March 2

“Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.”

--Plutarch; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

“Meddling” and Clinton's Global War on Censorship - Aaron Church, Heritage.org: "Now, not only are we engaged in a War on Terror, but according to the U.S. State Department, apparently a Global War on Censorship. As President Barack Obama extends the hand of reconciliation to distasteful regimes, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is simultaneously declaring open war on many of these same states’ control of private-media access. Addressing the issue of media censorship in the wake of Google’s well-publicized row with China, Secretary Clinton asserted that, although 'new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, the United States does.' ...

Though the State Department has begun leveraging more 'new technologies' such as internet and mobile phones to as part of its’ [sic] overall public diplomacy strategy in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Secretary Clinton’s announcement detaches freedom of information from any overall strategy and declares open season on repressive governments world-wide. ... It is essential, however, that the State Department understand that championing ideals and undermining governments are separate endeavors. We must always commit ourselves to freedom, but intervention against foreign governments should only be approached with utmost prudence." Image from

Long Live Democratic Seismology: Chile survived its huge earthquake relatively well. Iran would be a different story - Christopher Hitchens, Slate: "While the 'negotiations' on Iran's [nuclear] weaponry are being artificially protracted by an irrational and corrupt regime, it should become part of our humanitarianism and our public diplomacy to warn the Iranian people of the man-made reasons that the results of a natural calamity would be hideously multiplied in their case. This, together with the offer of immediate help in earthquake-proofing, enhanced from our experiences in California, is nothing less than a moral responsibility."

Barack Obama's top 10 insults against Britain - Nile Gardiner, Telegraph.co.uk (blog) - Among the insults: “6. Throwing Churchill out of the Oval Office [:] It is hard to think of a more derogatory message to send to the British people within days of taking office than to fling a bust of Winston Churchill out of the Oval Office and send it packing back to the British Embassy – not least as it was a loaned gift from Britain to the United States as a powerful display of solidarity in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Obviously, public diplomacy is not a concept that carries much weight in the current White House, and nor apparently is common sense. 7. Insulting words from the State Department [:] The mocking views of a senior State Department official following the Prime Minister’s embarrassing reception at the White House in March last year says it all: 'There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world.

You shouldn’t expect special treatment.'... 8. DVDs for the Prime Minister[:] ... [Brown] as treated shabbily when he visited the White House last March, and denied a Rose Garden press conference as well as a dinner. To cap it all, the decision to send him home with an assortment of 25 DVDs ranging from Toy Story to The Wizard of Oz – which can’t even be played in the UK - was a breathtaking display of diplomatic ineptitude that would have shamed the protocol office of an impoverished Third World country. And we haven’t even mentioned Obama’s iPod for the Queen. 9. Refusal to meet the Prime Minister in New York[:] Not content with humiliating the Prime Minister with a bargain basement DVD collection, President Obama proceeded to give him the run-around at the UN General Assembly in New York last September in a farce worthy of an episode from Benny Hill, declining to meet with him privately after no less than five requests. ... 10. Robert Gibbs’ embarrassing attack on the British press [:] No list of Obama administration slights against Britain would be complete without mention of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ sneering rant against the British press (first reported by Politico) after spotting an article in The Telegraph he disagreed with." Image from

US Embassy London: Where is I.M. Pei When We Need Him? - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View: "In reality, since gaining entrance to an American Embassy these days is akin to that of entering Fort Knox, it likely doesn’t matter much where a new one is situated. More and more such buildings are well removed from city centers where business, government and media still converge to remote - often suburban or even ex-urban- locations for post 9/11 security reasons. I suppose that’s all right except that I think we still need at least some diplomats in regular contact with the public to be able to perform their jobs adequately. These include political, economic and public diplomacy officers for starters. After all, I can sit at my computer here in New Mexico, read British newspapers, watch the BBC and scan British blogs online – and for that matter converse with people I know in London by phone or Skype if I – and they – so choose. But there’s still the matter of the last three feet needed to cement relationships, gain trust, put events in context and trade information. The more any Embassy is isolated from the people the diplomats need to contact, the less likely contact will be. It’s just human nature. This is to no one’s benefit."

