May 19-May 20

"When you say anything in secret, speak as if you were speaking to the whole world."

--From Thoughts of St. Ignatius of Loyola for Every Day of the Year; image from

NEW REPORT:

America’s Extended Hand: Assessing the Obama Administration’s Global Engagement Strategy - Kristin M. Lord and Marc Lynch, Center for a New American Security

BELOW IMAGES

If Movie Universes Had Propaganda Posters - CRACKED Readers

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

A Stalking Horse for Privatization? The US Pavilion Meets the IRS - Bob Jacobson, Huffington Post: "A lot of people have been thinking about the US Pavilion of late. It's not much to look at, but what it signifies is one of the more important issues confronting our fiscally stressed nation: the move to privatize public diplomacy, the other tool besides war that we use to establish our place in the world. The pavilion may even signify a larger step, toward a wholly private government. ... An examination of papers filed by SE 2010 in 2009 with the IRS, in support of its application for tax-exempt status, reveals that despite its surface appearances, the US Pavilion project was planned from the beginning as a commercial real-estate and advertising brokerage that ill deserves its tax exemption, expedited by an less than careful IRS inspector, or its role at the Expo. No wonder the US Pavilion resembles a shopping mall: it is a shopping mall. ... A strong public diplomacy capability is America's most important tool for making its case on the world stage. If it is compromised serving private interests, it cannot do its job and we are more vulnerable to those who despise us."

Meeting of U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Sub-Working Group on Culture: Office of the Spokesman [U.S. State Department] Washington, DC May 19, 2010 - press release, Article Ant: "Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale will host a series of meetings and events May 19 and 20 as part of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Cultural Sub-Working Group.

The delegation of Russian cultural leaders will be led by Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Golutva. Under Secretary McHale will be joined by representatives from the American private sector and cultural organizations. The two sides will meet at the Department of State to discuss recent progress and ways to improve cooperation in the areas of visual arts, performing arts, film, literature, and more. The Cultural Sub-Working Group is part of the Education, Culture, Sports and Media Working Group chaired by Under Secretary McHale and Special Envoy of the Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy."

They Will Only Bark - Minding Russia: "The State Department is about to send a delegation organized by Michael McFaul, special assistant to Obama and senior director for Russian affairs at the National Security Council and Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to Russia to discuss prisons and migration. ... The problem isn't just Posner raising the Arizona immigration law in a human rights discussion with the Chinese -- as if you put pressure on a state's law you don't like by getting Communist world leaders who preside over the torture of their minorities like the Tibetans and Uighurs to pretend you have a common cause. This is part of a larger, crafted policy whereby American officials are supposed to listen and learn and set a good example, and only talk about our own shortcomings. ... In Kyrgyzstan, torturously, McFaul has developed a dual-track position -- but it came very late in the tumultous events there, and is still packaged as a 'we won't tell you how to do things we'll just set an example' approach that overlooks the vital role of public diplomacy in support of basic human rights principles."

"The era of one-way broadcasting is dying" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Even before the internet, the best international broadcasting made use of feedback, input, and news tips from listeners, usually sent by airmail, sometimes by telephone.

Even if the State Department could read and amalgamate the input of millions of twitterers, as a general rule those tweets will not make US policy. The policymakers will make the policies. Those policies will be announced to the world as a one-way 'broadcast.'"

Soapbox Derby - Laura McGinnis, manIC: "U.S. public diplomacy resources are diverse and well established, including tools such as exchange programs, information and broadcasting bodies, cultural exhibits and social media outreach. However, these programs have historically been underfunded except for periods when the United States felt itself to be threatened by some foreign menace. The difficulties arising from low funding have been compounded in recent years by the dissolution of USIA and the lack of a clear coordinating body for public diplomacy activities. In addition, many public diplomacy programs are unidirectional, demonstrating greater adeptness at sharing information than gathering it from other countries. Any strategic plan for public diplomacy must acknowledge these shortcomings and the fact that information and communication technologies are making rapid, inexpensive, broad-scale communication easier every day. Therefore, the Office's [The Office of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs] implementation of the new public diplomacy strategy must be coordinated and well funded, and its programs must emphasize listening to and collaborating with foreign publics."

