Thursday, January 5, 2012

January 3-5



"Domestically, the general term currently is 'ruǎn shílì', but it should actually be translated 'ruǎn quánlì'."

--Director of the World Developmental Strategy Research Department at the Central Editorial and Translation Office (中央编译局世界发展战略研究部主任), and Deputy Director at the Beijing University Governmental Innovation Research Center (北京大学中国政府创新研究中心副主任) He Zengke, on how to translate the term "soft power" into Chinese; cited in “'Soft Power': Comparing America and China"; image from article, with caption: Top: Chinese students listening to VOA broadcasts during the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square", 'Voice, Oct/Nov 1989, p. 4 (VoA magazine).

Minor Note: According to reliable sources, the meant-to-be-totally-harmless, non-ideological "Public Diplomacy and Press and Blog Review Review" is not easily accessible in Mainland China. Would much appreciate hearing from the Chinese Embassy in Washington about the veracity of this, as well as from bloggers in the PRC. Incidentally, your PDPBR compiler, who receives no funding for his PD labor of love (love of labor?) has recently gotten messages, both oral and electronic, from USG sources to delete or "check-before-they-appear" items appearing on the PDPR pertaining to US public diplomacy. Needless to say, your PDPBR compiler has ignored such "benign" (and surely well-intended) warnings (too strong a word?).

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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

U.S. State Department to interact with public on Twitter - thehindu.com: "As part of its efforts to harness digital technologies for public diplomacy, the U.S. State Department has decided to open up its daily press briefings by letting people across the globe tweet their questions in several languages, including Hindi and Urdu. 'Beginning this week, the Department’s Spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, will take questions from the worldwide public selected from the Department’s 10 official Twitter feeds (Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu) and answer them at the podium during the Daily Press Briefing each on Friday afternoon during the month of January,' the State Department said in a statement. The daily press briefings are being opened up for the general public this month, which is being observed as the U.S. Department of State’s 21st century statecraft month. ... Throughout the month, officials in Washington and missions overseas will host digital engagements across multiple platforms on a wide of array of issues to directly engage publics, domestic and foreign, on the foreign policy issues that matter to them, the statement said.

Questions to Nuland can be submitted using the hash tag #AskState to any of the Twitter feeds: @StateDept (English), @USAbilAraby (Arabic), @USA_Zhongwen (Chinese), @USAdarFarsi (Farsi), @USAenFrancais (French), @USAHindiMein (Hindi), @USAemPortugues (Portuguese), @USApoRusski (Russian), @USAenEspanol (Spanish) and @USAUrdu (Urdu)." Image from. See also (1) (2) (3).

"Exporting Raymond" and PD - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "1 - Values of liberty and democracy, although espoused and desired by most (if not all) people, cannot be, and consequently should not be expected to be, identical around the world. The specific shades, details, and forms should be highly contextualized (historically, culturally, socially, geographically, etc.) in order to have effective local adaptation. 2 - Effective public diplomacy -- i.e. international, and therefore cross-cultural, communication -- cannot happen unless both sides have sufficient (if not deep) understanding and appreciation of each other. The lack of this understanding, stereotypes, rigidity, and the refusal to accept alternative perspectives/experiences as valid, are the

perfect recipe for failure: not only does it hamper the communication process itself, it also curtails the effectiveness of the message by making it inappropriate, unrelatable, and possibly even unacceptable. This can happen to countries, institutions, and organizations, yet individuals seem to be the most vulnerable. ... 3 - ... (1) America's cultural diplomats rarely recognize their diplomatic role abroad and, (2) ... for ... [cultural diplomacy] projects to work one either has to stick to the original language ... or learn the local language well (and with it, the culture)." Osipova image from

