June 10

"Give reporters an apple as it is instead of vitamin C or apple jam because a real apple tastes the best and avoids the suspicion that we may add something to the pill or the jam."

--Zhou Wenzhong, former Chinese ambassador to the U.S. and minister of the State Council Information Office (from 1998 to 2005); image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Public Diplomacy Fail: In Which I Visit The Repellent U.S. Embassy In Beijing, Have Words With a State Department Employee and Learn A Possible Way To Short-Circuit The Onerous New Passport Form - Paul Karl Lukacs, The Nomad Lawyer: "The three-year-old United States Embassy in Beijing is a disgrace. Rarely have I seen a building that so aggressively wants people to stay away. A blank concrete wall is one of the most callous expressions in architecture, and the embassy has plenty.

From street level, the compound – which consumes one of Beijing’s massive Stalinist blocks – is all reinforced barriers and security walls. It’s part of a Bush-era initiative to construct a new generation of U.S. embassies which are intended to be daunting fortresses. ... The U.S. should protect its workers, equipment and data. But one point of diplomacy should also be to make the locals like you, and that could start by designing an embassy that doesn’t look like a blast shelter from Mordor. ... [T]he United States spent half a billion dollars on a Beijing embassy with two messages: The Chinese are not to be trusted, and neither are our citizens." Image from article

Diplomat on tour to revive diplomacy - ‎Chunying Cai, China Daily: "Zhao Qizheng, the Chinese statesman who has devoted much of his time to public diplomacy in China in recent years, visited Washington this Monday for a private meeting with US Sen Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 'The United States, among all countries in the world, has paid the most attention to public diplomacy and China is doing the catching up,' said Zhao, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Zhao, who was once the minister of the State Council Information Office, met Sen Lugar most likely in response to Lugar's report in February, which proposed to reinvigorate US public diplomacy to counter balance China's influence in the world. Zhao said China is still far from achieving the level of public diplomacy

that the US is known for. China must address this need if it hopes to get its message across to the rest of the world, he added. 'If we want the US-China relations to go further, public policy is a tool we must take,' he said. His views on the importance of public diplomacy were echoed by political, business and academic leaders whom he met during his 10-day trip to the US. ... Zhao's visit to the US was accompanied by Zhou Wenzhong, former Chinese ambassador to the US. Zhou is now the secretary-general of the Bo'ao Forum for Asia. Many experts consider the forum a successful platform for public diplomacy in China. During his time as minister of the State Council Information Office (from 1998 to 2005), Zhao improved the role of the government spokesperson."   Image from article, with caption: Zhao Qizheng (left), head of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with Richard Lugar, US senator of Indiana and the top Republican in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The Third Lanting Forum Is Held in the Foreign Ministry Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping Delivers Keynote Speech on the SCO's Development - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China: "On June 8, 2011, prior to the Astana Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),

the third Lanting Forum with the theme on the 10th anniversary of the SCO was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nearly 270 participants, including Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping, foreign diplomats in China, business personnel, renowned experts and scholars and media representatives attended the event. The Forum is co-hosted by China Foundation for International Studies (CFIS) and the Public Diplomacy Office of the Information Department and chaired by CFIS President Zhang Deguang. Image from article

Boas-vindas Presidente Obama: Welcoming President Obama to Brazil - Darren Krape Blog: “'It’s an honor to welcome the first american president that looks brazilian!! :)' Those words of welcome, from Fred in Brasilia, joined about 30,000 more messages for President Obama as he made his first visit to Brazil this past March. To help celebrate the president’s visit, we helped the United States Embassy in Brasilia develop 'Boas-vindas Presidente Obama', a social media campaign to raise interest in the president’s visit. A major objective of this program was to help Brazilians engage with the President’s visit beyond the handful of public events and the usual TV coverage. ... The concept was simple: create a campaign driven by social media where Brazilians could submit short welcome messages to President Obama. These were collected in two mediums: short text messages and 15 second videos recorded through the participant’s web cams. The text messages were gathered through a custom-built application we designed and developed within the State Department. On the video side, we turned to VideoGenie, a web start-up. Since the Brazilian social networking landscape is quite diverse,

we utilized a wide variety of platforms to get the word out and to collect welcome messages. A key goal was to increase the size of US Embassy Brasilia’s communities on Facebook and Orkut pages. For Facebook we created an application housed within the fan page. This allowed us to integrate our Facebook efforts and direct Facebook advertising to both the fan page and application. Orkut doesn’t provide an application framework for their brand channel, so we created a microsite at www.obamabr.org. This also gave us added flexibility on the design and content that wasn’t feasible within Facebook. We also integrated the various social sharing tools, primarily Facebook and Twitter buttons, to help encourage people to share the wider program, but also, importantly, the individual messages they recorded. This made it easier to track how many mentions we had on the various social networks. ...