Robin Hood: the "medieval tea party"? – Lena, Global Chaos: "Encouraging and promoting the screening of movies like Robin Hood (2010) - be it at American Corners, IRCs, or even universities (original or dubbed) - will only benefit the work of any American (and/or British) PAO/public diplomat.

Although it can be 'just' another movie based on a medieval legend that comes way before anyone in Europe even knew the American continent existed (or so the story goes), it can speak to the hearts of many."

Smith-Mundt Alert: USC magazine cites VOA – Matt Armstrong, Mountainrunner.us: "[S]hould we act like rational adults and take a step back and realize that the Smith-Mundt Act, as amended in the Cold War of the 1970s and 1980s,

an era far removed from today, requires updating? The Act should permit commercial and private media, academia, and Congress to, at its discretion, disseminate domestically content produced and distributed with American tax dollars and in the name of American taxpayers."

UN Peacekeeping as Public Diplomacy - Matt Armstrong, Mountainrunner.us: "Certain countries, China in particular but also potentially Brazil and India, are increasingly leveraging UN peacekeeping as an opportunity to engage local populations to further national interests."

Edelstein: Chomsky – Brilliant Scientist, Weak on Morals - Yoni Kempinski, Arutz Sheva: "MK

Yuli Edelstein, minister of Diaspora affairs and Public Diplomacy, said he 'despises' what ultra-leftist MIT professor Noam Chomsky says and thinks and that Chomsky has 'no moral grounds.'"

Ottawa: ‘Pride Toronto’ and Israel - Rehmat's World: "The CPCCA [Irwin Cotler’s Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism ]and the Israel lobby groups that surround it have taken the charge of anti-semitism to new and exaggerated heights, inventing what has been termed: 'the new anti-semitism.' Aside from the fact that it sounds like a new and better hair product, its roots can be located in the Brand Israel campaign launched by the Israeli government’s Hasbara department, that is, the foreign ministry’s public diplomacy department. The modern incarnation of Hasbara, which literally translates as 'information,' came out of the 1992 Israel government’s sweeping changes to the foreign ministry’s publicity department, when it was merged with the press department. Hasbara’s main focus was now on media communications and on presenting positive images of Israel abroad. This also parlayed its way into the creation of organizations such as 'Hasbara Fellowships' which have sent thousands of American university students to Israel to learn how to become effective pro-Israel activists back on their home campuses. But what is the message of Hasbara, hence that of Israel’s foreign ministry, and of all Israel lobby groups, including those here in Canada such as the B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress, Hillel chapters (on college and university campuses), etc.? At its core, Hasbara functions from an ideology rooted in the right wing of the Israeli government."

Brand India can learn from Swiss watchmakers - replica watches: "A nation’s brand equity is to do with the strength of perceptions about its economic prowess, political stability, leadership, democracy, governance, justice, poverty, culture, the environment, and so on. It is heavily influenced by government policies and public diplomacy; not by advertising and promotion.

When a brand possesses strong equity, the result is usually higher brand value, which is the monetary value attributed to a brand. The strength of brand equity is the reason many of the world’s top corporate brands have valuations that are worth multiples of the value of their net tangible assets. For a nation, a strong image is likely to be accompanied by strong economic fundamentals, including GDP, per capita income and so on. ... The Indian government’s mandate of multi-dimensional change brings with it a massive set of expectations from national stakeholders and global investors. As with any strategic brand plan, disciplined implementation and management of that strategy is essential to ensure there are no gaps between campaign rhetoric and delivery of those promises."

Where the UAE trains its diplomats - Melanie Swan, National: "Twenty-two students are studying a dedicated master’s course at Zayed University, the first of its kind in the region and one which the students hope will be the foundation for a career in the higher echelons of diplomatic relations. Launched last year, the course was set up following a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for staff to be trained at home rather than being sent to foreign institutions, with classes tailored to the needs of an Emirati diplomatic corps. ... They study 10 courses of six weeks per topic, a combination of compulsory and optional courses ranging from the international political economy to public diplomacy and history, immigration and international law."

Commission needs time to finalize modalities: CR - Sandun A. Jayasekera, Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka: "Former Attorney General C.R. De Silva who heads the eight-member Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission said yesterday that as there were several formalities to be attended to it would take a few more weeks before the Commission began its work proper. ...

