April 13

“If you want to stop the bus, it should be shot in the tires ... Why shoot the people inside?”

--The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa; cited in Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Aimoor Shah, "Civilians Killed as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Bus," New York Times; image from article

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Public Diplomacy in Garden of Peace and Friendship - Mahtab Farid, Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan:

"With the help of our Texas agriculture team, we (the U.S. Reconstruction Team) have sketched a plan to build gardens of peace and friendship in different districts of Ghazni, a city in southern part of Afghanistan. This garden will be a beautiful symbolic place for Shuras (local meetings) in Afghanistan to take place in order to build peace and reconciliation. There will be various flowers planted in these gardens from each district representing different tribes. The concept of citizen public diplomacy can easily grow in these immaculate gardens." Inappropriate image from

A Time To Act But Not React - Joshua Geltzer, Huffington Post: "America appears to be studying intensely its options for approaching Yemen, a country long mired in a now-simmering civil war.

One possibility is to act through Yemeni forces, supporting them as they target alleged al-Qaeda forces, such as the militants who have been killed over the past few months. Another possibility is to employ missile strikes from Predator drones. … A third possibility is to utilize covert operations and small teams of special forces . … Stationing significant numbers of American forces on the ground in Yemen has not been definitively ruled out. Of course, some combination of these might be employed, as might less kinetic methods such as economic development and public diplomacy. None of these options is inherently a foolish one; and finding an appropriate response depends partly on the subtleties of diplomatic relationships and the nuances of classified intelligence, all of which remain beyond the public's view. What the public can demand, however, is that America act with foresight rather than react with haste." Image from

BBC, VOA welcome in parts of Somalia not occupied by their detractors - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

At Radio Free Europe/ Liberty, bulk of discriminated employees is Muslims - Alsou Taheri, News.Az: "As the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is a full member of U.S. Federal Agency Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) that serves simultaneously as RFE/RL corporate Board of Directors. It is a very exclusive corporate board, for RFE/RL is financed by American Congress and all BBG members are assigned by the President of the United States personally with consent and approval of U.S. Senate.

It is to American senators that [Czech senator] Jaromir Stetina addressed his internationally widely published letter 'Actions of Radio Free Europe Damage Czech Republic and the United States'. Personal copies of the letter were forwarded to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In his letter, Jaromir Stetina calls discrimination of RFE/RL foreign employees 'patiently indecent, unfair, cynical and hypocritical.' The great majority of discrimination victims are Muslims. Image from

A Teachable Moment – Martha Bayles, World Affairs: "Today, insiders joke that RFE/RL is actually 'Europe-Free Radio,' because rather than send radio signals from Munich into Eastern and Central Europe (RFE) and the USSR (RL), the Prague-based operation now uses a variety of media to reach all of the former Soviet republics, as well as Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the border region of Pakistan. ... As a government-funded entity, RFE/RL can never divorce itself entirely from America’s short-term interest. But at the same time, surrogate broadcasting should not be reduced to state propaganda. ... There are billions of people in the world who, despite rising levels of media savvy, are still seeking a news source they can trust—especially about what is happening in their own country."

Things That Make You Go Hmm - Laura McGinnis, manIC:

"Russia's public diplomacy ostensibly aims to promote national culture and science, and to secure regional stability. But what about Russia's less public PD aims? This article argues that Russian media fueled the recent Kyrgyzstan uprising in pursuit of an unstated PD objective, namely consolidating power within the region. Image from

All Public Diplomacy Should Be Local - Patricia H. Kushlis, Whirled View: "In my view, public diplomacy means government representatives communicating with foreign publics. ... The public diplomacy officer must be credible to be effective. This is where public diplomacy differs the most significantly from strategic communications.

The latter ... is foremost a military endeavor with battlefield objectives or at least military connotations and one that contains the use of black and gray propaganda as well as deceit in its communications arsenal. ... The public diplomacy officers in the field are the people who should know best the issues that need addressing, the ins and outs of the local communications environment, and the people who should be reached. If a public diplomacy officer doesn’t he or she should not be in the job. ... The restoration of formal planning documents ... is crucial to making public diplomacy work abroad. These documents need to be flexible – not set in stone like the Soviet Five-Year Plan – but also provide the framework for making public diplomacy work abroad. ... I would press President Obama hard on his campaign promise to re-establish Information Centers abroad, especially, but not exclusively in the Muslim world." Image from

Strategic Communication from (one of many) Public Diplomacy Perspectives – John Brown, Notes and Essays: "The straightjacket of strategy turns communication, at its best a process of discovery open to many conclusions, into a rigid ... mechanism for the fulfillment of a preconceived 'plan.' Why, after thousands of years, do we still read Plato's dialogues? And why, once another 'strategic communication' report appears, practically no one pays attention to it? Because, if I may simplify, Socrates sees communication as an intellectual voyage that defines us as human beings, whereas SC sees communication as yet another, essentially short-term, tool for Victory over the Enemy."

