May 20

"You can save your breath, Richard. The president has already made up his mind on Iraq."

--Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in response to the question posed to her by the president's senior Middle East advisor on the NSC staff, Richard Haass, "Are you really sure you want to make Iraq the centerpiece of the administration's foreign policy?"; image from; see also John Brown, "'10 Percent Intellectual': The Mind of Condoleezza Rice"

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Arab public opinion in 2009 – Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy: "This morning I was delighted to have the chance to comment on the 2009 edition of the annual survey of public opinion in six Arab countries conducted by Shilbey Telhami and Zogby International. … Obama is personally inspiring some hope, but deep skepticism remains about U.S. foreign policy. Positive views of the U.S. increased from 15% to 18% (i.e. no real difference), but at least 'very unfavorable' dropped from 64% to 46%. Only 3% express 'a lot of confidence' in the U.S., and 66% none. But at the same time 45% expressed positive views of Barack Obama -- and 60% expressed positive views if the Egyptian sample is excluded -- and only 24% expressed negative views (15% excluding Egypt). That's a pretty stunning gap

between views of the President and views of the U.S. as a whole --- and a strong boost for the case for Presidential-led public diplomacy. Only 14% said that they were discouraged by the first few weeks of the Obama administration, and 51% said they were hopeful." Image from

Today in Congress - David Waldman, Daily Kos: Foreign Relations "Hearings to examine foreign policy priorities in the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2010 for international affairs; to be followed by a business meeting to consider the nominations of Robert Orris Blake, Jr., of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs, and Judith A. McHale, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, both of the Department of State. SH-216."

Can the State Department Facebook? - Peter Spiro, Opinio Juris: "No surp[r]ise, the State Department has a Facebook page. … Count me a skeptic. The VOA in its ideal applications enjoyed a monopoly on information (at least when broadcasting to media-repressed societies), with all its advantages — even if it was a 'one-way media' (something I bet they’re nostalgic for at State!). That’s obviously not going to be replicated in the New World. (Insurgencies and other nongovernmental entities, by contrast, can use it to their advantage — it is in that sense a leveler.) Facebook users seem to be saying as much: State has a paltry 6000 'fans', many fewer than does a mediocre baseball team across the Anacostia River. Britney Spears has almost a million and a half." Image from

Public Diplomacy and the Phantom Menace of Theory – Intermap: "Engineers take classes from engineering professors.
Some salespersons and marketers take business classes from (gasp) professers [sic] that may have more experience in academia than in the business world. The same could certainly be said of public relations professionals. So what’s the problem with an academic study of public diplomacy helping out public diplomacy practitioners? Yes – I would agree that public diplomacy can be an applied skill, but that doesn’t preclude the benefits of good scholarship to help with that skill." Response from John Brown, Notes and Essays; see also; image from

Engage: How do we change the goalposts? - nchestnut, Whose Hearts & Minds does public diplomacy target?: "American public diplomacy should change, but I lack faith that it will change. … The challenge facing public diplomats is to remind people of the reasons for why violence fails. … Engagement requires debating those forces at home that want to hinder cross-cultural understanding." Image from

Diplos Heart ‘Afghanistan CEO’ Khalilzad — Not - Nathan Hodge, Danger Room, Wired: "The New York Times this week made public the rather jaw-dropping news that Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. envoy to both Afghanistan and Iraq, was angling for a job as a sort of 'chief executive officer' of Afghanistan. … Leave aside, for a moment, how such an appointment might look in terms of transparency and public diplomacy (short answer: not good). Let’s look instead at Khalilzad’s record as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, a job he held between 2003 and 2005. I’ve spoken with a number of people who served under him there; and while Khalilzad got points for being plugged in, he often was described as being detached from the nuts-and-bolts of nation-building."

A quick wish-list - Pragmatic Euphony [India]:

"UPA [United Progressive Alliance] can start with these during the swearing-in. … [including] 5. A new ministerial spokesperson for the government, to handle the national and international media commitments. Perhaps, an MoS [Minister of State] for Public diplomacy. A new ministerial spokesperson for the government, to handle the national and international media commitments. Perhaps, an MoS for Public diplomacy. Sounds far-fetched… but that is what wish-lists are for." Image from

The character and growth of Indian Diplomacy (2005) - Rohee Dasgupta, Keele University, Staffordshire, U.K. Courtesy RZ.

New FM spokesman – ANA-MPA, Greece: "Outgoing foreign ministry press spokesman

and director of information and public diplomacy George Koumoutsakos on Wednesday handed over his portfolio to Grigoris Delavekouras, in a ceremony attended by foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

The 90% Club: Why is the U.S. joining Cuba on a U.N. panel?: Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal: Whenever somebody gets a suspiciously large share of a vote, we tend to cock an eyebrow. So forgive us for not feeling wholly at ease with the margin -- 86.9%, to be exact -- by which the U.N.'s General Assembly recently voted to give the United States its first-ever seat on the Human Rights Council.

Bring 'people power' to Pakistan: US aid and troops alone won't stabilize the country. But a campaign to unleash Pakistan's positive civic energy could - Rick Barton, Christian Science Monitor

Rock Concerts to Shape Georgia's Politics - Matthew Collin, Moscow Times: Pop music became the latest political battleground between Georgia and Russia last weekend as the government in Tbilisi tried to take some of the shine off the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow by financing a rival rock festival that celebrated "freedom" and "European culture." Presumably, Tbilisi wanted to send the message that the Kremlin cherishes neither concept.

IMAGE

Damien Hirst's giant replica of a kid's anatomy model; from