September 5

"Come and get the fuel."

--Wazir Gul, a 23-year-old farmer, at a hospital where he was treated for serious burns on his back from a NATO airstrike, recounting what the Taliban told villagers about two fuel tankers that were bombed by US aircraft after the tankers were hijacked by "militants"; Image: Afghan villagers bury their dead in a mass grave after the NATO strike near Kunduz from

"I'm a serial entrepreneur in the public policy space."

--Former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman, just named executive director of the George W. Bush Institute

"I believe that a war against Saddam has already been discounted (that is, taken into account) by the stock market. Unless our military operation is an utter disaster, it will be good for stocks and the economy."

--James Glassman

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Obama's glasnost - Anjum Niaz, The News, Pakistan: "What does it mean when a Pashtun throws down his cap? Let's ask Richard Holbrooke, Obama's point man for 'Af-Pak.' Not only did he get a mouthful from Hamid Karzai in Kabul but watched the enraged president 'whip off his distinctive karakul sheepskin hat and slam it onto the table where the two men were having dinner, a day after the disputed August 20 election,' according to The Sunday Times. 'For an Afghan man to do that,' the paper quoted a local, 'it's a big gesture. It's like throwing down the gauntlet.' Reining in Richard Holbrooke and others in the State Department to cool it may well have been the cause celebre for Admiral Mike Mullen's widely publicised article in an official military journal recently. As the highest-ranking officer in the US military, Mullen was perhaps inspired by President Obama's Glasnost of opening up to the Pakistanis convincing them that 'the US is their friend.'

Normally 'International Relations 101' is the realm of diplomacy. Hillary Clinton rather than Mike Mullen should have compiled a handbook on how to treat others with respect. Foggy Bottom rather than Pentagon should have been the recipient of this global wisdom. A former State Department official James Glassman in his September 1 column for Foreign Policy titled 'It's Not About Us' snottily dismisses Mullen's rules of engagement with Muslim nations. … Apart from scolding Mullen for taking the blame (for US's bad behaviour) Glassman reviles 'Miss Congeniality' Judith McHale who succeeded him as the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs in the Obama administration. … Now for some good news: Obama's Glasnost has finally reached the American embassy in Islamabad. Officials manning the mission have for the first time attempted to bring the national media on board." On Holbrooke-Mullen, see also. Image from

Radio stations [including U.S. government-sponsored stations such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia] vexing the North Korean regime - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Science, Technology and Diplomacy – daryl.copeland, Guerilla Diplomacy: "Ambassadors and foreign ministers are blogging, the web is being used interactively for the conduct of outreach and public diplomacy, foreign service officers in the field are being enabled through the issue of mobile communications devices such as Blackberries, and personnel departments are experimenting with telework and distance learning. Among the many factors subversive of the lingering elements of hierarchy, secrecy, cultural conservativism and top-down control still prominent in contemporary diplomatic institutions, these sorts of developments, and the revolution in S&T more generally, are likely to figure centrally. In my view, that can’t happen too soon." Copeland image from

Gov 2.0: It’s All About The Platform – Tim O’Reilly, TechCrunch: "A lot of people equate the term with government use of social media, either to solicit public participation or to get out its message in new ways. Some people think it means making government more transparent. … But as with Web 2.0, the real secret of success in Government 2.0 is thinking about government as a platform . If there’s one thing we learn from the technology industry, it’s that every big winner has been a platform company: someone whose success has enabled others, who’ve built on their work and multiplied its impact. … There are signs that government is starting to adopt this kind of platform thinking. …[Comment:] Steve Ressler (@govloop) - September 4th, 2009 at 10:52 am CDT [:] Looking forward to seeing how Gov 2.0 develops. Government is a leader in developing solutions to the most complex problems from energy, environment, health care, public diplomacy, and our wars abroad. Whether you like it or not, government has a large role to play in these endeavors."