US Government's Global Tourism Tax Blitzkrieg: Travel Promotion Act (TPA) - press release, PRLog.Org: "The recently passed Travel Promotion Act (TPA) is nothing more than an expansion of the federal bureaucracy and a government desperate for revenue streams placing an industry and job killing tax on the U.S. Tourism industry. Currently U.S. individual states, counties and local governments in cooperation with private businesses promote U.S. destinations globally. In 1994, the entity within the U.S. Department of Commerce responsible for tourism promotions overseas was dissolved and the U.S. saw increases in tourism debunking the myth that the U.S. requires a centralized federal government tourism bureaucracy to compete globally for tourism receipts.

It is the role of the U.S. State Department and our embassies to engage their respective populations through public diplomacy campaigns which by definition includes tourism promotions. “The irony is that national governments globally are decentralizing their tourism promotion operations placing greater responsibility and control at the local level,” said Gregory Kelly, CEO, K2 Global Communications LLC. http://www.k2globalcomm.com/greg_kelly.html. 'Does anyone really believe that Washington can promote and market New York City better than the current public-private partnership?'” Image from

A Texas fiddler-singer's ancestral connection to VOA (or, at least, USIB) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "I'm not sure if US broadcasts to Latin America during the 1940s were called 'Voice of America,' at least at first."

Is the Role of Cultural Diplomacy Evolving in the 21st Century? - Stephanie Adamowicz, Huffington Post: "While many may lament the decline of state-sponsored artistic exchanges, globalization and changing communications technology may have irreversibly changed the landscape of cultural diplomacy, and may explain the increasing dominance of the private sector in this field. The speed and ease of global communication, as well as political developments, have perhaps made people more skeptical of a state-sponsored communication because people are no longer reliant on governments to obtain information.

We face a situation where the shifting balance between state-sponsored messages and private exchanges of information are having an unprecedented effect on cultural programs. What will be the result of this shift from government-sponsored messages and cultural diplomacy to private sector, market-driven cultural exchanges? One strong possibility is that an international cultural exchange landscape dominated by the private sector will allow for greater risk-taking by the organizations that sponsor cultural initiatives, resulting in more avant-garde and critical programming. Whereas in the past, national interests ultimately determined which cultural activities to support so as to best reflect the national viewpoint, today's market may steer cultural exchanges to mirror a more multidimensional and complex cultural dialogue." Image from

Canada's golden Games leave critics red-faced - Peter O'Neil, Montreal Gazette: "It will take significant post-Games research to determine the lasting impact of the Games on Canada's image. The University of Ottawa's Evan Potter, in his 2009 book Branding Canada, took a critical look at the lack of financial resources spent by the Canadian government abroad to advance its image - and interests - through 'public diplomacy.' That is a term used in the diplomatic world to describe a variety of efforts - including scholarships, tours by artists, media relations campaigns and the like - that are aimed at boosting a country's international image and convincing other nations, and populations, to take heed of its interests. Potter wrote that the results of a successful Olympic Games will dwarf all the incremental efforts by diplomats to wave their country's flag overseas."

"Olympic post-mortem": Russia's PD disaster? - Lena, Global Chaos: "[B]ouncing off Laura's enthusiasm about PD and Olympics, I couldn't help but think about the public diplomacy loss that Russia suffered thanks to its poor performance in Vancouver.

After all, Olympics is one of these opportunities where each country gets to shine and show off the best they got: a perfect chance for bold public diplomacy." Image: Aleksandr Ovechkin looks on from the bench during the Russian ice hockey team's quarterfinal loss to Canada.

Isreal: New campaign for citizen diplomacy irks foreign press - Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times: "In some countries, government outreach is called public relations, affairs and diplomacy -- or propaganda, by others. In Israel, it's called hasbara, which translates as 'explaining.' This reveals an Israeli conviction that if they only explain it right, everyone will surely get it. Now, a new campaign invites all Israelis to serve as ambassadors ... . But campaign 'Explaining Israel,' meant to show that Israel is on the right side of stuff too, is already rubbing some people the wrong way, including members of the foreign press. Tired of Israel being portrayed as conflict-central and backward? Myth-Busting 101 includes a series of humorous clips that poke fun at ill-informed and stereotypical coverage of Israel. It's not going down well."