The fan base of the embassy page increased from about 2,300 to 21,800 at the end of the program, an increase of about 19,500. This increase was partly driven by Facebook advertising, but much of the growth was due to the welcome message campaign." Images from article, with captions: The welcome campaign micro-site; Daily totals of incoming messages from the 11th through the 23rd of March 2011.

Needed: An Inventory of State Department Public Diplomacy Programs - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "With Ms. Judith McHale leaving her post as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, I have a suggestion for her successor, whoever it may be. Instead of trying to create yet another vague 'roadmap' or 'strategic plan' for public diplomacy, initiate a far more concrete, down-to-earth project: have your staff compile an inventory of all the programs currently implemented/funded by the State Department in the area of public diplomacy, organized in two ways (a) alphabetically (b) by subject. Each entry would have links leading to further information about the program. Such an inventory would include all information, educational, and cultural programs. Right now, the State Department homepage, organized as it is by bureaus (e.g. 'Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs'), does not not provide a clear, easily accessible listing of State PD programs."

Secret cables show Israel's battle plan over Palestinian UN bid: Foreign Ministry documents outline instructions to envoys to thwart international recognition of Palestinian state - Barak Ravid, Ha'aretz: "Israel has started mobilizing its embassies for the battle against UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September, ordering its diplomats to convey that this would delegitimize Israel and foil any chance for future peace talks. Envoys are being asked to lobby the highest possible officials in their countries of service, muster support from local Jewish communities, ply the media with articles arguing against recognition and even ask for a call or quick visit from a top Israeli official if they think it would help. Foreign Ministry Director General Rafael Barak and the heads of various ministry departments sent out classified cables outlining the battle plan

to the embassies over the past week, after earlier ordering all the country's diplomats to cancel any vacations planned for September. ... Each envoy was ordered to prepared a focused plan for the country in which he or she serves and present it to the Foreign Ministry by today, June 10. 'The goal is to get the country in which you serve to vote against recognizing a Palestinian state,' Barak wrote. 'Your plan must include approaching the most senior politicians, mobilizing the relevant force multipliers [such as local Jewish communities, nongovernmental organizations], using the media, influencing local public opinion, and public diplomacy aimed at all the relevant communities.' Barak also informed the emissaries that the ministry had established a 'September Forum' headed by the director of its Middle East Department, Yaakov Hadas. 'This team is analyzing possible Palestinian moves and the options open to Israel to foil the process, and is putting together a diplomatic, public diplomacy and media plan,' Barak wrote. 'You are to report on your activities to the September Forum once a week.'" Image from

Public diplomacy as an academic discipline - cb3communications.com: "So you want to study the ‘hot button’ topic of Public Diplomacy? Oh, you mean diplomatic studies, or maybe international relations, or possiblily public relations or communication studies. Oh, you don’t? You definately [sic] and specifically want to study the increasingly complex and important subject of public diplomacy? ... [O]utside the US, there are few institutions providing that learning at high level, certainly not at the graduate level, preparing students for entering the workforce. One or two week courses here and there, aspects of Public diplomacy in wider studies, the occasional conference and articles published, but not genuine, specific, academic, graduate level learning."

Obama Watch central: Globalism - Aaron Klein, WND.com: "[T]he PCIP ... was founded in 1995 in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations.

The group says it is the 'premier international affairs organization focused on policy issues of special resonance to the West Coast.' ... Ernest James Wilson, a member of the PCIP board, was elected chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in September 2009. He served as a policy advisor on Obama's presidential transition team on matters of communication technology and public diplomacy."  Image from

Institute of International Relations - G20 clearcreekrevival: "Chen Xuefei Foreign Affairs Director of the Center of Public Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy Department Director Zhouqing An International Communications Research Center of Tsinghua University, Public Diplomacy Research Office ... Keyin Bin 'public diplomacy 'Quarterly Journal editorial board, deputy director, Institute of General Chahar ... Tang Xiaosong, 'public diplomacy' Quarterly Journal of Academic Editor, Chahar Institute Senior Fellow"

AMERICANA

From AlterNet, with comment: Weiner's wiener wasn't the first obscene photograph to zoom around the Internet, and it won't be the last.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"What's good for Callista is good for America."

--Princess Sparkle Pony; image from Pony's blog