Comparing a country to a brand is only a metaphor - Priyanka Mehra, Livemint.com: New Delhi: "[Simon] Anholt is a member of the UK government’s Public Diplomacy Board and works as an independent adviser to 20 other national, regional and city governments on brand strategy and public diplomacy. He specializes in so-called nation branding, which conveys the sense of a country’s reputation and can have an effect on the outcome of its business, trade and tourism efforts, apart from international diplomatic and cultural ties. Simon Anholt has since 1996 been working with governments to help them plan policies, strategies and investments that lead countries towards an improved profile. ... Anholt was in New Delhi on Thursday to address a seminar on nation branding. Edited excerpts [in article] from the seminar and an interview with him." Image from

James Glassman – The Arabist: "I met Glassman in Cairo a couple of years ago, as part of a roundtable of bloggers invited to meet him in his capacity as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. He did not seem too happy with me, and had no answer, when I asked him two questions: 1. Does he think Middle Easterners are stupid and don’t know that the host of al-Hurra’s Dakhl Washington, Robert Satloff, is a die-hard Israel advocate, as I’ve highlighted before? Most inappropriate, I think, to associate him with a US government station. 2. What is the point of Radio Sawa, which mostly broadcasts music and short, bland news briefs? How will it help develop independent local media if yet another government-funded station is competing on the local market? (I thought this would appeal to his free market fundamentalism.) Needless to say I received no answers." Glassman image from



Bush 36,000 – Yglesias, Think Progress: "Glassman is, of course, better known to bloggers who like to make fun of know-nothing conservatives as the author of the late nineties bestseller Dow 36,000.

I think that’s the kind of detachment from reality you need to dedicate your life to bolstering the reputation of the Bush administration. ... [comment:] Jim Says: September 4th, 2009 at 3:46 pm later undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, His predecessor in that 'office' was Karen Hughes. That was her title when she told impoverished women in a Cairo slum that she understood their plight, and thus the president understood, because she was a 'working mom, too'. I wonder why they didn’t give it to her, unless she’s moved into the servants quarters of the new house in Dallas to act as full time, live in Knob Polisher." On Glassman, see: John Brown: “President Bush's new cheerleader” (The Guardian, December 19, 2007); "George W. Bush’s New ‘So?’ Man" (Common Dreams, June 17, 2008); “Thoughts On The So-Called 'War Of Ideas'” (Common Dreams, December 21, 2008). See also (1) (2). Image: "September 1999: James K. Glassman and Kevin A. Hassett, 'Dow 36,000'" from

What the Chief actually said: Transcripts of statements made by generals should be placed on government websites to obviate confusion & misreporting – Pragmatic Euphony: "The very basic tenet of public diplomacy demands transparency and accuracy of all information issued by the government. This can be best done by ensuring that the original transcript of all statements made by senior military functionaries — which can act as an authenticated primary source of information — are placed in the public domain by the government. The Pentagon website, which contains all the statements made by the Defense Secretary and the Chairman Joint Chiefs, among others, is an example that can be emulated by the websites of army headquarters and the ministry of defence in India."

RELATED ITEMS

Afghanistan Roiled by NATO Air Strikes that killed almost 100 - Juan Cole, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion: President Hamid Karzai is reported to have expressed shock at the extent of the loss of life, and on Saturday he ordered an investigation into the incident. If there is a run-off in the current presidential election cycle, Karzai's prospects for reelection just took a hit, since he is widely viewed as America's man in Kabul, and US popularity just declined.

NATO jets bomb fuel tankers; Afghans say 70 killed – AP, USA Today: Despite the uncertainties, the attack is likely to intensify Afghan public anger over civilian casualties. Recently, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander here, severely restricted the use of airstrikes, arguing that America risked losing the war if it did not reduce civilian casualties.

Image from

Deadly air raid in Kunduz to fertilize Taliban propaganda - Abdul Haleem, Xinhua, China View

Reliving the Past - Bob Herbert, New York Times: Watching the American escalation of the war in Afghanistan is like watching helplessly as someone you love climbs into a car while intoxicated and drives off toward a busy highway. No good can come of it.

Barack Obama As Charlie Wilson? - Stephen G. Rademaker, Washington Post: Afghanistan offered a convenient solution: Obama held it up as the "good" war that he was determined to win, unlike the "bad" war in Iraq that he would end. On a political level this strategy worked brilliantly, enabling Obama to deflect any suspicion that he was a McGovernite ready to surrender to Islamic extremism. But now that he is president, events are testing his professed commitment to victory in Afghanistan.

