January 17

"The biggest breakthrough has been transforming 'international propaganda' into 'professional communication.'"

--Shi Anbin, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, regarding China's national project of image building and promotion since 2008 Olympic Games; Anbin image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Conducting Documentary Diplomacy - John Anderson, New York Times: "Propaganda is not what it used to be. As it enters its third round of bringing nonfiction American films to underserved foreign audiences, the American Documentary Showcase, a project of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has been full of surprises — some for the audiences, some for the filmmakers. ... The showcase might go about airing our dirty linen in the world’s backyard, so to speak, but the subtext is American freedom of expression. The strategy epitomizes the co-option/attraction technique of the kind of 'soft diplomacy' embraced even during the late innings of the Bush administration. (The first showcase grant, for $400,000, were made in 2008, although its first slate of films toured in 2009; the program is currently budgeted at $600,000.)


According to the State Department the showcase epitomizes Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s devotion to 'smart power,' or the pursuit of foreign-policy goals via whatever tools one has at hand, including the arts. The program — an echo of cold war efforts like Radio Free Europe, which courted Soviet satellite nations with American culture — is a more subtle strategy than one might ordinarily credit to a monolithic entity like the State Department. But 'occasionally government bureaucracy can do something right,' Maura Pally, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, said with a laugh. The engagement has had payoffs. 'We’re actually changing lives out there,' said Betsy McLane, the project director for the showcase and a former president of the University Film & Video Association, which administers the program for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs." Image from article: "Welcome to Shelbyville,” one of the films in the American Documentary Showcase, a State Department program. Via; see also John Brown, "Smart Power In, Public Diplomacy Out?," Notes and Essays.

Playing with words we don't know their meanings - Faizullah Jan, Terse Words: "Daily Dawn of Pakistan in one of its editorials on January 14 says: ... . 'Public diplomacy by its very nature is always soft. Because the aim of public diplomacy is to get people of other countries do what you want them to do without threat or coercion. For public diplomacy governments normally use channels other than diplomacy per se. Like Voice of American (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Liberty Radio(RFL) etc are tools of public diplomacy the United States have been using to promote a soft image of itself. Public diplomacy depends on soft power instead of stern or hard power.['] We should be careful in using words which have a large baggage of meanings behind them."

RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal marks one year of doing the much the same that VOA's Deewa Radio has been doing for four years - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "RFE/RL press release, 12 Jan 2011: 'This week, RFE's Radio Mashaal


marks the first anniversary of the launch of its Pashto-language broadcasts in Pakistan's Pashtun heartland. ... On a recent broadcast of one of the stations' most popular call-in shows, 'War Stories,' a widow from the Swat Valley recounted the story of a 14-hour Taliban attack on her house that killed her husband and son. Another popular Radio Mashaal program is airing a weekly series profiling Pashtun tribal elders who have been killed by the Taliban. The targeting of elders, who form the backbone of Pashtun society in places with little or no government presence, is an underreported tactic the Taliban has been employing for nearly a decade. ... Radio Mashaal and VOA's Radio Deewa each broadcast nine hours a day on a shared AM frequency. They produce programs on news, politics, culture, women's issues, and music.' [Elliott comment:] VOA's Deewa Radio was created in 2006 to broadcast much the same information to the same region in the same language. It was forced upon US international broadcasting by a rider to a Defense appropriations bill, in a process apparently impervious to the existence of VOA Deewa Radio. So while the BBG did not create Radio Mashaal, the co-existence of it and Deewa Radio


helps solidify the BBG as the poster-bureaucracy of budget-and-resource-sapping duplication. See previous post (19 Sept 2009): 'And, so, in one of the most difficult parts of the world to get news out of, and one of the most difficult to transmit news back into, in one of the most difficult language groups from which to recruit journalists, US international broadcasting will be dividing it resources between two stations whose efforts will largely overlap. No wonder the United States is being 'out communicated.''" Images: Radio Mashaal Logo; Radio Deewa

Fake feminism NATO-style‎ - David Cronin, New Europe: "Back in 2002, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy brilliantly satirised the official excuses for the invasion of Afghanistan. 'It’s being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas,' she said. 'We are being asked to believe that the US marines are actually on a feminist mission.' The effort to rebrand militarism as compassionate and motherly continues today in NATO’s Brussels headquarters. Stefanie Babst, a senior official in the alliance working on 'public diplomacy' (a synonym for propaganda), keeps busy trying to raise the profile of a decade-old United Nations Security Council Resolution on gender, peace and security.


