May 22

"My characters changed the outcome of the war. Now, that didn't happen because my characters didn't exist."

Film Director Quentin Tarantino, regarding his World War II saga "Inglourious Basterds"; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Thursday, May 21, 2009 - Daily Digest, Thomas, Library of Congress - "Nominations Confirmed: Senate confirmed the following nominations: … . Judith A. McHale, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Philip J. Crowley, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (Public Affairs)."

Hillary Clinton on Al Jazeera - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

The Education of Barack Obama: Guantanamo - James K. Glassman - Economics, Investing, Public Diplomacy, and More: "[A]re there methods, using the tools of public diplomacy, to address the misperception of Gitmo without releasing the majority of the remaining detainees into America’s cities and towns? I believe so, and in my final months at the State Department [as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs], I was addressing that issue, as were foreign service officers in places like Kuwait. It was no piece of cake — in part, because there was resistance at State and Defense to dealing, in a public-diplomacy sense, with Gitmo at all. Better to bury your head in the sand. The answer, both politically and practically, is not to shut the place down abruptly. Whatever the president said today, I think he is learning that foreign policy and national security — especially as they relate to America’s image abroad — are matters a lot more thorny than they appear from the outside and that to do the opposite of what George Bush did is not a strategy but, in some cases, a trap." Image from

BBG shows audience increases for its budget increases - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: "The Broadcasting Board of Governors annual report for 2008 is now available at the BBG website. Among other things, it shows the unduplicated weekly BBG audience increasing from 100 million in 2002, to 155 million in 2007, to 175 million in 2008. The budget has increased from a little over $400 million in 2001 to about $700 million in 2008."

Aid with impact: Assessing the crisis in Pakistan - Noticed from Northwest: "The stability of Pakistan is vital to U.S. national security interests. To that end the U.S. has already pledged aid to help displaced persons, but we need to follow that aid and not just write a check and washing our hands of it. Effectively assisting in relief efforts will provide a rare opportunity to be seen in a positive light — an unusual role for the stars and stripes in that region of the world. Does this mean, 'death to America,' will never be uttered again? Hardly. But under the broad umbrella of public diplomacy, this is a chance to build some modicum of goodwill (or at least a more neutral ambivalence, should 'goodwill' seem to ring of pie-in-the-sky idealism)."

Somalia: U.S. Conducting High-Level Strategic Review of Strategy - Jim Fisher-Thompson, America.gov: "In Somalia, the U.S. government is determined to support the policy of political reconciliation spearheaded by the beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson told Congress May 20. …


Carson said, 'we are working very hard to ... give Somalis a more comprehensive understanding of what the United States is doing and wants to do in Somalia.' 'We continue through our public diplomacy efforts to reach out to the media, to talk to people, to issue press statements,' Carson said. "I have myself spoken to a number of media groups that have access to Somalia in order to indicate to them that our primary goal is to promote political reconciliation, peace and stability." Image from

Now is Your Chance to Take Action for Study Abroad - Janice Mulholland, NAFSA, May 21: "Yesterday, the House Foreign Relations Authorization Act was passed favorably out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. … The legislation is expected to go to the House floor for a vote as early as the first week of June … . Key components of this legislation in advancing U.S. public diplomacy efforts include: Establishing the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation, which will dramatically increase participation in study abroad, ensure that such experiences are universally available to U.S. students from all backgrounds, and emphasize study abroad in non-traditional locations, such as developing countries[;] Doubling the size of the Peace Corps; Increasing the authorization amount for the U.S. Department of State’s educational and cultural exchange programs to $633,243,000 for FY 2010, and 'such sums as may be necessary' for FY 2011; Creating educational exchange programs to provide scholarships to students from various regions of the world to study in the U.S.[;]Authorizing the hiring of an additional 1,500 Foreign Service Officers over the next two years and improving the Department of State’s tools for recruiting and training Foreign Service Officers." Image from

