John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review: April 5

"I went out onto the station platform with a sense of deep gratitude and of happy acceptance of this American world, marked as it is by the mediocrity of all that is exalted, and the excellence of all that which is without pretense."

--George Kennan, upon his return to the U.S. after a fact-finding trip to Latin America in 1950; cited in Nicholas Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War (2009), p. 110; image from

EVENT

The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding with the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Mortara Center for International Studies, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the Georgetown University South Asian Society, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and ML Resources Social Vision invites you to attend a Concert and Discussion with: SALMAN AHMAD Thursday, April 8th, 5:30PM Lohrfink Auditorium, Rafik B. Hariri Building, Georgetown University. Via CS

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

April Fools Cont - Paul Rockower, Levantine:

"American humor found in the Onion and the Daily Show are the best forms of public diplomacy." Image from

Diplomacy and development mantra needs revisiting - Saeed Minhas, Daily Times: "Easter arrangements were at their peak and many of our diplomatic friends from western countries had to halt their official secret-sharing chores to plan or attend Good Friday and Easter get-togethers at several places to celebrate the long weekend. News about easing the Americans’ much-criticised screening policy for the Pakistanis was a welcome sign for all these friends, as they found the disclosure of the visiting US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee quite comforting and helpful for their targeted public diplomacy and tainted developmental efforts. But many of the diplomats agreed with me partially that neither diplomacy nor development could happen from bunkers by untrained and circumscribed staffers, who remain completely oblivious of locals. But, since money allocated for these 'high-valued' tasks has to be spent with positive results, be it the UN-led Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP) or DFID (UK) consultancy or Japan’s JICA multi-million dollar grants or CIDA’s (Canada) humanitarian aid and over a billion dollars of USAID diplomacy and development funds, all will be shown as well-spent, regardless of how much of it will help the masses and how much will be repatriated through their own consultants with the help of local sub-contractors."

Why is Mommy in Afghanistan? - Afghani-dox:

Waiting for Mommy to return from Afghanistan: "During 2010 and 2011, Mommy will be living in Kabul, working for the Campaign for Social Justice, the nonprofit organization that is overseeing the building and running of the US State Department's Lincoln Learning Centers (LLC) throughout Afghanistan. Part of the State Department's Public Diplomacy outreach program, LLCs are run like US public libraries and community centers, offering books, movies, access to computers and the Internet, talks about American culture, computer and language classes and community activities." Image from

Obama Came A Cropper One More Time - History Geek, Get a Grip!: "Karzai's successful survival as well as his capacities at both hostilities termination and the far harder task of conflict resolution require that he be seen (and see himself) as being accorded equality of status by the American president. Bush was able to do this, apparently without effort, while Obama is not. Other, lesser, Americans including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, and General McChrystal have been able to show all the correct signs of deference to the Afghan president and Afghan cultural practices. Foreign leaders, can we say, 'Ahmedinejad,' have been able to do so as well. Mr Obama is not. As a result his foray into personal diplomacy was both a failure and counterproductive. This puts it on a par with his repeated efforts at Wilsonian style public diplomacy. It is quite possible that Bush/Cheney and the neocon ninnies recognized that regardless of all the verbiage regarding 'nation-building' Afghanistan was never going to become a model Western pluralistic society with free, transparent democratic institutions, separation of faith and state, an independent judiciary, a corruption free paragon of free enterprise virtue. It is self-evident that Mr Obama and many of his 'team' do not have a similar, firm grip on reality."

Scholarships In Haiti: The program for the 2011-2012 Fulbright U.S. - scholarshipsfoundation.blogspot.com:

"The Office of Public Diplomacy of the American Embassy is pleased to announce its annual competition open for the academic year 2010-2011 Fulbright program. This international educational exchange program was established by the U.S. government with the aim of promoting mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and people of other nations. Applicants must meet all criteria for a selection committee for the comparison with other candidates will be interviewed." Image from

Ethiopian government, VOA, and IFJ trade adjectives in jamming controversy - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Who's Legit? - Laura McGinnis, manIC: Public Diplomacy and International Communication -- in blog form: "What makes a legitimate audience for public diplomacy? For the United States, the answer is often related to national security concerns. U.S. public diplomacy has traditionally been best funded during times when the nation perceived itself to be threatened (by Nazis, Soviets or terrorists, for example) and public diplomacy was seen as a tactic to counter opposition. But by categorizing the people of foreign nations according to their legitimacy, or their utility, does public diplomacy not risk isolating vast segments of the population? And what does that reveal about underlying assumptions about those people and their culture? Somehow targeting specific segments of a society for message reception seems a little cynical and self-serving. At the very least, it seems less likely to succeed than working together with foreign publics to construct a message people in both countries can support."

Security for Indians in Afghanistan Being Increased - Outlook:

”In the wake of the recent attack in Kabul targeting Indians, security of all Indians working in Afghanistan is being increased but there would be no scaling down of personnel or projects. Sources here also made it clear that India is 'not reaching out' to Taliban and before thinking about that, it will await the results of the campaign launched by the US-led forces in Helmand and the proposed military action to be initiated in Kandahar. ... India is currently engaged in public diplomacy to reach out to various sections of the Afghan society through developmental projects." Image from

Ambassador Zhang Yan Attends the Seminar on 'India and China: Public Diplomacy, Building Understanding' and Delivers a Speech - press release, MFA China: Zhang Yan: "Friends, to move the China-India relations forward, I am of the view that efforts should be made in the following areas: ... . [E]xpand people-to-people exchanges to cement public support for our relations. The two countries should enhance exchanges and cooperation in culture, education, tourism, religion, science and technology, and increase interactions between the academic communities and media sectors of two countries. Exchanges between youth should be further expanded.

The China Festive and Indian Festival to be held in respective country this year will serve as an invaluable platform for promoting mutual understanding and friendship. ... [P]roperly handle the public opinion. Public opinion is vitally important to the development of our relations. Two countries should provide correct guidance to the public opinions and avoid war of words. Efforts should be made on both sides in order to create an objective, friendly and mutually trust environment. A good and conducive public environment will not only provide a necessary condition for the stable development of our relations, but also create conditions conducive to the settlement of historical issues and other differences." Zhang Yan image from

The Jerusalem Quartet: Cultural Ambassadors of the State of Israel - and liars – Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: "It is understandable that The Jerusalem Quartet attempt to distance themselves from the State of Israel, and therefore the criticism that comes with their status as Cultural Ambassadors of an apartheid state. But while they continue to be just that, they will continue to attract critics of the state whose 'policy interests' they are contractually obliged to 'promote.'"