April 21

"Avoid saying 'now that we're all part of a global world', unless you have hitherto believed the earth to be flat."

--The Economist Style Guide; cited in Times Literary Supplement (April 16, 2010), p. 31; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Shadow Play: Syria may be getting a new U.S. ambassador, but the problem of Syrian engagement is far from solved - Lee Smith, Tablet: "Washington doesn’t like the fact that Syria kills Americans and our friends, but since we are not willing to stop them by killing those Syrians responsible, there is little that we can do about it. So, we argue with ourselves about sending an ambassador to Damascus. The reality is rather more consequential than the phony argument over Syria policy would suggest. The issue is finally about terrorism, which is not the work of shadowy networks

hiding in caves and rogue operators whose grievances about the end of the Ottoman caliphate and the plight of the Palestinians can be soothed by an American public diplomacy campaign. This is a fiction, and the truth could not be any clearer. ... Obama’s public diplomacy is premised on the notion of reaching out to the Muslim masses and encouraging moderate streams of Islam, a strategy that is incongruous with a diplomacy that also reaches out to Muslim states that not only breed and support extremism but also arm it to kill Americans." Image from

Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland - Warsaw Business Journal, posted at TedLipien.com: “President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye as he commits yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats a good reason to pull their hair out. Biden and Feinstein pushed hard to get Obama to agree to attend President Kaczynski’s state funeral in Krakow. Obama may have had a reasonable explanation for cancelling his plane trip due to the ash cloud in the atmosphere from an Islandic vulcano. But then he allowed himself to be photographed playing golf on the same day as the Polish President’s body was being burried at the Wawel Castle in Krakow. Obama created a public diplomacy disaster for America, while Russia’s President Medvedev, who flew from Moscow to attend the funeral, showed that he and Prime Minister Putin are real masters in shaping public opinion in a situation that could have had very bad repercussions for Russia.”

VOA Amharic getting through Ethiopian jamming on some frequencies, adds morning transmission - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Iran to Conduct War Games - Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal (subscription only): "Iran has a history of saber-rattling under pressure. A U.S.-led push has been building steam at the United Nations for fresh economic sanctions against Tehran. Underscoring that threat, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have mounted what appears to be a public-diplomacy push to thwart the U.N. effort."

Israeli diplomat speaks on campus - Aubrey Brickzin, Highlander Newspaper:

"Shahar Azani, Israeli diplomat and Consul for Culture, Media and Public Diplomacy visited UC Riverside on Wednesday to speak on Israeli humanitarian efforts. Consul Azani's address was one of three events sponsored by the campus Jewish organization Hillel for Hillel's annual Israel Week." Azani image from article

The End of Free? - Media Backspin - BackSpin Editor: "In the good old days, the Internet was a hub of free content. Things people paid for in the brick-and-mortar world - music, news, software – were readily available online in free digital versions. But while there is still a great deal of free stuff online, the tide appears to be turning against the 'free' model, at least for content that has value in the real world. ... So what does this shift mean for Israel’s public diplomacy? It means that media bias may become harder to monitor and to fight, but it would also reach a smaller audience. An uptick in pay walls on Internet services also means that today’s guerilla marketers will have a harder time spreading the news across the web."

What do FUNERAL, CRISIS and PUBLIC diplomacy have in common? - Jovan Kurbalija, Jovan's Notes:

"Funeral diplomacy refers to 'ad hoc summits' by world leaders on the occasion of the death of a world leader. States convey diplomatic signals through presence or absence at the event, the level of representation and position in the 'funeral protocol'. Crisis diplomacy is diplomatic efforts to deal with developments that pose great economic, social, or environmental risks for modern society. For example, the turmoil caused by flight cancellations related to the volcanic ash from Iceland is the latest crisis situation. Public diplomacy may be described (succinctly) as a way of promoting the image of one’s country abroad. Looking forward to your comments on how Russian President Medvedev linked a funeral [of Polish government who died in a recent aircrash near Katyn], a crisis and public diplomacy." Image from

On Russia, With Love - Laura McGinnis, manic: "In 2005, shortly after a Kremlin-commissioned survey showed that the items Americans most associated with Russia included communism, the KGB, snow and the mafia, the Russian government started pumping money into a PD revitalization effort.* One aspect of this effort has been an attempt to re-brand Russia as an innovative, democratic nation with a strong economy and rich cultural history. But despite a massive information machine, cultural exports, language and education programs, exchanges, consulates, cultural centers and impenetrable fortress embassies, Russia's global reputation remains fairly negative. ... More than anything, Russia struggles to shake off its Cold War image--partly because Cold War imagery still colors much media coverage of the country, but also because Cold War attitudes still shape its interactions with the West and its neighbors."

