May 23

"Oscar Wilde, a young visiting poet … was beginning his famous American ‘House Beautiful’ tour of 1882 … his itinerary would take him as far as Leadville, Colorado, where he would lecture to silver miners about Benvenuto Cellini, the famous seventeenth-century silversmith. When the miners asked why Wilde hadn’t brought the man along, Wilde informed them that he was dead. 'Who shot him?' a miner asked. Or so Wilde would recount."

Paul Fisher, House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), pp. 416-417; Wilde image from


PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Cheney vs Obama; Cheney vs The American Idea - Alex Massie, Spectator:

"It is the potency of the American Idea that allows millions of people around the world to consider themselves would-be Americans even though they do not, and never will, enjoy the advantages of American citizenship. Obama recognises this and seems to appreciate the fact that decontaminating the American brand is a positive step not a negative one. Rhetoric and public diplomacy are not trivial cards; they win tricks. And, just as importantly, they create room in which the United States can be given the benefit of the doubt." Image from

The Obama doctrine: how much change? - Chris Dolan, Lebanon County Democrat Examiner: "Obama has promised a new era of international cooperation in order to combat terrorism and nuclear weapons, global warming, poverty, genocide, and disease. Obama has placed a significant amount of attention on making strategic engagement a guiding principle in his strategic doctrine. America's global image has been at an all-time low for quite some time. But the United States' poor image abroad has not been the result of a marketing failure, and, thus, better public diplomacy will not lead to victory in the 'Battle of Ideas.' Anti-Americanism thrives, not because others misunderstand the United States, but because they perceive its aims and tactics all too well. The Bush Administration's greatest foreign policy failures, namely the preventive invasion of Iraq, the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, rendition and torture at Guantánamo Bay, and denials of global warming, can be overcome with better international diplomacy and improvements in trans Atlantic relations." Image from

Hillary and Sarah: Terr[i]fic Ticket for 2012? - Charlotte Front and Center: "As for Hillary, she cannot be accused of making Biden-type gaffes,or trying to outshine Obama in any way. Hillary has towed the line, and remains out of the economic fray, while she makes an impressive mark on public diplomacy."

Re: World (4.00 / 4) ROLL CALL, H.R.2346, "Supplemental Appropriations Act," (FY 2008-2009 budget) as amended – European Tribune: "Not voting: Begich,Byrd, Carper, Hagan, Hatch, Kennedy, Murray, Rockefeller, Shaheen, Udall Highlights! Chapter 4-9, CHAPTER 4--GENERAL GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT AND FUNDS APPROPRIATED TO THE PRESIDENT … Dept of State diplomatic and consular programs, $1,016BILLION for worldwide security protection, to support operations in and assistance for Afghanistan and to carry out the provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and for public diplomacy activities to the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Region; PLUS embassy security, construction, and maintenance, $989,628M." Image from

Support for Israel Feeds Terrorism: Cheney Breaks the Taboo - Ray McGovern, Counterpunch: "Defense Science Board Report [:] Are you ready for a scoop that is not a scoop, but that almost no one knows about? It has to do with an unclassified study published, not by some 'liberal' think-tank, but by the Pentagon-appointed U.S. Defense Science Board just two months after the 9/11 Commission Report. That report directly contradicted what Cheney and President Bush had been saying about 'why they hate us,' letting the elephant out of the bag and into the room, so to speak: 'Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf States.

Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.' You didn’t know about that report? Well, maybe this is because of the timing. The Defense Science Board final report was given to Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 23, 2004, just weeks before the presidential election. That is a time when presidential candidates and the U.S. Establishment in general are hyper-allergic to discussing how U.S. support for Israeli policies toward the Palestinians encourages the recruitment of anti-American terrorists." Image from

Rethinking embassy architecture - Philip Kennicott: "If we’ve reached the point where the only embassies we can build are bunkers behind blast walls set into 10-acre compounds on the ex-urban rim of the city, then perhaps we need to rethink the very idea of embassies and diplomacy. Perhaps it’s time to disperse the various functions foreign missions must perform. Any business that can be transacted through video conferencing or the Internet should be removed entirely from the country. Deal with visa seekers in several small offices conveniently spread around the city—and treat them like clients, not criminals. Find reasonably safe rental space for the commercial mission. Hide the ambassador in a fortress where he or she will be completely safe (and do no harm). And then build a nice glass box, the vulnerability of which will be accepted as a necessary risk of public diplomacy, for the outreach functions." Image from

The art of the strategic narrative - cb3blog: "Taking a look at many public diplomacy, strategic communications and PR campaigns, an obvious hankering for an ordered universe, where stories can be controlled, seems to be the norm. A more enlightened, deeper understanding of narratives and their place in publics’ psyches may pave the way to developing the elusive art of the strategic narrative." Image from

China's Surging Netizen Culture and Government's Response - Steve Clemons, The Washington Note: "As of the end of 2008, China claimed 298 million 'netizens' -- or regular users of the internet. At that same benchmark in time, China had 162 million blog sites and 117 million mobile internet users. By the end of June 2009, Chinese authorities predict a 20% growth jump in all these figures. Like all American journalists or public policy hands who visit China, I have been interested in what sites one could not get on to. …

I conveyed to Vice Minister Qian that YouTube was not available and was one of the blocked sites -- most likely because of concerns over 'fabrication' of things which the Chinese government deems to be untrue or of serious national security consequence. Vice Minister Qian was not defensive -- and made no claims that he would get YouTube unblocked (he didn't realize it was blocked) but said that by my description of the site and of Lugar's use of the YouTube medium, it may be something that Qian should look into using for his office's own work in public diplomacy. Pretty surprising and refreshing answer." Image from

Change of plans, Scarlett & Reality TV Star – Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Wednesday was spent editing Public Diplomacy Magazine for the summer issue on Middle Powers. Some really interesting articles in the forthcoming issue, I won't let the cat out of the content bag. … My summer took an interesting and unexpected turn as I found out that I will be doing my Photography as Public Diplomacy at Annenberg."

RELATED ITEMS

Obama's Message In Egypt - Dina Guirguis, Washington Post: In Egypt, the announcement of Obama's visit has been interpreted as tacit American endorsement of the regime.

War and Justice: The gaps between U.S. practice and President Obama's aspirations for handling detainees – Editorial, Washington Post: If Mr. Obama wants to "leave behind a legacy that outlasts my administration, my presidency," as he said Thursday, he should support binding reform that would do the same.

Mobile Propaganda Coming To North Korea? - doug, Digital East Asia: International news service AFP.com reported today that North Korea will permit limited Internet connectivity on new 3G mobile handsets.

Mobile phones were originally offered in the North in November 2002 but within 18 months new sales were banned and existing handsets recalled. The country has restarted mobile phone service since 2002 only to shut it down again. … Of course the phones will only be given access to news website(s) operated by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. It will be interesting to see whether users will find ways to access unauthorized content and, if so, will the government once again halt the service. Image from

International media and LTTE propaganda war - P. A. Samaraweera, Lankaweb: During the Sri Lankan war, the LTTE malicious propaganda machinery worked round the clock to convince the world that the civilians held as hostage were staying willingly and certain sections of the international media sympathetic to them colluded and gave wide publicity to the LTTE stand. They were supported by countries and international organisations backing the terrorists. So in addition to the real war fought by the forces there was also a heavy handed propaganda war by the LTTE to demoralise the government, the forces and the people.