May 24

"[T]he doctors told me that, physically and mentally, the average detainee is healthier than the average American."

--Former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman, regarding Guantanamo; image from

NEW BOOK

Yale Richmond, Understanding the Americans (New York: Hippocrene Books, 2009)

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Live Stream: German Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ruprecht Polenz on the Middle East – Ben Katcher, The Washington Note: "One area in which the Obama administration has arguably fallen short of expectations is in its ability to persuade European countries to support its policies in the greater Middle East - and particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As George Friedman has argued, the Obama administration has succeeded in changing the optics of the transatlantic relationship, but has failed for the most part to achieve real substantial policy shifts. … [Comment by reader] Don Bacon, I guess that 'changing the optics of the transatlantic relationship, but [failing] for the most part to achieve real substantial policy shifts' answers a previous TWN question: 'What Comes Next for New Media and Public Diplomacy?' Concerning Europe it's a good thing that better US PR, and a photogenic president, can't change deeply held, and correctly held, views on the wrongness of blindly bailing out miscreant banks, and sending more young people to kill others and die in the Hindu Kush. So any expectations that the Obama administration had in this regard were thankfully erroneous. So much for the US and Germany 'tackl[ing] our common challenges in the Middle East'. Common challenges? Germany is bothered neither by AIPAC nor by Empire building, as the US is. So what are the 'common challenges?' Was Germany ever 'challenged' by Iraq?" Polenz Image from

New ideas for US diplomacy [Letter to the Editor] - John Compton, UK, The National, Abu Dhabi: "Authentic global engagement is contingent on two all-important words: credible messengers. It’s that simple. They come in all shapes and sizes: Ben Franklin (with his coonskin cap), peace activist Samantha Smith, jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie – you get the idea. … President Obama should consider closing down the US State Department and replacing it with a new Ministry of the Arts.

Quincy Jones is ready and willing. Then there is always the route that investment banker Peter G Peterson put forth – privatise public diplomacy." Image from

Patients down memory lane – Fiji Times OnLine:

PHOTO: American public diplomacy officer Jeffrey Robertson shows Paulo Tele, 77, the photo of the 16th American president, Abraham Lincoln, at the US arts display at the Fiji Museum.

Cooperation makes it happen: Program brings Serbian leaders to area to study agricultural cooperatives - Chillicothe Gazette: "Nine Serbian leaders participating in the US AID - Community Connections program have been spending three weeks in Ohio and Michigan - including southern Ohio - examining the agricultural cooperative business in the United States.

The Columbus International Program served as host of the delegation. The program is designed to promote public diplomacy through the exchange of cultural ideas and values among participants, U.S. families and local community host organizations." Image from article.

Lessons on Social Media Campaigns from Politics Online – Darren Krape (posted May 7): "Recently I attended the Politics Online Conference put on by George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Although I was only able to sit in on a handful of sessions, there were a number of very useful gems on how you can use social media to further political campaign goals. I’ve focused on the lessons most useful for public diplomacy campaigns. … Meeting in person is still - and always will be - the most influential type of engagement."

USC Center on Public Diplomacy Workshop: Celebrity Diplomacy – The Norman Lear Centertainment: "The Norman Lear Center and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School were proud to host a workshop on Celebrity Diplomacy, which explored the intersecting themes of the UN celebrity programs, the 'soft power' of Hollywood celebrities, and public diplomacy." Image from

Indian diplomacy in Washington presents a new elegant face - Arun Kumar, Thainidian News: "The face of Indian diplomacy in Washington underwent a change this week as Meera Shankar, the second Indian woman envoy to the US, presented her credentials to the first black American President Barack Obama. … A White House car brought Shankar, 58, her husband and daughter to the presidential mansion a little before 3 p.m. Wednesday. Received by the protocol officials, she was then escorted to the fabled Oval office that has become symbolic of the power and prestige of the US presidency. … Shankar, who has served as director in the Prime Minister’s Office, headed the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) overseeing India’s cultural diplomacy and looked after the United Nations and International Security as additional secretary, was now ready for her most challenging role." See also; Shankar image from

Sarkozy to preside over Louvre Abu Dhabi groundbreaking while launching French military base in the region - Anna Somers Cocks, The Art Newspaper: "From the days of the monarchy, France has very deliberately made culture a partner in its foreign policy. The Art Newspaper has discovered that President Nicolas Sarkozy will be taking part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Louvre Abu Dhabi on the occasion of his visit to inaugurate a new French military base in the UAE capital on 27 May. … Senior figures in the Tourism Development and Investment Company, which is administering the Louvre Abu Dhabi project, have been attending lectures on the history of art at the branch of the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi, another instance of French cultural diplomacy."

Introduction - Hanna Park, Korean Public Diplomacy: Increasing Brand Awareness Of Korea And Building Positive Image To The Public: "How to brand Korea? How can Korea make itself attractive to the world audience? How other nations do for its branding, and what can we learn?

What is Korea's strong selling point? These are the ultimate questions that I want to solve and deliver to Korea. It sounds very vague and it is not something I can do by myself, but I hope my studies, research and ideas could be helpful. Public diplomacy is not only government job, I think.The people in the nation should work together to make it successful. Each of nation people should be a 'brand ambassador' to increase their nation's value." Image from

75 enterprises receive certificates ‘Cultural Enterprise – UNESCO Vietnam’ - Nhan Dan: "[I]n response to the ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ year launched by the Government and on the occasion of the World Day for Culture Development (May 21), the dialogue programme ‘Vietnam Business Culture in Globalisation’ was jointly organised by the UNESCO Centre for Enterprise Culture and the Vietnam Youth Company in Hanoi this morning. The dialogue aims to give important suggestions so that the Vietnamese enterprises can discover proper business cultural characteristics."

RELATED ITEMS

Hillary Clinton's diplomacy raises some eyebrows: The secretary of State has been unusually frank on hot topics such as North Korea and Pakistan. Some find her candor refreshing, but others say it could hurt U.S. diplomacy - Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

Diplomats’ Same-Sex Partners to Get Benefits - Mark Landler, New York Times: The State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, according to an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service officers.

The Abu Ghraib We Cannot See - Philip Gourevitch, New York Times: Just as it was a public service to release the Abu Ghraib photographs five years ago, Mr. Obama is right today to say we don’t need more of them. The president claims that a new round of images of prisoner abuse flashing around the globe would enflame America’s enemies and endanger our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. There’s no doubt about it: the policies that the photographs depict have already done terrible damage to America’s cause.

Drones, Civilians, and Propaganda - Paul McLeary, War, the military, COIN and stuff: The increasingly contentious American drone strikes in Pakistan and the climbing civilian casualty rates in Afghanistan moved front and center this week with the publication of an op-ed by counterinsurgency think tankers David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum,

who called for an end to the predator strikes, and an incident in Afghanistan where at least 30 Afghan civilians were killed during a firefight turned airstrike in which Taliban fighter used civilians as human shields -- until an American B-1 bomber dropped two 2-ton bombs on the problem. The civilian casualties and the drone strikes -- which are killing and wounding civilians in Pakistan as well -- are both harming the American effort while giving the Taliban and other insurgent groups fodder for propaganda and information ops campaigns, not to mention seriously pissing off the Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border. Image from

Israel forced to remove occupation propaganda in London - Syria News Wire: Israel has been forced to remove posters which showed the Syrian Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza as part of Israel. The Syrian Embassy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign told Transport for London about the illegality of promoting tourism in the three occupied territories. Syria called the posters “offensive”. London Underground has now torn them down.