September 12

"Public diplomacy is like Inception when you are awake."

--PD luminary Paul Rockower, Levantine; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

RFE/RL: Iranian blogger criticizes Iranian bloggers - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Radio Sawa's question of the week gives Iraqis an opportunity to scoff - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Domingo 12 de septiembre de 2010: La gran impostura (III) - Consciencia-Verdad: "[D]esde 1948, el Departamento de Estado dispone de un servicio de propaganda llamado pudorosamente Public Diplomacy.

Esta línea presupuestaria se utiliza para sobornar a líderes de opinión (periodistas, intelectuales, dirigentes políticos) de países amigos. Desplazando esta actividad del Departamento de Estado al Departamento de Defensa, la administración Bush pretendía ampliar el campo de actividades de los servicios de propaganda a la población norteamericana en violación del Foreign Relations Authorizations Act de 1972." Image from

Soft Power: Taiwan's Public Diplomacy II - Jonathan, Hear in Taiwan: "Continuing my look at Taiwan’s public diplomacy, this week I talk to Professor Gary Rawnsley of the University of Leeds in the UK. Prof Rawnsley teaches courses on the media and democratisation in Asia. He has published widely on areas of international communications, propaganda, public diplomacy and information warfare, and has also observed and written about every major Taiwan election campaign since 1996. Check out our interview on this week’s ‘Soft Power’ here."

Baku-Yerevan Cab Music Experiment - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "This short movie [see video in entry]

was made by young Armenian and Azeri journalists, as a part of a project by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation supported by the British Embassies in Baku and Yerevan. ... Essentially it represents the same stereotypes held by each side about 'the other' the cab drivers in respective cities play the other's music and try to start a conversation with those inside, while secretly recording their reactions. ... I should ... commend the British Foreign Office and specifically the Eurasia Foundation for supporting this initiative. This is, indeed, a great way of enhancing their public diplomacy in the region, even if indirectly." Image from

'China needs US style of media campaign to improve image'‎ - Indian Express: "Beijing should come out of its shell and step up public diplomacy to counter perceptions of a 'China threat', a top diplomat said here while advocating for aggressive American-style of media campaign to improve its image abroad. 'While China has made progress in communicating with foreign political sectors, it lacks experience in handling relations with the media and the public in foreign countries,' Vice-Foreign Minister Fu Ying said addressing the 2010 International Forum on Public Diplomacy here. China needs adequate public diplomacy to effectively present its image to other countries which are now more interested in its story but lack thorough understanding of the country, Fu, a Mongol by origin and one of the few women ministers in the country, said. While the world's impression on China has been quite one-sided, either playing up a 'China threat' while talking about its development or a 'China collapse' in terms of the country's difficulties, the prejudice is mainly because of lack of information, Fu was quoted in the official media here." See also

The perils of letting China dictate the terms of the debate - The Economist: "Consider the celebration of September 8th, the day bestowed on Britain by the organisers of the Shanghai World Expo as 'UK National Day'. The festivities were to have included a short new ballet, 'The Far Shore', based loosely on the folk tale that inspired 'Swan Lake'.

Then it emerged that the composer, Pete Wyer, had dedicated his score to 'the people of Tibet for speaking the truth, [and] protecting their cultural identity, despite the dangers they face.' In response, the English National Ballet, who were to dance with the Shanghai Ballet, and the British Council, the arm of cultural diplomacy that had organised the gala, cancelled the performance. They expressed regret that it had become “a political vehicle” and hence 'not appropriate'." Miss Tibet 2004 image from

RELATED ITEMS

A dubious battle for Afghan hearts and minds - David Ignatius, Washington Post: A visitor to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan sees lots of PowerPoint slides that purport to show progress is being made, despite setbacks. But two studies deepened my worries that the current strategy, without adjustments, will not achieve its goal of transferring responsibility to the Afghan government starting next July. Afghanistan is so precarious that Karzai apparently assumes the United States has no alternative but to stick with him.

High-level doubts on Afghanistan: Former officials who once supported the war are now questioning it's worth the cost - Doyle McManus,latimes.com: Last week, a group of 46 foreign policy experts issued a joint report arguing that the goal of building a unified, stable Afghanistan is beyond the ability of the United States, and unnecessary to boot.

