pakistan’s Public Diplomacy Get Any Better? - Madhavion, The Trajectory: Comprehending Pathways

Hasbara Hints – Ymedad, My Right Word: "From a Pal.:- … Commander of the Palestinian Security Services Adnan Ad-Dimeiri … sees information links with the media as a...strategic issue? P.S. Hasbara is the Hebrew-language term for public diplomacy/information service." Image from

US opposes $2 billion IMF loan to Sri Lanka: LTTE global macro effect displayed - Daya Gamage, Asian Tribune: "Despite the LTTE defeat in Sri Lanka, Asian Tribune always was convinced that this micro organization maintains a macro effect globally … the LTTE has positioned the Sri Lanka Tamil Diaspora to its advantage proving its superiority in overseas public diplomacy and strategic communication which the Government of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry and its overseas diplomatic establishments are unable to match."

Independent Electoral Commissions Strengthen Democracy in Africa - Jim Fisher-Thompson, News Blaze: "The electoral commission process also played an essential role in South Africa's recent election, according to Tebogo Kola, the South African Embassy's first secretary for public diplomacy. Kola told America.gov, 'The election proceeded very well and lived up to our high expectations,' due in part to the work of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which served as a watchdog and referee over the voting process."

Why Jack Was So Long at the Fair - Fred A. Bernstein, New York Times: "Mr. [Jack] Masey, 84, spent nearly 30 years creating exhibitions and pavilions for the government.

His efforts at public diplomacy, which culminated with world’s fair pavilions in 1967 in Montreal and 1970 in Osaka, Japan, are the subject of his new book, 'Cold War Confrontations' (written with Conway Lloyd Morgan, Lars Müller Publishers)." Image from

PD Corps & forgotten fellowships - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Wednesday, I sat in on a presentation for a project I have been involved in, Public Diplomacy Corps. Public Diplomacy Corps, originally dreamed up by Erin Kamler and Naomi Leight, is a project to create a public diplomacy crossroads in cyberspace for public diplomacy practitioners. It is meant to connect public diplomats, or people doing public diplomacy without realizing it, on social networking sites. … The goal of the project is ultimately to give us PD practitioners a way to implement our PD training in real world settings. … Yesterday, I started my first postings on PDiN. I put up some interesting stories about Somililand, Pub D in Afghanistan, the Tamil diaspora trying to do pub d in Canada and some other interesting stories."

One book down, so many to go - Suzhettes...tales of a wandering Mormon: "I still entertain the thought of going to law school to focus on international law...don't tell my parents haha I sometimes wish I could go back and study psychology, sociology, history, international relations, and philosophy! Luckily, public diplomacy has a mix of these, and for the rest I can just keep on reading! "

RELATED ITEMS

Obama After Bush: Leading by Second Thought - David E. Sanger, New York Times:

President Obama’s decisions this week to retain important elements of the Bush-era system for trying terrorism suspects and to block the release of pictures showing abuse of American-held prisoners abroad are the most graphic examples yet of how he has backtracked, in substantial if often nuanced ways, from the approach to national security that he preached as a candidate, and even from his first days in the Oval Office. Image from

Klein: Study: Pope used to wage propaganda attacks against Israel. Palestinians accused of hijacking pontiff’s visit for political gain - Procrustes, RBO

Condi Had a Nice Time in Canada - Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog I STILL keep track of Condoleezza's hairdo so you don't have to:

PHOTO: Former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice accepts a Calgary Flames jersey from Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier before speaking at a fundraiser hosted by the University of Calgary school of public policy on Wednesday. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press) COMMENT: Well of course she had a nice time in Alberta, because Condi has a nice time wherever she goes, and she meets nice people who treat her courteously and she has nice chats with them and then they give her a jersey with her name on it and $50,000 and everybody is happy. Good work if you can get it! How nice.

‘We Are All Guilty’ [Review of The Third Reich At War by Richard J. Evans] - Walter Reich, New York Times: A strand in the book is the way in which German forces — the SS but also the regular army — carried out that vision of racial reordering and extermination. Having been indoctrinated by Nazi propaganda, they murdered and brutalized Slavs and even more methodically exterminated Jews. We meet the monstrous German officials — propagandists, military leaders, bureaucrats and death-camp commanders — who made sure the Nazi machine did its grindingly destructive work. And then there’s the home front, with the ubiquity and power of propaganda.

What Hitler Wants – 2nd World War Soviet Propaganda – energicspell: Animation propaganda pieces produced by the Soviet regime during the 2nd World War in order to show the comrades what Hitler wants to do to the Motherland…

Module 1 – Reflection Paper - Sherry Dait, Ip368s2009’s Blog: During the Second World War, propaganda was introduced in filmmaking in the Philippines. Propaganda to portray the Japanese as friends of the Philippines was the goal of some movie producers.

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