May 29

"The purpose of propaganda is not to provide interesting distraction for blasé

young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses."

--Adolf Hitler Hitler image from; T-shirt image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

US Senator Lugar welcomes public diplomacy moves – ISRIA: "U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar today welcomed the Senate’s unanimous confirmation of Judith McHale as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy…. The Senate also unanimously passed Lugar’s public diplomacy resolution, S. Res. 49, which calls for the Secretary of State to initiate a reexamination of the public diplomacy platform strategy of the United States with a goal of reestablishing publicly accessible American Centers, and to consider placing United States public diplomacy facilities at locations conducive to maximizing their use, consistent with the authority given to the Secretary in the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act. A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report sponsored by Lugar discovered that 49 percent of our American Centers are accessible to foreign publics by appointment only or not open at all to the public." Image from

New U.S. Public Diplomacy Under Secretary, Judith McHale - Globo Diplo: "Not everyone thinks this [McHale’s appointment] is a great step."

Wish You Were Here – Al Kamen, In the Loop, Washington Post [scroll down document for item]: "Be the first in your favela, barrio or arrondissement to get your very own set of six lovely postcards of President and Mrs. Obama and the kids! These are not sold in stores. In fact, they can't be bought anywhere. They are headed for embassies and other U.S. facilities to use as giveaways to local folks. Yes, it's the latest State Department public diplomacy initiative, taking advantage of the insanely high popularity of the U.S. president among the foreigners. Embassies traditionally give out biographical books of presidents and 'selected speeches' and such. And they have given out postcards for Earth Day and commemorative events. But these are the first-ever presidential postcards." Image from

White House announces ambassador nominations – Laura Rozen, Foreign Policy See also (1) (2)

The U.S. Foreign Offices - Mark Dillen, Public Diplomacy: The World Affairs Blog Network: "Fluency in the local language and knowledge of the local culture are, above all, public diplomacy qualifications. When a freshly-minted U.S. envoy possesses these gifts, the capacity of that envoy’s embassy (or mission) to conduct effective public diplomacy increases exponentially. Yet too often the public diplomacy qualifications of an ambassadorial nomination get lost in the tussle over whether a job should go to a career officer or a political appointee. The reality is that sometimes a political appointee has more experience in the public arena and a greater talent for the public role that an Ambassador should play than otherwise well qualified career State Department officers. Are the nominees selected so far by the Obama Administration gifted in the arts and practice of public diplomacy? Among the 30-some nominees put forward to date, there are clearly some potential winners." Image: The Ambassador’s design has not changed much since 1958. (Nick Kurczewski for The New York Times)

Robert Gibbs should apologise to the British press for his sneering rant - Nile Gardiner, telegraph.co.uk: "For all its talk of 'raising America's standing' in the world after the Bush years, the Obama administration is doing a spectacularly bad job of reaching out to its allies. Unfortunately this is the new face of America's public diplomacy, which will only serve to alienate public opinion across the Atlantic."

Cutting off communication one messenger at a time – Michelle Moghtader, niacInsight: Beltway insights for the Iranian-American community: “The US prides itself on promoting free speech around the world. The State Department has gone so far as to fund media sites such as VOA and Radio Farda

to open lines of communication with Iran. So why impose such broad sanctions which would limit the communication of Iranian youth who are most likely using the messaging technology? Perhaps the State and Treasury Department should start messaging each other so that they can stop undermining each other’s policies.” VIA; Radio farda image from

Operation HOPE Founder John Hope Bryant Joins Congressional Delegation led by Congresswoman Diane Watson for Official Visit to South Africa, Highlighting American Public Diplomacy Outreach, HOPE 2nd Year Anniversary in South Africa - PR-Inside.com: "Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO, John Hope Bryant joined Rep. Diane E. Watson (D-CA-33) as she made an inaugural donation of films to the Rosa Parks Library and Information Resource Center in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, South Africa. The presentation is a culmination of her bill, H.R. 2553, the Public Diplomacy Resource Centers Act of 2007, promoting wider screenings of U.S. films at State Department libraries around the world. The presentation was also attended by Rep. Watson’s colleague and bill supporter, Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ-10). Congressman Payne is the sub-committee chairman on Africa in Congress." Watson image from

Public Diplomacy 2.0 - Peter Himler, The Flack: "The U.S. gets an 'F' for public diplomacy. That's the assessment of the General Accounting Office, which yesterday issued its analysis of the government's (futile) efforts to change negative foreign perceptions of the United States since 9/11." Image from

Why does the US get bad PR? It's not the propaganda - Jay Hancock's Blog, baltimoresun.com: "The Government Accountability Office spends 43 pages 'analyzing' why the United States gets lousy global PR despite having spent billions on its image. Hint to the GAO: It's not the advertising. It's the policy."

Chump Change - GWOT Strategic PSYOP - M1, Swedish Meatballs Confidential (Pnsfw): "For the attention of the microscopically small brethren and sistren of folks interested, yesterday afternoon GAO released a critique of U.S. Public Diplomacy which touched upon the main GWOT Strategic PSYOP (leaving OGA [?] out of it, as it should be)."

Quote of the Day: Art in U.S. Embassies - public diplomacy journal:

"'...we really needed to step it up and get American artists and their work exhibited as a real symbol of American culture and the arts.' -- U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies Dinner." Image: An oil painting titled “Floating” was selected for inclusion in the U.S. Department of State “Art in Embassies” program, Athens, Greece.