Israel Goes to War Using Anti-BDS Warriors and Smiling Tourists - James M. Wall, Wallwritings:

"Enter, stage right, Israel’s Ministry of Public Diplomacy and one of its US partners, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. The 'Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy' (IMPD) sounds so Orwellian that it seems almost unfair to mention it. But you decide what’s fair in the IMPD’s smiling tourists campaign to issue happy talk hasbara kits to Israelis traveling outside their homeland. Yuli Edelstein, who runs the IMPD, calls his volunteer Israeli travelers the Tzva Hasbara LeYisrael, the Israeli Public Diplomacy Forces, a play on the Hebrew name of the IDF (Israel Defense Force) and the concept of 'hasbara' or public information. ... But Public Diplomacy wars are not won by Good Cops alone. A PD army needs its Bad Cops as well. Enter the anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) warriors. Two recent punches were thrown by the Bad Cops, aimed at Christians in particular. Both came from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the zealous Nazi hunter. The first punch thrown appeared in the Jerusalem Post. It is a doozy. with a headline that says: 'Liberal Protestant Churches Pose Growing Threat to Israel'. ... The second punch was thrown inside the US, with a warning issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a news release sent to the media and to the Center’s mailing list, which, from what I have heard, landed in the mail boxes of not a few Presbyterian pastors and lay persons." Image from

Twitter Warfare - Andre Oboler, reposted by Jewish Internet Defense Force: "Israel has been attached [sic] in Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Eventually it had to happen... and in messages of 140 characters of less, now Twitter too is being used in public diplomacy against the Jewish state. ... It’s taken a while, but finally twitter too has become a tool of online warfare. While Facebook bans the use of fake names, Twitter only prohibits Impersonation and Trademark violations. It remains to be seen how far satire can be used as a cover, and how good the satire must be to qualify. One this is certain, the online world is only growing in impact when it comes to politics and the international reputation of countries. Israel is starting to get online, but there is a long way still to go."

Second Annual ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey Challenges Stereotypes About Arab Youth – press release, Middle East Events: ‎"Seven out of ten Arab youth share sense of common identity beyond ethnicity, religion or national background and embrace global citizenship. Burson-Marsteller Global Vice Chair Karen Hughes, former US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, to present study findings in Dubai on March 7.

Prestigious panel of Arab opinion-leaders, drawn from government, business, media, law and arts, will debate implications of survey results. Contrary to the widespread perception of the Middle East as a region defined by conflict and a growing East/West cultural and political divide, the vast majority of Arab youth prioritise harmonious relations with the international community and wholeheartedly regard themselves as global citizens." Hughes image from

Regional ٍElections Will Influence Political Arena' - Journal of Turkish Weekly: "Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that the results of elections in Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq will significantly influence the region’s political arena. He made the remarks on Monday at a conference on developments in global management and justice-based diplomacy, which Iranian ambassadors and diplomats stationed in foreign countries attended. ... He went on to say that most countries practice public diplomacy. 'However, the high status of Iran in the region is due to its active and justice-based diplomacy,' he added."

Training must to meet modern challenges effectively: Kaira - Associated Press of Pakistan: "Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira Tuesday said training of officers was must to meet modern challenges effectively and would go a long way in polishing their professional and development skills. He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of a training course for government officers being held under the aegis of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Media University here at Information Services Academy (ISA).

The three days course (March 2-4) in 'Strategic Communications, Public and Cultural Diplomacy' is a collaborative initiative of the Ministry of Information and government of UK with the objectives to impart training by UK trainers to Pakistani officers working in strategic ministries and departments. Qamar Zaman Kaira said that through such cross-governmental initiatives and collaborations, the democratic government wants to create a dynamic and synergized public diplomacy machinery that articulates and projects a strong Pakistan with a people whose potential is boundless." Image from

Speaker profile: Alice Taylor Lift conference: "This year Lift welcomes Alice Taylor as one of our speakers! We've invited Alice to speak during our session on online communities. She will present various cases showing how the video game environment can be used for public diplomacy, democracy, entertainment, education and experimentation. Alice works at the UK's Channel 4, and her job is to commission cross-platform educational content for UK-based 14-19 year olds, aiming to get useful, life-helpful information to teens via their most-favored platforms and formats."