Protecting Israel to protect ourselves - Clifford D. May, Washington Times: George Gilder’s latest book is titled "The Israel Test." Much of what he says is dramatically different from what just about anyone else is saying.

In particular: "Either the world, principally the United States, supports Israel, or Israel, one way or another, will be destroyed. There are no other realistic choices. And if Israel is destroyed, capitalist Europe will likely die as well, and America, as the epitome of productive and creative capitalism spurred by Jews, will be in jeopardy." Image from

Twitterers paid to spread Israeli propaganda: Internet warfare team unveiled - Jonathan Cook, Znet: The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems. Israel's foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel. Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government's line on the Middle East conflict.

Theory: Propaganda - Stephen Worth, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive – “Today [September 1] is the 70th anniversary of the beginning of WWII. So to mark the date, I am rerunning one of my favorite posts on propaganda posters from the first and second World Wars. …


The concept of propaganda is widely misunderstood. Many people automatically assume that it's a negative thing. But propaganda is just a tool that can be used for either good or bad. Propaganda involves bypassing the intellect and appealing directly to emotion to motivate a group of people to action. During the World Wars, time was of the essence and masses of people needed to work together for the common goal of defending the nation. It would have been too slow to talk each and every move out with the whole population, so governments used powerful imagery to bring everyone together in the war effort. … [O]ne can see how inept the Germans were at using propaganda.

The German posters in this collection seem to appeal to abstract concepts like national pride, flags and mythology; while the Allied propaganda goes straight for the heart with concepts like motherhood, security, and moral outrage. … When the nations of the world entered into World War I, the methods and techniques of propaganda were naiive and innocent. But by the end of the First World War, the techniques of waging war in the hearts and minds of the public had entered the modern era. Propaganda had become much more sophisticated and powerful." Above images from article. Comment from its author: "Which side would you rather be on?"

Propaganda posters from Powys during the Second World War - Mark Lingard, Powys County Times, UK: Propaganda was a vital part of the war machine.

World War 2: R.A.F raid for propaganda: During the night of Sunday-Monday bombers of the Royal Air Force carried out extensive raids over north and western Germany - Diplomatic Correspondent, Daily Telegraph: Article first published in the Daily Telegraph, Sept 5, 1939. During their visit, which is officially described as being “for reconnaissance,” they [the bombers] scattered 6,000,000 leaflets telling the German people something of the circumstances in which they had been plunged into a world war by Hitler.

Left Libertarian Propaganda Strategy - DarianWorden.com: "That’s right, I said propaganda. 'If we want to see our ideas realized in the world, we need to propagate them in memorable form in every media available. Neglecting to do so allows, almost requires, others to define our position. To this end, I wrote 'The Strategy of Propaganda' for ALLiance: A Journal of Theory and Strategy. Chris Lempa, publisher of ALLiance, just posted the essay for online viewing at his blog. Thought I’d pass the word along."

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

"[I]n 1938 ... the British government asked the BBC to begin broadcasting in foreign languages for the first time. ... It was rarely appreciated abroad that the BBC foreign language broadcasts were paid for by the Foreign Office. ... Yet what is really significant here is that decisions were being made by governments to speak directly to foreign peoples using their own government-controlled or quasi-independent media of communications. ... The age of what we now call 'public diplomacy' [my highlight] had begun."

--Philip M. Taylor, "The Fourth Arm and the Fourth Estate: Psychological Operations and the Media," in Mark Connelly & David Welch, War and the Media: Reportage and Propaganda, 1900-2003 (London and New York; I. B. Tauris, 2005), p. 255. Note: Philip M. Taylor's web site is at.

“As brutal and murderous as they often were, neither the British nor any other European colonial powers ever dealt with the problem of ‘the power of numbers’ as violently or as hastily as the Nazis. Their approach was generally gradualist and experimental, driven by a political imagination that was constrained from extremism of the Nazi variety by factors that included more law-bound culture and surprisingly unmotivated state bureaucracies. If they lacked the ideology and the resources to systematize mass killing on the scale of the New Order, they also lacked the fundamental sense of urgency. Having carried out their revolution at home, the Nazis were in a hurry to reap the benefits abroad.”

--Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2008), p. 588