November 22

"Homer is new this morning and perhaps nothing is as old as today's newspaper."

--The French poet Charles Péguy (1873 – 1914); Péguy image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Leadership and Public Diplomacy - Kenneth Hacker, Nationalsec's Blog: "It will take strong leadership to move from old public diplomacy to new public diplomacy.

The old sacred and grand narratives that worked for World War II and the Cold War fell flat the Vietnam every conflict since. President Obama must appoint people who can move things into a new diplomacy paradigm. Continuing the strategic influence framing of the previous administration will replicate the mistakes of the past." Image from

US Initiated Talks An Agenda for Peace without Justice - Arshi Khan, radianceweekly.com: "The Palestinians are occupied, enslaved and fortified. Israel is their self-imposed post-Colonial master. There is no equation factor between Israeli State and Palestinian National Authority. It is like a Rambo with bombs and guns in his hands on the one side and a weak and lame young man on the other. So the situation is not conducive to any type of settlement unless the mediator overpowers the Rambo or asks him to follow the command and not the request or smiles. This kind of US initiative is not a solution package but a part of public diplomacy to show its sincerity in settlement so that it could win more favours on the issue of Iran nuclear policy. The US has reiterated that it would encourage the peace partners and would not force any solution. ... So far the US has no roadmap for a viable Palestinian State."

No Quick Fixes for Internet Freedom: The hard work to promote free speech online has barely begun - Rebecca MacKinnon, Wall Street Journal: "[I]n Washington, a battle is raging over funding for organizations and projects supporting 'Internet freedom.' Like many Washington fights, this one makes it harder for the U.S. government to help real people with real problems. ... Since 2007, Congress has inserted a total of $50 million of earmarks into the State Department's budget to fund organizations dedicated to fighting Internet censorship. One group that has been lobbying hard for the money is the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, run mainly by practitioners of the Falun Gong, a religious sect banned in China. The GIFC has produced a suite of circumvention tools that work well, as long as the user doesn't mind that GIFC engineers

can see their unencrypted communications, or that the security of the tool has not been vetted by independent experts. ... The State Department has come under fire in the Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times for failing to support GIFC. And it's true that of the $20 million already allocated, most went to other groups that are less radioactive as far as U.S.-China relations are concerned. Some of these groups work to help activists with training and security against surveillance, cyber-attacks and other threats, in addition to circumventing censorship. In August, $1.5 million out of $5 million available for 2009 was finally awarded by the State Department to the GIFC via the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The bidding process for a remaining $30 million is expected to start soon. With the mid-term elections now finished, we can look forward to a new surge in the war over who gets to be hero of the fairy tale 'Toppling the Iron Curtain 2.0.'" Via; image from

Romania presents Oradea HUMINT Centre in NATO public diplomacy campaign - isria.com: "Romania participates in NATO’s public diplomacy campaign – 'What NATO means for us' – with a video that presents the NATO HUMINT Centre of Excellence in Oradea and highlights one of Romania’s major contributions to the Alliance. 'To communicate by public diplomacy actions means taking into account first of all the citizens’ interests. We welcomed NATO’s initiative and have immediately come up with a positive response, as we are convinced the diplomacy actions whereby we let everyone know how Romania contributes to NATO support all the other activities of promoting Romania,' said the MFA Director General for Communication, Doris Mircea. ...


The setting up of the NATO HUMINT Centre of Excellence in Romania provides another opportunity for enhancing the visibility of Romania within the North Atlantic Alliance." Image from

European Music Festival to brings colorful concerts to Hanoi and HCM City - saigon-gpdaily.com.vn: "The European Music Festival 2010 will bring colorful concerts to the audience in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from November 26 through December 4. The festival which will be held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is a part of the cerebrations of the 20th anniversary of the European and Vietnam relations

and an excellent example of important public diplomacy exchanges in the EU and Vietnam relationship." Image from article: Germany Jazz band Thärichens Tentett
RELATED ITEMS

Obama's foreign policy needs an update - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post:


So has nothing changed in the past quarter-century? In fact, almost everything has - especially when it comes to nuclear arms control and Israel's national objectives. What hasn't changed, it seems, is Barack Obama - who has led his administration into a foreign policy time warp that is sapping its strength abroad and at home.This administration is notable for its lack of grand strategy - or strategists. Its top foreign-policy makers are a former senator, a Washington lawyer and a former Senate staffer. There is no Henry Kissinger, no Zbigniew Brzezinski, no Condoleezza Rice; no foreign policy scholar. [On Rice being a foreign policy "scholar," see John Brown, "10 Percent Intellectual": The Mind of Condoleezza Rice" "Too Parochial for Empire: The Bush Administration Conquers Washington."] Image from