It is 'extremely encouraging' that NATO is committed to this resolution – number 1325 in case you were wondering – and its call that women and children be shielded from violence during armed conflicts, Babst has declared. Can it really be the case that NATO is sparing women from the horrors of the war it is waging in Afghanistan? Of course, it can’t. ... NATO’s attempts to master the dark arts of spin cannot be allowed to conceal the brazen opportunism of the alliance. ... It is about time that journalists grew more sceptical than we have been towards the whole industry of think tanks and self-appointed experts in Brussels and Washington who praise NATO at every available opportunity." Image from article: Afghan women buy jewelery at a roadside in Herat.

China and India and the transition of regional power - Peter Drysdale, eastasiaforum.org: "Through 2005 to 2007, diplomatic flirtation with the idea that a new quadrilateral alliance in Asia and the Pacific centred on India’s anchor role, with the United States, Japan and Australia, in a soft, ‘values-based’ containment initiative (Quad Initiative) directed at its strategic encirclement of China blossomed briefly and faded from public view. ... Come the troubles with China of 2010, mutations of Quad-type thinking came out of the closet once more, not in public diplomacy but privately, pushing the idea at the margins of circles of influence in India and in the putative Quad constituency. It remains, active, purposeful, but below the radar.


But India, and China, not unexpectedly, have moved on." Image from article

The Challenge of the Asian Century - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "As the swirling currents of geopolitics continue to reshape the international order, the challenge I see most immediate for the Asian Century that is upon us is that of keeping the two heavyweights, China and India, in a modicum of civility. Over the past half century, the relationship between the dragon and the tiger has been precarious, marked by war in 1962 and continued mistrust. China backs India's nemesis Pakistan and has been hemming it in with the String of Pearls strategy. India, in turn, has grown closer with the US and has been conducting more outreach in Southeast and East Asia (The Tiger's Tail strategy). More recently, there has been some quibbles over the status of Arunachal Pradesh, last year over google maps positioning of the border, more recently over stapled visas. Asia, and for that matter the world these days, depends on these two juggernauts getting along. They fill different roles and have vastly different talents in the rising Asian tides. Rather than see the two poles of Asian growth destroy the possibility of grand things to come, I am hoping and praying for better communications between these two titans. Install a direct link phone between Beijing and New Delhi ala the old red line phone between Washington and Moscow.


Increase bilateral public diplomacy between both states and their peoples. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was just in Delhi with a huge business contingent; that is good but there also needs to be cultural exchange not just commercial exchange. Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao gave a stellar address in Singapore on Rabindrath Tagore's vision of Indian-Chinese friendship. The more that the world's two oldest civilizations and biggest countries understand each other via public diplomacy, the better off we all are- as sayeth a member of an equally old yet far smaller tribe. PS: That Singapore was the place where Rao's speech was given was telling. I remarked in my blog earlier that Malaysia could find its PD niche in serving as an intermediary between India and China. If it doesn't act, Singapore looks poised to play that role." Image from

Wikileaks: Viewing cable 05BRASILIA2231 - orianomattei.blogspot.com: "This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available. 191755Z Aug 05 C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 002231 ... DISCUSS HAITI AND OTHER ISSUES, 19 AUGUST 2005 ... . Introduction: Ambassador, accompanied by PolCouns, met on 19 August 2005 with Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and his chief of staff, to review a range of issues (with focus on reftel Haiti demarche) and discuss the Ambassador's departure from Brazil later in the year to assume the Chief Executive Officer position at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. ... Brazil and other MINUSTAH


contingents had launched successful 'robust operations' in areas of Port-au-Prince over the past several weeks, Amorim said. ... Amorim asked to work with the USG on broad public diplomacy efforts that can increase the international and Brazilian publics' understanding and support for MINUSTAH's mission in Haiti. Noting the protests and criticism by some NGOs that followed MINUSTAH's aggressive recent actions, and the risk of 'collateral damage' to civilians inherent always in such operations, Amorim said there is a need to counter negative reactions with a strong message that focuses on the assistance and stability that MINUSTAH and the international community are trying to bring to Haiti." Image from

Spain, Jews and Israel: 25 years after formal relations - Daniel S. Mariaschin, Jerusalem Post: "In February 2007, Spain launched Casa Sefarad-Israel in Madrid to teach the public about Judaism and Jewish culture. The center also studies the Sephardi culture as 'integral' to Spanish culture, and aims to 'promote the development of the ties of friendship and cooperation between Spanish and Israeli societies.' Upon its launch, Casa Sefarad-Israel was described by Spain’s foreign minister as 'an instrument of public diplomacy.' Such a program is vital in a nation with only 40,000 Jews out of a population of nearly 46 million."

