May 6

"We might not always have their names."

--A senior U.S. counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, regarding targets of drone strikes in Pakistan's border region; image from

"You have the watches, we have the time."

--A familiar Afghan aphorism regarding outsiders

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Overseas Posts: Central to Success in Public Diplomacy - William A. Rugh, Layalina Productions:

"If we want a successful public diplomacy effort, we need to devote more attention to the support and development of public diplomacy specialists in the Foreign Service, the so-called 'PD cone.'" Rugh image from article

US sends America's first Muslim country singer on Middle East tour - National: "Singing country music songs from beneath the brim of a cowboy hat with a full-bore Southern drawl, the up-and-coming performer Kareem Salama breaks the expectations audiences may have of an Egyptian-American Muslim. At least that is the message the US state department hopes to make by sending 'America’s first Muslim country singer' on a month-long tour from Morocco to Bahrain, designed to improve Washington’s dented reputation across the Middle East. ... Colombia Barrosse, the director of the state department’s division of cultural programmes in the bureau of educational and cultural affairs, describes the rising country star as an embodiment of 'the American dream'.


She describes a 'very expensive' tour across Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Israel and Jordan hailing from this year’s budget of US$11.5 million (Dh42m) – itself lamentably small but still an increase from last year’s $8.5m. Directing cultural diplomacy and so-called 'soft power' towards the region has topped priorities since the US president Barack Obama’s Cairo speech last June and the promise of a 'new beginning' in US relations with the Muslim world. While American arts patrons praise the Obama administration for increasing funding for such cross-cultural ventures, they complain that cash shortages still hinder their efforts to build bridges between East and West. According to Vishakha Desai, the president of the New York-based Asia Society, ... cross-cultural arts projects, such as last year’s Muslim Voices expo – which brought Kuwaiti actors, Sufi musicians and whirling dervishes to entertain Brooklyn crowds – was scaled back because of cash shortfalls. 'There isn’t enough funding,' she said. 'Money remains a huge issue. Even under the current administration with its tremendous interest in using arts and culture to advance public diplomacy, the truth is, there isn’t enough support.' Margaret Ayers, the president of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, criticises Washington’s cultural chiefs for allocating 'less than one per cent' of their budget on exchanges, harking back to a Cold War era in which the US lavished billions on arts outreach to stymie Communist expressionism [sic]." Salama image from article

South and Central Asia: U.S. Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan - Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, March 24, 2010 posted at press release, Article Ant: "The United States’ March 2010 counternarcotics strategy helps secure the Afghan populace by working with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) and other international partners to foster sustainable alternative licit economic opportunities and to develop increasingly self-reliant and effective counternarcotics law enforcement entities. ... Objective 7: Improve counternarcotics strategic communications 7.1: Integrate counternarcotics communications and counter-propaganda planning and execution with other information and public diplomacy efforts. Increase coverage by international, national and local media outlets of successes connected to the counternarcotics effort."

Public Diplomacy – Student Observations: "The continued sidelining of public diplomacy as an instrument of American foreign policy allows groups like al-Qaeda to spread their anti-American messages uncontested and passes up a critical opportunity in time to recreate the American image in a region of increasing geostrategic relevance. A more centralized effort to broadcast American objectives and values (e.g., religious liberty, tolerance)

into requisite population centers, making use of Cold War era methods while adapting to and taking full advantage of the rapid growth and complexity of communication avenues, is a necessary step to counter terrorist ideologies and cut off the flow of recruits to such movements." Image from

Online Media Growing Big, Powerful And Messy - US Official, RadioVop:‎ "Online media is growing big, powerful and messy, said US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy, Bruce Wharton. In his message to mark World Press Freedom Day, which was celebrated on Monday, Wharton said: 'Online journalism is big, it’s growing fast, growing in power, it’s messy and it looks a whole lot to me like real participatory democracy,' said Wharton. Wharton who has extensive US government’s experience working with online media, said the 2009 prison census done by the Center for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) found that at least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors were under arrest worldwide. He said this constituted about half of all journalists now in jail."

Radio and TV Marti Lie Vulgarly, the US Senate Admits - Jean-Guy Allard, Periodico: "Radio and TV Marti lie while broadcasting information without foundation,

said a report of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the US Senate, which recommends that both stations should be permanently withdrawn from Miami and relocated in Washington to 'fully' integrate the propaganda framework of the Voice of America (VOA)." Image from article

Report: RFE/RL removes report about Armenian genocide after protests - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Iraqi teens learn Ripken Baseball - Michael Catalini, Baltimore Sun: "They flew 6,139 miles from Iraq to learn how to throw a baseball 60 feet 6 inches.