Somebody, please, tell RT to stop! – Lena, Global Chaos: "Russia has a major PD problem, not only in terms of its Soviet legacy, but also because of its current foreign policy (or, at least, some aspects of it). The Kremlin seems to be painfully aware of this problem, and all the frantic efforts to organize, institutionalize, and streamline the Russian PD activities over the past three-four years clearly indicate that. ... [Government-funded Russia Today] RT English, which supposedly targets a global audience - primarily the American public, through - not only does not promote Russia's credibility, but undercuts it further. Yes, RT knows how to do a good job sometimes (especially, at times of crisis) and it might have quite legitimate points even in the reports above; but the way reporting and presentation are done, they simply overshadow any substance."

A morning with Erdoðan (on Kurds and more) - Mustafa Akyol - Hurriyet Daily News: "Last Saturday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

had a six-hour-long meeting with about four dozen Turkish writers. The topic was what the government calls 'the democratic initiative,' or 'a project for national unity.' ... We all gathered in the prime minister’s office in Dolmabahçe, Istanbul. ... I, for my part, noted that the government will not be too successful in its 'democratic initiative,' unless it explains to society why it is necessary. 'The steps you take often look like too little for the Kurds, and too much for the Turkish majority,' I said. 'This huge perception gap in society makes it very hard to proceed. You need more effective public diplomacy to help the Turkish and Kurdish sides understand each other’s story.'” Erdoğan image from

China’s SAARC membership & Asia’s Future! - Niraj, Pan-Asianism:Pathway Towards Asian Union: "Now, India raises more battalions to fence border with Bangladesh and Nepal. While the East Asian nations are integrating transcending antagonisms of past, India is engaged in rhetorical conflict with every neighbor. Border tensions are more in news than the friendly gestures. There is jingoistic pulp nationalism manufactured by unbridled media and fed back into public diplomacy by the power elite that has lost much connection with grass root."

Conference 'Terrorism & New Media' at Dublin City University, Sept 2010‏ - Mondes Arabe, Musulman et Sémitique: "Travel Funding for Graduate Students The Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, University of Southern California (USC) will provide US$700 in sponsorship for a graduate student to attend at *and blog* from the conference for the Center. Graduate students wishing to apply for this funding should indicate same when submitting their abstract."

RELATED ITEMS

Diplomacy Lite, Military Heavy- Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View:

Today the problem is - because of continued over-reliance on the military to solve all foreign policy problems - the US Armed Forces have been ordered to assume roles and engage in tasks for which they are eminently unsuited, unskilled and ill-prepared. Unfortunately, the State Department and what’s left of USAID have been so weakened over the years to be unable to take them on successfully either. Image from

Obama’s Propaganda War Against Israel - Matthew M. Hausman, Israpundit: Obama’s Orwellian torturing of language to sanitize the image of terrorists and their enablers is counterbalanced by the harsh terminology he uses when discussing Israel. Mr. Obama is engaging in linguistic deception at the expense of an ally – Israel – in order to curry favor with nations, NGOs, and even terrorist organizations, whose agendas conflict with the societal values and strategic interests of the United States.

Appeasing the Muslim Brotherhood - Nonie Darwish, Frontpagemag.com: Mogahed brings nothing new to Islamic propaganda but she certainly sounds interesting to Americans who are unfamiliar with this same old Islamic propaganda and who find it hard to question a religion. When President Obama spoke to the Muslim world in Cairo last June, a large portion of his guests were leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The speech was designed to please them more than supporting the reformist movement in Egypt and across the Muslim world. The Obama administration has hired the first White House Muslim advisor, Dalia Mogahed, who helped with writing Obama’s speech. Mogahed is herself an Islamic ideologue who supports Islamic Sharia and denies any connection between radical Islam and terrorism.

Lenin exhibit returns to Ukraine after 2 decades - Anna Melnichuk, AP: Moth-eaten socks and other clothes once worn by Vladimir Lenin,

the leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, have gone on exhibit in Ukraine's capital for the first time since the former Soviet republic became independent almost two decades ago. The exhibition, timed to coincide with the 140th anniversary of Lenin's birth on Thursday, was made possible under the country's new Russia-friendly president. Like Russia, Ukraine has seen a rise in nostalgia for the Soviet period, in part because of the economic downturn. Image from

Ukrainization is inevitable: Social psychologists predict those in power will resort to Ukrainization for political reasons - Oksana Mykoliuk, The Day: Dr. Vadym Vasiutynsky, Ph.D. (Psychology): "Our society has failed to officially prohibit Stalinist propaganda. In other words, we don’t have a law that bans it."

Retro Game Propaganda Posters - gamerant.com: Artist Steve Thomas has crafted some pretty awesome vintage propaganda posters.

Each one of his posters are based on a retro video game. These posters win on two levels: one for the amazing Soviet Union/1950’s style art and two the clever sayings that go along with them. I seem to know all of the games they are based off of except the “End the Tyranny” one. Image from article