April 6

“I do feel ... that the really gifted and able people in government are perhaps less apt than the others to have a fully conventional life.”

--George Kennan (1954); cited in Nicholas Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War (2009), p. 153; Kennan image from

REPORT

CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe - WikiLeaks release: March 26, 2010

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Richard Holbrooke: Bulldozer Stuck in the Mud - Antiwar.com - Kelley B. Vlahos: "[L]ast fall when all of the election shenanigans were coming to a head, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his own inner circle of senior officers and advisers were forcing the president’s hand in favor of their branded counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy

that, despite all of the talk to the contrary, would involve a military-led, comprehensive Long War roadmap that kept the State Department and all other U.S. government agencies in supporting roles. Billions in resources for public diplomacy, plus control over reconstruction and other things not traditionally under the Pentagon’s purview, have been funneling into military coffers over the last several years, leaving little question as to who is in charge." Image from

US Embassy Announces Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program - Liberian Daily Observer: "The Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia is pleased to announce the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program for the academic year 2011-2012 and is encouraging qualified Liberian professionals to apply for the program. Application deadline is July 1, 2010. The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship is a United States Government-funded program initiated in 1978 to honor the memory and accomplishments of the late Senator and Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey. The program is for dedicated mid-career professionals, and provides an opportunity to travel to the United States to participate in a one-year graduate-level non-degree study at U.S. College or University with related practical professional experience."

Centre of the Universe – John Crean Blog: "The Vancouver Olympics did much for the city and for the country. It was much more than a two-week party. It was the ultimate global branding opportunity and a perfect example of what Evan Potter in his book Branding Canada refers to as using soft power through public diplomacy. Hard power refers to the use of economic and military might in the pursuit of national interest. Soft power focuses on leveraging our culture, political ideals and policies as a means to attract support; the assumption being that a favourable global public opinion climate will support prosperity and security. It is not a stretch then to argue, and I believe that it is accurate, that the Olympics in Canada has enhanced our reputation globally, positioning us, for the time being at least, as contemporary and exciting, even interesting!"

Public Health through a Public Diplomacy Lens - Catherine Cloutier, Neon Tommy: "Public Diplomacy student Paul S. Rockower illustrates the connection between public diplomacy and public health in the photography exhibit 'A Focus on Global Health.' Capturing Rockower's travels from Los Angeles to Panama, the exhibit features images of environmental degradation, famine, water scarcity, chronic and infectious disease epidemics, and socio-economic development. 'Public health practitioners and institutions must engage in facets of public diplomacy in order to deal with pressing global health issues,' Rockower said.

'Through advocacy and listening, cultural exchange and cultural diplomacy, both the public diplomat and public health practitioner affect global change.'" Rockower image from

Nation branding and public diplomacy with multiplier impact? - Anne-Mette Hjalager, Association for Place Branding and Public Diplomacy: "There is no doubt that building PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS is a decisive way of working in public diplomacy, and effective in relation to improving a positive knowledge of a country. However, building and maintaining such relationships is also very resource intensive in time and money, for example for representatives and officials from a small country like Denmark. Can anyone help with views and examples of experiences in OPTIMIZING THE IMPACT of nation branding and public diplomacy? Is there some best practice out there?"

Defining the Narrative? To What Purpose? - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View:

"Sure, VOA and BBC were listened to in Leningrad, Moscow and points east because these foreign broadcasters provided relatively unbiased news and served as welcome counterpoints to the regime’s boring, long-winded and one-sided propaganda that spewed forth from the domestic airwaves. And everyone, after all, loved VOA’s Willis Conover. But did the radios cause the downfall? I never saw evidence that they did." Image from

Are We Being "Managed" By The Federal Government We Trusted? - Hoping the Blind Will See, America! Oh How We'll Miss You!: "Beginning in the 1950s, more than 800 news and public information organizations and individuals carried out assignments to manage the public's perception of the CIA, according to the New York Times. By the mid-80s, CIA Director William Casey had taken the practice to the next level: an organized, covert 'public diplomacy' apparatus designed to sell a 'new product'—Central America—while stoking fear of communism, the Sandinistas, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, and anyone else considered an adversary during the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. Sometimes it involved so-called 'white propaganda', stories and op-eds secretly financed by the government. But they also went 'black', pushing false story lines, such as how the Sandinistas were actually anti-Semitic drug dealers. That campaign included altered photos and blatant disinformation dispersed by public officials as high as the president himself."

April 23, 2010: U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy Spring Public Meeting - Events calendar, USC Annenberg: "The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to host the spring public meeting of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy is a bipartisan panel created by Congress and appointed by the President to appraise U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics."

InfoWarCon - Washington, D.C. - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner.us:

"The 2010 installment of InfoWarCon will be May 12-14 in Washington, D.C., at the Washington Convention Center. ... The agenda is here. Noteworthy is that Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale is expected to speak on day 2, May 13, at 8:00a-8:30a. Her predecessor, Jim Glassman, spoke at the 2009 event." Image from

Prospective Student Preview Day - Ren's Micro Diplomacy: "Tomorrow is the Preview Day for prospective Master of Public Diplomacy student, and I’ve been asked to present my paper on Saudi Arabia’s post 9/11 PR/PD campaigns. I love the topic of this paper, so I’m really excited to present, but I’m only allotted 5 minutes to explain the contents of all 30 pages. The powerpoint has gone through a series of revisions now."

Donna Bergheim, professor and Virginia arts advocate, dies - Matt Schudel, Washington Post: "Donna Rose Feldman was born in South Bend, Ind., and moved to Tucson as a girl. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 1945 and received a master's degree in English from the university in 1948. She received a doctorate in speech and drama from the University of Iowa in 1953 and was an authority on the works of Shakespeare.

While completing her graduate studies, Dr. Bergheim moved to Washington in 1951 and worked with the U.S. Information Agency's motion-picture service. From 1955 to 1957, she was a Foreign Service officer in Japan and Burma and helped arrange appearances in Asia by performing arts groups, including ballets, classical ensembles and Benny Goodman's jazz band. She also helped coordinate a visit to Japan by novelist William Faulkner in 1955. Dr. Bergheim worked for Voice of America in Washington before becoming an assistant cultural attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in 1958. She resigned from the State Department in 1959, when she married. State Department rules at the time did not allow married women to hold professional positions in the Foreign Service." Via LB. Feldman image from article

RELATED ITEM

How Americans are propagandized about Afghanistan - Glenn Greenwald, Salon: What is clear -- yet again -- is how completely misinformed and propagandized Americans continue to be by the American media, which constantly "reports" on crucial events in Afghanistan by doing nothing more than mindlessly and unquestioningly passing along U.S. government claims as though they are fact. There are some very courageous and intrepid reporters in Afghanistan, including some who work for American media outlets. But far more often, Americans are completely misled

about events in Afghanistan by the combination of false official claims and mindless stenographic American "journalism." Image from