The panel, the Afghanistan Study Group, included both longtime critics of the war and some who supported U.S. policy until recently. Image from

War Games - Chris Suellentrop, New York Times: Unless you regard something like “Iron Man” as a film about Afghanistan, the movies inspired by America’s contemporary wars have consistently been box-office flops. Even “The Hurt Locker” grossed only $16 million in theaters. Video games that evoke our current conflicts, on the other hand, are blockbusters — during the past three years, they have become the most popular fictional depictions of America’s current wars.

One week inside the Haystack - Evgeny Morozov, Foreign Policy:

Are journalists so caught up in the cyber-utopian myths around Iran's Twitter Revolution that they refuse to critically examine its proponents? Or is it because the subject matter is too complex for them to scrutinize the claims made by technologists? Most likely, both have played a role. If the US government is serious about all this “21st century statecraft” business, they should start funding conferences/trainings/events aimed at educating the journalists about how to write about such stuff. Monet image from

Just who are these Muslims? Talk about making something out of nothing. The right-wing propaganda machine has done it with their attacks on the planned New York City Islamic cultural center in Manhattan - Gerald B. Jacobs, inforum.com: Who are these Muslims that right-wingers claim are insensitive to 9/11 families, including American Muslims who died or otherwise suffered? Well, if the ethnic or racial background of local mosque members are somewhat like Muslims in the rest of the country, about 25 percent would be African-Americans (perhaps individuals like Muhammad Ali, boxer, born Cassius Clay; or Kareem Abdul Jabbar, basketball star, born Lew Alcindor; or Ahmad Rashad, Vikings receiver and sportscaster, born Bobby Moore). Another 25 percent would be of Arab descent (perhaps originating from Iraq, Palestine, Jordan or Saudi Arabia). South Asians might comprise another 25 percent (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.). The other 25 percent of mosque members would trace their origins elsewhere.

China’s Latest Propaganda Ploy: The Tibet Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo - The so-called ‘Heaven In Tibet’ Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo is China’s latest propaganda ploy

against Tibetan culture and society. Last week a protest against the Expo by Students For A Free Tibet projected images of jailed Tibetan artists, writers, musicians against the walls of the Chinese Consulate in New York City. Image from

Negative propaganda and its devastating effects on Africa’s development - Ahmed M Kamara, Newstime Africa: Opposition parties in Africa, with desperation to assume power, have often used the media to deliver negative propaganda about governments in power. All in an effort to unseat them. Sierra Leone offers a unique example of this dilemma we face as a continent. But the opposition inspired media in the country set out and embarked on a mission of misinformation and fabricated lies, and even went to the extent of referring to the Head of State as corrupt, with bold and pronounced headlines making their way to the already infested internet playground.

The softest of soft power: Farsi1 attracts viewers in Iran with its all-entertainment format (updated) - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Networking [review of ZERO HISTORY By William Gibson] - Scarlett Thomas, New York Times: The “Matrix” films, which were partly inspired by Gibson’s early work, proposed the idea that it would be impossible for humans to tell the difference between fiction and reality if one resembled the other to the point of a perfect simulacrum. Of course, in those films, humans saw “glitches” in the Matrix: patterns that existed because the world wasn’t simply random but had been programmed. Among other things, Gibson’s

recent fiction explores the idea that our world now is also programmed, in the sense that most of it is encoded as “information” in zeroes and ones, and therefore has patterns and glitches of its own. The logical machine that will encode the world is already here, but it doesn’t send bots to fly around shooting at people as it does in the films. Instead, it emotionlessly captures every Google search, every product anyone buys on eBay and, disturbingly, every recorded image of people walking around public places. Gibson image from article

Persuasion, Propaganda, and Public Relations - Don Waisanen, thickculure: "If you’ve never had a chance to hear how the public relations industry in this country began, and how we got to where we’re at (e.g. much of modern “news” reporting is simply paid-for advertising by PR companies), take a look at what I believe is one of the very best presentations on the subject. In 'The Century of Self,' Adam Curtis illustrates how the American father of PR, Edward Bernays, employed his uncle Sigmund Freud’s ideas in the US in the 1920s to change the way decisions are wrought at all levels of society. It’s one of the few times you’ll hear about the idea of 'the mass-manipulation of public opinion' that is actually informed by a great deal of research and historical standing rather than self-satisfying, conspiratorial assertion. The series also speaks much to the nature of non-obvious propaganda that infuses American discussions of lifestyle, war rhetoric, etc. All four-parts of the riveting series can be watched immediately via Google Video. The Century of Self, Part 1."

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“The reason I don’t live in Israel is that there are no Nazis or anti-Semites there.”

--Simon Wiesenthal, the legendary Nazi hunter; image from