War Reporting - Arab News: "This afternoon at the Elliott School of International Affairs I moderated a really interesting panel on war reporting, co-sponsored by my Institute for Middle East Studies, Sean Aday’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communications, and Jim Lebovic’s Security Policy Forum. The panel featured three major American print war journalists: Michael Gordon (of the New York Times) and Ann Scott Tyson and Rajiv Chandrasekaran (of the Washington Post). What emerged was a fascinating picture of strengths and weaknesses, of what war reporters could and could not accomplish — especially the difficult of getting unfiltered access to local Afghan or Iraqi voices."

Ambassador Profile: Elizabeth Streett, Department of State, Consular Affairs Intern - UW Making The Difference: Federal Careers Blog:

"While an undergraduate at Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA), I studied abroad for two semesters. Fall semester was in Sri Lanka and spring semester was in Japan. While in Sri Lanka, I stumbled across an internship with the US Department of State. Although there were some issues faxing my transcripts and resumes from Kandy, I was selected for this prestigious internship. And at the end of my semester in Japan, I began a 10-week internship at the US Consulate - Osaka in the Consular Affairs section. ... I learned about each section of the embassy, which led me to my decision to take the Foreign Service test and select the Public Diplomacy cone. Although consular affairs was fascinating and tiring work, cultural and educational affairs and media relations seem to align with my strengths better. While we were there, the Public Diplomacy section took us to a local preschool as part of their outreach program. These are the types of things I would like to brainstorm and implement." Image from

Know Your Taliban - Justin Rashid Neon Tommy - "In many non-Western cultures, personal ties are simply how business gets done, and you don't even have to like the other person. In fact, the Taliban are increasingly frustrated with al-Qaeda's influence in Afghanistan. The Taliban want only local political power, not global jihad, and to do so they need popular support. Why else, for example, would they offer the local population a court system to resolve personal disputes in places where the government alternative is corrupt or non-existent? But al-Qaeda's violent presence, with a disregard for civilian casualties, is undermining the Taliban's public relations. ...

Justin Rashid is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Diplomacy program. This op-ed is part of the 'Neon PD' project between Neon Tommy and the Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars." Image from article

New U.S. Strategy in the Middle East - egyoffline weekly news: "Ahmed Younis serves as a senior consultant for Gallup and senior analyst for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Muslim-West Facts Initiative. He recently authored the book American Muslims: Voir Dire [Speak the Truth], which looks at the post-September 11 debate about the status of American Muslims in the U.S. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on U.S.-Muslim World Relations of the United States Institute of Peace and regularly speaks on issues affecting Western Muslim communities, identity and integration, terrorist financing and public diplomacy."

RELATED ITEMS

America’s Face-saving Propaganda About Marjah - Jahanaraah, Al-Tawbah: The invading American and NATO forces have announced that they are clearing the last pockets of resistance in Marjah but this is no more than an eye-wash. The fact is that the invading troops are now entangled in a long war in Marjah. The battles are going on in Marjah according to the tactical plan of Mujahideen. With the passage of every day, the enemy suffers life and material losses.

Moderate Jordan Joins Anti-Israeli Propaganda - Yeshiva World News: In an expected move, Jordan’s King Abdullah released a statement warning against the serious consequences that may result from 'aggressive Israeli moves against al-Aqsa Mosque'. During a meeting with visiting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen),

the Jordanian monarch on Sunday afternoon released a statement calling upon the international community to take necessary steps to protect Islamic holy sites, as if Israel has or intends to compromise the holy sites of any religion. Image from article

Exclusive: Who's Behind the Latest Propaganda Stunt at Camp Ashraf? - Shahriar Kia, Family Security Matters: The ridiculous propaganda show aimed at breathing new life into al-Maliki’s election bid in Iraq is inspired by the model of absolute clerical rule in Iran. The propaganda show staged by the Iranian regime’s intelligence agents at the front gate of Camp Ashraf in Iraq (an Iranian refugee camp) has taken outlandish and preposterous dimensions.

IMAGE:


--Building a better hot dog (Boing Boing)