Meanwhile, the United States yesterday welcomed the setting up of the Commission and said it was looking forward to the Commission’s report once the sittings were concluded. US embassy’s public diplomacy director Geoffrey Anderson said the US State Department and the US ambassador to the UN had issued two statements last week underlining the position of the US government on the appointment of the Commission and added that it was a welcome move."

American alleges wife abducted their son in Freeport - Krystel Rolle, Nassau Guardian: "An American man is accusing his Bahamian wife of abducting their son, who he reportedly has not seen for nearly a year. ... According to the Associated Press, Byron Nelson traveled to Freeport with his wife and baby on vacation in July 2009. However, when he returned to his hometown of Montana, his wife and child did not. ... The embassy's Political Economic Public Diplomacy Chief Jeff Dubel told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that he could not reveal the specifics about Nelson's case."

NATO - wphillip, Georgia Gwinnett College Study Abroad Europe:

"Nato, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was an exellent visit. There were two speakers who were both Americans that had separate jobs for NATO. First was James Thomas Snyder, who works with the Public Diplomacy Division. He discussed the many important fronts that NATO is helping out."

A Little Down, But Not Out: To emcee trivia night at a small bar, did I really need a graduate degree in international affairs? - Matthew Marks, Forbes: "When I got out of school, I taught Spanish at a private school in upstate New York, then flirted with the idea of becoming a lawyer, working for two years at a large and prestigious law firm in Manhattan as a litigation paralegal. Once I realized that law was not for me, I turned back to academia, enrolling in some continuing education courses at NYU, including a class in public diplomacy and one in Spanish translation of current events. ... After two years at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs--where I earned a 3.94 GPA, suffered through some horrifically apathetic adjunct professors, and worked as an intern in a policy think tank--I graduated for a second time in my life with an overwhelming sense of not knowing where to go or what to do next. ... In my second year of graduate school I grew disillusioned with job prospects and frustrated with extremely low-paying internships. While still a student I decided to work part-time in a high-end D.C. restaurant. ... Matthew Marks graduated in 2008 with an M.A. in international affairs from George Washington University, and lives with his fiancée in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is still looking for full-time work."

RELATED ITEMS

Minds on the Move - James K. Glassman, Wall Street Journal - Ben Wildavsky, the author of "The Great Brain Race," says the globalization of education is producing what he calls a "free trade in minds"—beneficial not only to countries sending their students abroad and countries accepting them but also, through positive externalities, to the broader world.

Some nations, including India and Russia, continue to see education as a zero-sum game and erect barriers to the free flow of students and scholars—much as they put up tariffs against foreign steel. Even the University of Tennessee once established a quota on foreign graduate students (since dropped). But like free trade in conventional goods and services, free trade in minds helps everyone. Mr. Glassman, a former under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, is executive director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

State Department warnings take nanny-ish feel - Lionel Beehner, USA Today:

“As a travel writer, I have encountered countless tourism officials abroad who roll their eyes at the mere mention of the State Department's travel warnings. The upshot of this list is to never leave the confines of your Marriott suite and never intermix with any locals other than bellhops. After all, there are pickpockets, scammers, greedy cab drivers or worse lurking about.”

Bloggingheads: Visas for Sale? – New York Yimes: Dayo Olopade and Noah Millman debate whether the government should auction off H1-B visas.

15 Reasons Why We Can't Win in Afghanistan – Benjamin Barber, Huffington Post.

See also a critique of Barber’s article: Why We Must Not Leave Afghanistan Yet - Melissa Roddy, Huffington Post

Talking won't work with North Korea: Vietnam ousted the murderous Khmer Rouge by force; expecting peaceful change in North Korea is folly - Donald Kirk, latimes.com

Fog Foils Plan to Float Propaganda Leaflets to N.Korea – The Chosun Ilbo: Activists failed Thursday to carry out a plan to float 500,000 propaganda leaflets to North Korea from the site where the Navy corvette Cheonan sank on March 26 off Baeknyeong Island.

Choi Sung-yong, the leader of the Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea, said severe fog led to the cancelation of a ferry that was supposed to leave Incheon for Baeknyeong Island.

The Courage of Russia’s Journalists – Editorial, New York Times: If President Dmitri Medvedev really wants to combat corruption, he can start by pursuing and prosecuting those who are trying to silence Russia’s independent journalists.