Η Ανάγκη Ενίσχυσης των Μονάδων και Στελεχών Δημόσιας Διπλωματίας (ΗΠΑ) - Γιάννης Παπαϊωάννου, Αν θέλουμε μπορούμε [Google translation: The Need of Assistance Units and Management of Public Diplomacy (USA - Yiannis Papaioannou,If we Can]: [Google translation of Greek text]: "In a recent presentation (Enabling Public Diplomacy Field Officers to Do Their Jobs, The Public Diplomacy Council, 2008) by William Rugh, former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, the question of effective organization of units of public diplomacy in the diplomatic missions of the country emphasizing the importance of skills and staff of competent staff (Public Diplomacy Officers)."

Failed Eelam To Trans-State Nation: A Potential Clash between Nation and States? - Shelton A. Gunaratne, LankaWeb.com: "Tamils feel that the international community, not just India and Sri Lanka, have denied them freedom and equality by failing to recognize their rich language, literature and vibrant culture. The contours of the grand plan are unraveling: Use public diplomacy or propaganda (through media outlets like TamilNet.org and Tamil Guardian) to alienate Tamil Nadu from the nation-state of India and merge the wealthy and resourceful network of Tamil enclaves …. first as a notional concept of a trans-state nation, and subsequently as an independent nation-state, the formation of which might require wars of liberation from Canada, the EU, India, and other oppressors." Image from

Beware of Pakistanis coming for nefarious reason: US to India - Hindu: "'India must be wary of those Pakistanis seeking to enter India for nefarious reasons, but the signal India sent — openness to a better relationship with peace-loving Pakistanis — was a powerful psychological message,' said Gregg Sullivan, director of press and public diplomacy for the State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asia."

Death of a dissident - Natan Sharansky, Miami Herald: "In giving the Libyans a free ride on human rights, the free world has handed them the tools they need to lead the public-diplomacy campaign of the world of tyranny."

Outstanding Connecticut citizens to be honored in NYC - Stamford Plus Magazine: "Former U.S. Congressman Christopher Shays … will be honored alongside … at the One To World Fulbright Awards Dinner on June 4th at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Also honored will be Vanessa B. Kerry, Fulbright scholar to the U.K. and daughter of Senator John Kerry, for her contributions to global health and her international medical service in Ghana, Rwanda, and Cuba; … Christopher Shays, a longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives, supported nuclear non-proliferation, the work of the United Nations, and the increased use of public diplomacy." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

President Obama's Visit to Germany: Mythologies of Dresden Must Be Rejected - Ted R. Bromund, WebMemo #2460, Heritage Foundation: On June 5, President Obama will visit the German city of Dresden. This visit will be intensely controversial. Dresden is most famous for the Anglo-American bombing raid against it on February 13, 1945. The Dresden raid did cause serious loss of life, but in the Second World War it was not unprecedented or unusual. The myths that have grown up about the raid were fostered by the Nazis and spread by post-war Soviet propaganda.

Because of this spurious symbolism, President Obama's decision to visit Dresden is ill-advised. During his visit, the President must absolutely reject any equation of the Western Allies and the Nazis. Image from

Inflating the Guantánamo Threat - Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, New York Times: the Pentagon should be as accurate as possible about how many of those released pose a threat to America. This is the only way that policy makers can make informed choices about closing Guantánamo, revising military commissions, deporting or repatriating prisoners or moving them to the United States, and keeping our nation safe.

US rejects newspaper report on Iraq prison photos - AFP – The US Defense Department on Thursday strongly rejected

a British newspaper report that alleged photographs of abuse at Iraqi prisons include images of rape and sexual assault. Image from

Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace - David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, New York Times

The FM Mullahs and the Taliban’s Propaganda War in Pakistan - Mukhtar A. Khan, Jamestown Foundation: The Taliban radio broadcasters, popularly known as “FM Mullahs,” continuously transmit anti-American and anti-government sermons, calling democracy “un-Islamic” and those practicing it “infidels.” The Taliban are not shy about exploiting other traditional and modern media tools like night-letters (unsigned leaflets), pamphlets, CDs, DVDs and mobile messaging. They also make efforts to appear live on other electronic media to voice their unedited propaganda. … The best way to fight the illegal broadcasts is to launch local non-Taliban FM stations, possibly housed in the traditional Pashtun hujras (community halls). Image from

North Korea Will Never Disarm - B.R. Myers, New York Times: Over the past 15 years the regime in Pyongyang has painted itself into an ideological corner — or, to put it better, it has pushed itself up to the edge of an abyss. Kim Jong-il shook off responsibility for economic matters in the mid-1990s in order to avoid public blame for the famine. The propaganda machine claimed that his new “military first” regime would henceforth be too busy defending the country from the Yankees (who in fact were sending aid at that time) to bother with economic issues. This line not only maintained support for Kim, but also enabled officials at the provincial level to begin dismantling the command economy.

Comm professor lectures at SIFF - Pauline Diaz, Seattle University Spectator: Seattle University professor Jim Forsher is ready to get nasty at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Tuesday night, Forsher presented "Nasty Cinema," a showing and lecture featuring censored and controversial films from the 19th century to 1933. On June 2 he will present "Animated Enemies," a collection of classic propaganda cartoons. "I'm guaranteed to upset everyone at some point," says Forsher, an associate professor of communications. "I will not have done my job if I haven't insulted everybody in the audience at least once." Image from