Mapping The Playbook: To Facilitate A More Collaborative Public Diplomacy - Ali Fisher, Newswire – CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Public diplomacy is an increasingly public project. The recently published Trials of Engagement; the future of US public diplomacy, edited by Ali Fisher and Scott Lucas,


examines further factors which will influence an increasingly collaborative approach to public diplomacy. It argues that to overcome the trials of engagement, public diplomacy must provide more than a rhetorical nod to a 'two-way' process. Ultimately, a collaborative public diplomacy must be built on a broad understanding of those involved, the recognition of stakeholders as peers, and effective interaction with networks made up of traditional and new interlocutors." Image from

My understanding of the diplomacy today - Monnie, The New Diplomacy G: A reflective group blog by some of the students on The New Diplomacy module at London Metropolitan University: "As a result of attending The New Diplomacy classes I understood that new diplomacy is very complex. It appears in different areas of political world and it’s used in a lot of aspects. The good example is public diplomacy or trade diplomacy."


Broader view today about Diplomacy - World Peace, The New Diplomacy E: A reflective group blog by some of the students on The New Diplomacy module at London Metropolitan University: "Democracy and protection of the human life's was difficult for the United Nations and other actors. To help countries to become democratic and international efforts frequently can make a difference. Those days were changed and the diplomacy didn’t varnish i would say but got another color. Especially to the states like USA and Soviet Union made that they aim to come with different public diplomacy. This diplomacy was shared such in clever ways. One of them was the democracy claimed from USA, and the other social country claimed from the USSR." Above image from entry

Tracy Driscoll - chinaglobalspeakers.com: Transformational Coach Tracy Driscoll draws on 18 years of professional experience in Australia and China in marketing, communications and recruiting for advertising. ... She spent 6 years heading up communications and public relations at the British Council in Beijing.


There Tracy promoted over 300 events related to arts, education, science and legal reform and trained teams nationally in branding, public relations and media interview skills. In 2003 she led communications for Think UK, the largest ever public diplomacy campaign the UK government had conducted outside the UK. Driscoll image from article

New Zealand guests love Mobile's shopping, food‎ - Greta Sharp, al.com: "Katie Boyle and David Earle met in graduate school at the University of Hawaii. They were both involved with the East-West Center, a U.S.-based organization working for public diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region. The couple married in New Zealand."

RELATED ITEMS

The U.S. and China -- mending fences: There are security and economic measures the upcoming Washington summit of the leaders of China and the U.S. can advance to reduce distrust and enhance cooperation - Kenneth Lieberthal, latimes.com: Many Chinese believe that America is a declining No. 1 that will do anything in its power to prevent China, No. 2, from catching up. There is no bilateral relationship more important than that of the U.S. and China, and the upcoming summit provides an important opportunity to put it on a better trajectory. Below image from


What the U.S. and other democracies must make clear to China - Michael J. Green and Daniel M. Kliman, Washington Post: Washington and Beijing must recognize that economic interdependence and statements of strategic reassurance are no substitutes for evidence of greater transparency and liberalism within China. This message should be delivered clearly by the White House and the State Department, with consistent demonstrations of support for human rights, media freedom, the rule of law and civil society in China.

Two-step flow of information about Tunisian unrest: 1) social media gather, 2) Al Jazeera disseminates - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Brodcasting

China should enhance its national image - Shi Anbin, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, and Zheng Yannong, deputy director of China International Public Relations Association, talk with the Guangzhou Daily about how China should enact a public relations (PR) strategy to enhance its image in the world.Shi: Soft power and hard power guarantee national image building and promotion. A lot of countries have long-term communication plans and institutions.


In the 30 years since China opened up, our soft power didn't grow as fast as our economy. The image, brand and reputation of China are still questionable. Applying a national PR strategy will be a great opportunity for China to revive after the financial crisis. Image from

A General Notice from the Central Propaganda Bureau Regarding News and Propaganda in 2011: The following notes of recent directives from the Central Propaganda Department have been leaked online by journalists and are now circulating in Chinese cyberspace - chinadigitaltimes.net

Top 3 Tools For Busting Through Firewalls: Can't access a Web site thanks to employer or government censorship? Fortunately, there's a host of tools and techniques that can help you slip through the blockade. Here's an in-depth look at three of the best - Serdar Yegulalp, InformationWeek: Governments like those in Iran or mainland China place restrictions on the Internet with software, and individuals work their ways around those restrictions with more software.