A handful of teenagers and seven Iraqi coaches — including the Iraqi equivalent to the head of USA Baseball — came to Aberdeen, the home of Orioles legend and U.S. state department public diplomacy envoy Cal Ripken Jr., to receive instruction at his baseball academy." Image from

For Leftist Drones At 'Media Matters,' National Security Is One Big Joke - Matthew Vadum, Big Journalism : "Chavez already runs what political scientists call a 'public diplomacy' campaign in the U.S. to help bolster American support for his regime. The propaganda effort consists of funneling discounted home heating oil to former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) nonprofit group, Citizens Energy Corp. The nonprofit then distributes the oil to poor people, and useful idiot Kennedy gets to pose as a humanitarian. The CITGO program is not terrorism – technically – but it is a soft attempt at domestic subversion."

NATO and Europeans Plot Path Ahead - Steven Erlanger, New York Times - "An unusual online effort by NATO, the European Union, governments and research groups to ask a broader public for ideas on the future of Western security policy has produced a series of recommendations that call for NATO to develop a civilian arm and the European Union to create its own intelligence agency. ... [I]deas include ... improved public diplomacy to reduce the distance many Europeans feel from the union’s institutions.”

Expo will build China’s “public diplomacy” new stage - mbtshoessale.co.uk: "Where to know China and the world? From May 1 to October 31, the best answers the question perhaps is the Shanghai world expo, China and the world in a common set of 'public diplomacy' new stage. ... 'Public diplomacy' by American scholars from various angles, refers to the actual conditions, express, domestic policy of national culture, the introduction of foreign public interest in this state, its main including government, social elites and three levels, is the extension of foreign diplomatic and folk. Tongji university international cultural exchange, dean of the college of CaiJianGuo said: 'every citizen is directly involved in the expo, with a public diplomacy.'" Below image from


Shanghai Expo faces £400m shortfall as visitors shy away: The Shanghai World Expo faces a possible Pounds400 million shortfall as visitor numbers continued to plunge on Wednesday - Malcolm Moore, telegraph.co.uk: "The Chinese government, which spent at least £35bn preparing Shanghai for the six-month event, confidently predicted that the Shanghai Expo would break all records and attract 70m visitors. To hit that target, the Expo needed to attract 380,000 visitors a day. However, attendance has been so embarrassingly low that yesterday the government censored the figures."

Soldiers in the War of Ideas - Allison Good, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: "With cracks appearing in the U.S.-Israel relationship, the need to explain Israel’s case clearly and cogently has become more important than ever for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Founded in 1976 by the late Prof. Daniel Elazar to research Jewish communities, the Jerusalem Center developed into a foreign policy and public diplomacy center when Ambassador Dore Gold became its president in 2000. Today, scholars, lawyers, policy analysts and advisers, as well as former diplomats and journalists, convene at the independent, non-profit research institute to advocate for Israel and address a range of challenges the country faces."

Goldstone's black past: reactions – Islamo-Nazism: "The headlines in the 1st pic

read 'The world will learn about Goldstone's stain' and 'The publication of the investigation about judge Goldstone's past causes a storm'. The headlines in the 2nd pic

read 'FM Liberman has decided: Yediot Ahronot's investigation, which exposed the author of the anti Israel report as a judge in the Apartheid regime, will be used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for public diplomacy efforts.['] MP Hasson: 'Goldstone is hypocritical towards reality and towards himself' and 'Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin: 'The fact that this judge sentenced blacks to death is proof of his double standards' '. Translation of article: Politicians and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have congratulated Yediot Ahronot's investigation which exposed judge Goldstone's dark past as a cruel judge in South Africa's Apartheid regime. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the investigation 'a public diplomacy bomb shell'. FM Avigdor Liberman is going to order his staff to disseminate the information published in the newspaper to all the Israeli embassies in the world for public diplomacy efforts." Images from article

Foreign Ministry considering stopping lectures - Eli Bardenstein, Maariv, May 6 2010 posted at shoah.org.uk: "Foreign Ministry officials are considering stopping the lectures by senior figures around the world, particularly in Britain. The reason: The outspoken verbal attacks by students and pro-Palestinian activists, which render them ineffective. ... The Foreign Ministry has raised several alternative ideas. One of them is to increase the use of social networks as a means of PR. The Foreign Ministry has several staff members who are considered experts on public diplomacy using the Web, including Deputy Director of the Training Bureau Yaron Gamburg and Ilan Sztulman of the Public Affairs Department."