In China's Orbit: After 500 years of Western predominance, Niall Ferguson argues, the world is tilting back to the East - Wall Street Journal: Coming to terms with a new global order was hard enough after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which went to the heads of many Western commentators. (Who now remembers talk of American hyperpuissance without a wince?) But the Cold War lasted little more than four decades, and the Soviet Union never came close to overtaking the U.S. economically. What we are living through now is the end of 500 years of Western predominance. This time the Eastern challenger is for real, both economically and geopolitically. Via LB.

North Korea Nuclear Revelation Surprises South - Mark McDonald, New York Times: On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan downplayed the newly operational facility, saying, “It’s nothing new.” But some political analysts in Seoul were alarmed at an apparent lapse in intelligence gathering by United States and South Korean agencies. “These are supposedly the best and brightest guys and they’re making such stupid mistakes,” said Moon Chung-in, a professor of political science at Yonsei University in Seoul.


“Intelligence agencies in South Korea and the U.S. haven’t even been paying attention to official announcements from North Korea,” said Mr. Moon. “There was no reaction from Washington and Seoul. They just said it was North Korea bluffing or for propaganda purposes. It’s weird. It’s surreal.” Image from

ABC admits it’s a propaganda arm of the government - joannenova.com.au: What Mark Scott admitted as the managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was really what everyone knew anyway: the ABC aims to please the gatekeepers of the pay-checks (which is, after all exactly what we’d expect from most organizations in the long run). What makes it telling is that he could forget that he’s never supposed to admit this. I mean, they promote themselves in ads as “our ABC”. It’s supposed to serve the people, not the government. The key problem is that although the people pay for the ABC, they don’t hold the purse strings. And to some extent, the people, don’t really try to either. We get what we are willing to put up with. How could we expect the ABC to do anything other than softly pander to government tastes when the government is the gatekeeper for public money and both institutions live off public largess? If anyone knows of a publicly funded major broadcaster with a different funding model (other than solely through the government) please share that example in the comments.

Art Gallery of Victoria to show off Communist Paradise - Tom Hawthorn, theglobeandmail.com: You don’t have to be proletarian to appreciate Communist Paradise, a show based on the collections of a curator and a professor at the University of Victoria.


The posters depict prosperity for peasants and achievement for workers, all under the beneficent protection of soldiers. “It’s an image of an ideal world,” said Richard King, an associate professor in the Pacific and Asian studies department. “It’s an image of a world that never quite was, but that was supposed to be. An image of a world of abundance, of unity, of loyalty, of achievement. “This is a picture of socialism as it ought to have been.” Image from article

Man Hunt and Fritz Lang’s dance with propaganda - Bill, piddleville.com: If ever there was a director who knew something about what Hitler and the Nazis meant, it was Fritz Lang, who left Germany and his career there because of them.


As it is, he made Man Hunt and within it we see a very cold and brutal portrayal of what the Nazis were and represented. There is the abrupt ending with its patriotic trumpeting. It is understandable – the movie is a wartime propaganda product – but jarring.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Why were Roman sailors wicked? Because they were nautae."

--The answer to the above question known by 19th century educated English people

AMERICANA

Bras and other clues on the economy can be found at mall - USA Today: Attention armchair economists: You don't need spreadsheets to get a handle on how this year's holiday shopping season is going. Just keep an eye on sales of push-up bras. You read that right. Retail analyst John Morris says that if we see brisk sales of the "Miraculous" bras at Victoria's Secret, it could be a good indicator of two important economic trends.— If women buy these high-priced bras, they're probably willing to buy other things for themselves, too.


A KISS IS JUST A KISS


Former President George W. Bush, right, kisses former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the ground breaking ceremony for the President George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/LM Otero); from Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog, with comment: "Last week I showed a picture (with no comment; I knew all of you would fill the gap) of cadaverous, horrifying Dick Cheney at the ground breaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Propaganda Presidential Center at SMU. It was frightening! ... How could I have missed this rapturous, awful kiss [above]? And of course Condi was there. She was one of the shovel wielders!"

MORE AMERICANA



From: Welcome to Abu Ghraib TSA Airport, Everywhere USA