The end result is an arms race: here, a country blocks YouTube or Facebook; within days (or even hours), people inside and outside that country engineer ways to work around the block. Via; image from

NY Times swallows Hezb'allah propaganda on Israel and Lebanon - Leo Rennert, American Thinker: The Jan. 16 Sunday "Week in Review" section of the New York Times features an article by Mideast correspondent Anthony Shadid about how a dictator's fall in Tunisia points up a larger regional picture -- the instability of sclerotic, authoritarian regimes throughout the Arab world. ("In Peril: The Arab Status Quo -- A dictator's fall in Tunisia resounds in a region full of governments that don't work.") Shadid's report provides a worrisome picture of a region on the potential brink of widespread revolutions -- with unknown and perhaps dire consequences. So far so good. Shadid, however, stumbles when he deals -- or fails to deal -- with how Israel fits into this new Mideast paradigm. For starters, he still can't wean himself away from uncritically embracing Hezb'allah propaganda about the future of Lebanese-Israeli relations.

Israel Targets Free Gaza Movement with Repulsive Propaganda‎ - Michael Leon, Veterans Today Network: The Stand with Us propaganda site says the


Israeli massacre on the Mediterranean Sea last May 31st was directed at “Pirates.” Image from article

Propaganda Prevails - Justin Lyle, Russia Profile: The January 10 decision by the European Court of Hu man Rights (ECHR) to strike off more than half the cases filed against Georgia on behalf of South Ossetians and Russian Peacekeepers following the August 2008 War was made for technical rather than political reasons. The decision falls into politicized terrain, however, and all parties to the conflict have made interpretations of its political value. While the Georgian government hailed the decision as a victory and as an exposure of a short-termist Russian Propaganda tactic, the de facto Foreign Ministry of South Ossetia disputed the impartiality of the court and called its decision an attack on human rights in general. In reality, the Strasbourg Court’s decision is just one piece of fodder in an ongoing propaganda war that has infused every dimension of Tbilisi’s relations with both de facto independent South Ossetia and Moscow.

Giant screen 'suffocating' Zimbabweans with propaganda - The Zimbabwean: The presence of a giant TV screen in the centre of Harare, which broadcasts Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)


programmes and ZANU PF jingles throughout, is a strong indication that Zimbabweans have no escape from one-sided views both at home and outside, a media expert has warned. The screen is reportedly a donation from the Chinese government. Image from

Propaganda - Laura McGinnis, manIC: The fact of the matter is that people tend to seek out information that reinforces existing beliefs, and vitriol, while temporarily unpopular, still sells. In terms of international conversations, this underscores the need to listen and determine what beliefs exist in other countries as the United States attempts to start dialogues to further foreign policy goals. But it's important to remember that domestic discourse has international repercussions as well.

Rhetoric is not Responsible, but it is Certainly Irresponsible - Dennis Maley, thebradentontimes.com: The coordinated effort to alter public perception through this misuse of the media is called propaganda, and 21st century America has an army of propaganda artists that would make Joseph Goebbels a deep shade of Nazi green with envy.

Do TV Ads, Rhetoric, Political Propaganda Affect Our Psyche The Same? - Veronica Roberts, allvoices.com: Why does political campaigning in this country call for so much capital? Why are millions of dollars used to saturate the airwaves with ads? Ads can persuade, subtly sell us a certain point of view. Therefore ads work.


It’s a simple as that. Imagery, especially coupled by enticing, seductive literature and audio, works on our psyche. Companies depend on that, for it causes us to go out and buy what they have seduced us into believing we want by subtle, effective, constant, repetitive, advertising. The same thing happens with rhetoric and propaganda, peddled on a constant cycle. If we are continuously bombarded with vitriol, we tend to react, consciously or unconsciously. We don’t have to be crazy. We might not all react the same. Some of us may not re-act at all. But some will, just look at our consumer debt, and the stark statistic speaks for itself. So whether the ads are products, political propaganda or partisan pandering and ideology, the psychology behind it is the same and the effects can be far-reaching. Image from

AMERICANA


--From Princess Sparkle Pony's Photoblog