Ahmadinejad steals 'smart power' torch - Kaveh L Afrasiabi, Asia Times Online:

"If 'smart power' means exploiting opportunities as they show up, and using the soft power of public diplomacy to one's advantage, then there is no doubt that Ahmadinejad's recent nuclear moves mean that in a sense he has stolen the 'smart power' torch." Human torch image from

Turkish foreign policy and Iran - Murat Mercan, Hurriyet Daily News: ‎"[T]he sixth and final principle of our foreign policy is to create a 'new perception of Turkey' through an increased focus on public diplomacy."

SAARC II - 16th Summit at Thimphu, Bhutan - madhavibhasin, india.foreignpolicyblogs.com: "The 16th Summit was Bhutan’s first opportunity to host a SAARC Summit. The Summit was attended by eight Heads of States from South Asia on April 28-29. The theme of the Summit was to promote a ‘Green and Happy South Asia’. ... For the first time the efficacy of public diplomacy found mention in the SAARC declaration. Public awareness about SAARC programs and initiatives is very limited in the region.

The realization that private media, think-tanks and civil society could be used to familiarize the people with regional initiatives is a welcome move." Image from

UK Foreign Office Secret Opinion: It’s OK to Gather Evidence Through Torture - Jeff Kaye, seminal.firedoglake.com: "Craig Murray, the UK’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, has posted at his blog copies he received of telegrams he obtained via Freedom of Information Act. As part of his official duties as ambassador, he had sent these telegrams to the Labor government of Tony Blair in 2003, describing the use of torture in the production of UK intelligence. As Murray reminds us, he was 'smeared and sacked' for daring 'to apply simply the most basic of humane standards.' Comment by earlofhuntingdon May 5th, 2010 at 6:47 pm: The sweet, necessary words of public diplomacy aside, we are battling everyone for commodity resources in a part of the world chock full of them, and chock full of failed, near-failed states and small ones easily influenced by the resources of the largest states.

Public Diplomacy. So What? – Lena, Global Choas: "Public diplomacy, if carried out and/or coordinated properly, can indeed provide the space where dialogue takes place not just between governments, but also between people (and yes, I still to cling to the idea that all problems stem, at their root, from miscommunication of one sort or another).

A good public diplomacy requires an 'in awareness' approach ... that is culturally sensitive and cognizant. It also needs to accept the idea of mutuality and the absolute need for a reciprocal 'communication flow'; otherwise, it might, indeed, border propaganda." Image from

G, E - The New Diplomacy 2010: A Reflective Group Blog by Some of the Students on the New Diplomacy Module at London Metropolitan University

RELATED TIEMS

CIA drones have broader list of targets:The agency since 2008 has been secretly allowed to kill unnamed suspects in Pakistan - David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times, latimes.com: The CIA received secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, including suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan's border region, according to current and former counter-terrorism officials. The expanded authority, approved two years ago by the Bush administration and continued by President Obama, permits the agency to rely on what officials describe as "pattern of life" analysis, using evidence collected by surveillance cameras on the unmanned aircraft and from other sources about individuals and locations.

Twitter archive at Library of Congress could help redefine history's scope - Monica Hesse, Washington Post : When the Library of Congress announced this month that it had recently acquired Twitter's entire archive of public tweets, the snarkosphere quickly broke out the popular refrain "Nobody cares that you just watched 'Lost.' " Television tweets are always the shorthand by which naysayers express how idiotic they find Twitter, the microblogging site on which millions of users share their thoughts and activities in 140 characters or fewer. "If tweets are in, how about craigslist.org postings?" one poster wrote on the library's blog in response to the announcement. Because "all of that information is just as culturally vacant."

The purview of historians has always been the tangible: letters, journals, official documents. The purview of Twitter, on the other hand, is the ephemeral: random spewings that some argue represent the degeneration of society. Would a Founding Father ever have tweeted his crush on Evangeline Lilly? But on the other hand, says Michael Beschloss, historian and author of "Presidential Courage," "What historian today wouldn't give his right arm to have the adult Madison's contemporaneous Twitters about the secret debates inside the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia?" Image from