Public Diplomacy Persuasion – John Matel, World-Wide-Matel: "Public diplomacy is a mass networking proposition, where we build key relationships with opinion leaders and use leverage to allow/encourage others to reach out, who in turn reach out." See also

Where Diplomacy Resonates: Australia and New Zealand understand the need to make the most of their diplomatic assets – Daryl Copeland, The Mark: "[T]he art of international political communication through dialogue, negotiation, and compromise needs a more contemporary narrative

which goes well beyond the current discourse on either traditional or public diplomacy." Image from

The most important aspect of the new diplomacy - Natalia, The New Diplomacy 2010 D - "In my opinion, the most important aspect of the new diplomacy is the emergence of new actors, non-state actors such as NGOs, in world affairs. ... [T]he roles of the media and public opinion, as well as public diplomacy, are very important aspects in new diplomacy."

Aspects of New Diplomacy - Daniel, The New Diplomacy 2010 C: "New diplomacy of non-state actors (NGOs, Pressure groups, Multinational corporations) has bypassed the traditional state embassy and penetrated to the core areas of bilateral and multilateral negotiations between states on the range of international issues such as; cultural, environmental, trade, financial, security, humanitarian and human rights."

LDP leader "Euro-Atlantic person of year" – B92: "BELGRADE -- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Čedomir Jovanović was awarded as the Euro-Atlantic Person of the Year. The award is handed out by the International Institute for Security and the NATO sector for public diplomacy."

Wall provokes discussion and, for some, anger - Christianna Kyriacou, Daily Trojan: "Many students walking down Trousdale Parkway on Monday paused to view a large wall set up between the Von KleinSmid Center and Taper Hall that read, 'Israel: The Politics of Genocide.' A student walking down Trousdale Parkway stops to view a separation wall set up by Students for Justice in Palestine on Monday. The wall, which will remain on Trousdale until Tuesday night, was originally built by students from UC Irvine. 'It’s certainly a strong message, and I think to have it be so in your face — if you’re trying to send a message, what better way than to erect a wall such as one that might exist in the region that they are talking about?' said Daniela Montiel, a graduate student studying public diplomacy who stopped to read information posted on the wall."

Image from article: Divided · A student walking down Trousdale Parkway stops to view a separation wall set up by Students for Justice in Palestine on Monday. The wall, which will remain on Trousdale until Tuesday night, was originally built by students from UC Irvine. - Brandon Hui Daily Trojan

Getting Excited About DC - Heather W., Lisons & Dansons... - "Okay, I don't really want to get posted to DC since we're joining the Foreign Service and all, but man, they've got some cool things going in that city. The jobs alone are amazing! They're looking for primary source researchers, writers, people for outreach and public diplomacy, a librarian for the Executive Office of the President?!"

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. Military Goes Native in Afghanistan Ad Push:Former P&G Marketer Lt. Col. Allen McCormick Turns to One of Few Local Agencies Around for a Positive Campaign Built on Cultural Insight - Laurel Wentz, Advertising Age:

"Outdoor, TV and radio ads starring cuddly babies and folkloric warriors are spreading across Afghanistan, a country that's seen so little advertising that finding a local agency was one of the first hurdles of mounting a campaign. But the U.S.-backed push is using insights into traditional Afghan culture to try to encourage a war-ravaged population to help build a more peaceful nation. The soldier-marketer behind the effort, Lt. Col. Allen McCormick, is deploying the marketing expertise he gained at Procter & Gamble and other U.S. companies to target Afghan citizens." Image from

Googlee vs China: the endgame - John Parker, Asia Times: The Chinese government sought to force compliance with its policy of censoring the Internet; in this it has succeeded, at least in the short term, since Google's unwillingness to cooperate with the censorship policy led to the company shutting the door, in spite of its arguably great importance to Chinese Internet users.
As of April 12, the Hong Kong site was freely available to mainland Internet users (ie, without requiring special circumvention measures such as proxy servers). The company had set up a special page (http://www.google.com/prc/report.html) to track the availability of various Google pages on the mainland. The relative stability of this table (there have been few changes the last two weeks except for a blip on March 30, the cause of which remains unclear) shows that the standoff between China and Google seems to have stabilized, at least temporarily.

Bitter religious rivalry in the air: A leading preacher, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, falls foul of Muslim geopolitics – The Economist:

Some 300 journalists and other staff at IslamOnline, a popular website on Muslim affairs, have been staging a three-week sit-in that has captivated Arab media. Broadcasting it live over the internet, they have been getting support from prominent intellectuals and ordinary fans alike. Every turn of the affair is assiduously shared on Twitter. Their ordeal has been described as a battle for the soul of Islam. That is an exaggeration. At a less spiritual level, IslamOnline’s mostly Egyptian staff has been wrestling for control of the website with its Qatari owner, the al-Balagh Cultural Society, which is based in Doha, Qatar’s capital, and wants to cut jobs in Cairo and move some of its editorial offices back home. The Cairo staff claim that this is a ploy to take the website in a more conservative direction. The managers in Doha counter that IslamOnline has become too parochially Egyptian and has been straying from its mission to reach out to all Muslims. Image from