'Nato not overstepping its global role' - Habib Toumi, Gulf News: "Gulf News: How do you assess the use of the Gulf countries of the Istanbul Initiative Cooperation (ICI) process? What are your hopes for possible partnerships with Saudi Arabia and Oman? Claudio Bisogniero [NATO deputy secretary-general]: Since we launched the Istanbul Initiative Cooperation (ICI) in 2004, our relations and cooperation have been moving forward and growing steadily. Alongside the practical cooperation we had developed a political dialogue. In 2008 we had the first multilateral political consultative meeting between the North Atlantic Council and the four Ambassadors of Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar in Brussels and we will have another one in June 2009. We have had two high level public diplomacy conferences in Kuwait in 2006 and in Manama last April, where the Secretary General, myself and the entire North Atlantic Council participated, together with high level political leaders and academics from Gulf state." Bisogniero image from

What is Azerbaijan to Turkey? - Mümtaz’er Türköne, Today’s Zaman: "Turkey's public diplomacy has evolved considerably over time. Turkey's increased weight in the Middle East is largely a result of this policy.

Also, in the Balkans Turkey made great progress thanks to its public diplomacy. The force of the public giving support to the diplomacy currently developed regarding Armenia should be taken into consideration. The driving forces behind Turkey's public diplomacy are communities. This is the same force that sends Turkish entrepreneurs everywhere around the world. Today Turkey owes its place in the Middle East arena to its economic power and social mobility, rather than its military power. This applies to the Caucasus as well." Image from

Nicholas Cull on the Range and Impact of Chinese Public Diplomacy Efforts: Nicholas Cull, Director of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy Program, participated in a US-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing – USC US-China Institute: "[At left link] is Prof. Cull's testimony before an April 30, 2009 hearing of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Prof. Cull is a fellow of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and is the author of many works, most recently The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989 (Cambridge, 2008)."

University to offer master’s degree in public relations - Quinnipiac University News and Events - "'The School of Communications will begin offering a master of science degree in public relations in the Fall 2009 semester. Public relations is a dynamic field in which professionals can pursue an extraordinarily wide range of specializations in business, government and nonprofit,' said Kathy Fitzpatrick, professor of public relations and director of the master's in public relations program. 'Health care public relations, for example, is one of the fastest growing areas of public relations practice as the nation's population ages. International public relations also is expanding as globalization increases at a rapid pace. Other expanding practice areas include technology, litigation, crisis management, multicultural and public diplomacy.'" Image from

RELATED ITEMS

NYT Again Repeating Pentagon Propaganda - Ken Gude, The Wonk Room: The New York Times is at it again. Reaching back into an old bag of tricks, Bush administration holdovers in the Pentagon have used the paper of record to spread false propaganda at a critical juncture in a key national security debate, this time about released Guantanamo detainees supposedly returning to terrorism. This article has just one purpose: to mislead readers about the true nature of the threat posed by released Guantanamo detainees. Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller discards any semblance of journalism and merely serves as a conduit for unnamed Pentagon officials to claim without any supporting evidence that 74 released Guantanamo detainees are “engaged in terrorism.” The headline screams “1 in 7 Freed Detainees Rejoins Fight, Report Finds,” and the entire opening of the story presents the Pentagon figures as conclusions of fact that are being withheld for political purposes. See also

Obama in Bush Clothing - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post: The Bush policies in the war on terror won't have to await vindication by historians. Obama is doing it day by day.

Cheney Lost to Bush - David Brooks, New York Times: The inauguration of Barack Obama has simply not marked a dramatic shift in the substance of American anti-terror policy. It has marked a shift in the public credibility of that policy.

The Bounds of War: President Obama sketches a legal framework that's been absent since the Sept. 11 attacks – Editorial, Washington Post: Mr. Obama's wisdom lies in accepting the reality of war but insisting that it can be fought in fidelity to U.S. values. Yesterday, he spelled out the crucial difference. "I want to be very clear that our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for the remaining Guantanamo detainees that cannot be transferred," he said. "Our goal is not to avoid a legitimate legal framework."

The Real Path to Security – Editorial, New York Times: President Obama was exactly right when he said Americans do not have to choose between security and their democratic values.

Western Media Propagandize Iran’s Missile Test - Jeremy R. Hammond, Foreign Policy: The Seijl 2 missile has a range of about 1,200 miles, and thus would be capable of hitting Israel, but Iran’s President Ahmadinejad announced in a speech following what he deemed a successful test that the missile’s purpose was to protect Iran from the threat of aggression. Still, media accounts in the U.S. and other Western nations portrayed Iran’s test as a threatening provocation and linked it to an Iranian nuclear weapons program there is no evidence actually exists.

Image from BagnewsNotes