Measuring the 'soft power' of cultural activity - BOP Consulting's Culture and Creative Industries Blog A blog examining public policy relating to culture and the creative industries. "In recent years a number of commentators have argued that the 'soft power' of a nation's culture is as important as its military strength in assessing that country's place in the world. Measuring such soft power is far from easy, though. One body which has tried to do so is the Berlin-based Institute of Cultural Diplomacy. Its Cultural Diplomacy Outlook Report 2011 is a wide-ranging study looking at many aspects of what it calls cultural diplomacy, in the public, private and third sectors. One of the most interesting parts is its Index: ['] The cultural diplomacy index charts the increasing prevalence of soft power and public diplomacy as a means of international dialogue. The index evaluates various government activities to determine

whether their respective cultural diplomacy programmes are substantial, constructive and effective. ['] The index produced by the ICD ranked forty countries by these means, and found that Germany and the Netherlands came joint first, with Norway in third. The UK was fifth, the US was seventh, and India was the leading emerging economy, in tenth place." Image from

A Strategic Context for Cultural Diplomacy - Philip Seib, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "In her year-end report for 2011, published in the State Department’s online DipNote, Ann Stock, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), cited the department’s wide range of activities – everything from historical preservation work in Herat, Afghanistan, to an entrepreneurship program for African women. Without doubt, ECA’s contributions to U.S. public diplomacy are exceptionally important. As Stock stated in her report, 'When formal relationships between governments are tense, public diplomacy can often forge a way forward.' As this implies, America employs cultural diplomacy not because it is a 'nice' thing to do, but rather because it serves the strategic interests of the United States. For that reason, cultural diplomacy efforts should be carefully targeted, and not solely to the countries that are dominating the headlines of the moment."

HUH? Obama Pays $5 Milln Plus to Imams Who Praise Killing US Soldiers in Afghanistan - Debbie Schlussel, debbieschlussel.com: "How do you fight extremists on behalf of America? You fund them to spread the extremism and forget about the America part. At least that’s the Obama way. And it continues. Yes, it’s the new year on the calendar, but the behavior is same ol’, same ol’ with Barack Hussein Obama and his crew of dhimmis. Millions of your tax dollars are being spent in Pakistan to try to 'unteach' extremism and turn people against jihad (by funding people who actually teach jihad – YAY!). What these dummies clearly

don’t understand is that to do that, you need them to leave Islam, which preaches all these things–the extremism and jihad which are part and parcel of Islam–and at its heart–and cannot be separated out from it. And while the authorities at the State Department wasting your money on these silly DVDs know this, they won’t dare admit that because that would admit that the problem is Islam, stupid. ... [Comment by] Worry01: This is the sort of garbage that Karen Hughes pushed during her tenure at the State Department as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy when G.W. Bush was still in office. She was also a believer in seminars and advertising as remedies for what ailed Muslims. Karen Hughes finally left the Bush Administration in 2007 having accomplished exactly nothing. Apparently even abject failure is not a bar to doing well, since she is now Vice-Chairwoman of Burson-Marsteller(lobbying, public relations, etc)." Images from article, with caption: Huh???

Obama’s National Security ‘Not Top 10′ of 2011 - Patrick Poole, The Counter Jihad Report: "8. White House blocks appointment of moderate Muslim leader Zuhdi Jasser to State Department post (October)[:] 'When Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, held hearings back in March on the radicalization threat in the Muslim community, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser was one of the called witnesses. Jasser — a retired decorated Naval officer and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy — was called an 'Uncle Tom' by prominent Muslim leaders and denounced by far-left outfits including The Nation magazine and the Center for American Progress.

They attacked Jasser as 'a leading light of the Islamophobia network' (the hypocrisy of denouncing a Muslim as an 'Islamophobe' was apparently lost on the Democratic think tank). But even before Jasser’s appearance before the Homeland Security Committee, he had been nominated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to a post on the State Department’s U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, which is tasked with 'appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics.'” Image from

U.S. public diplomacy recommendations for the Middle East and North Africa
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ryanjsuto.blogspot.com: "For my 25th blog post, I wanted to discuss U.S. public diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa. However, it's a bit too long. As such, I will post the discussion in three parts. Part I: Why public diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa? To cover this topic I first need to discuss the reasons behind the importance of U.S. public diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa for public diplomacy skeptics out there.

Then, I will suggest two foci for U.S. public diplomacy; one long-term and one short-term. Part II: The long-term. The U.S. should increase the number of Americans sent to the region to engage in exchange, professional and governmental support programs. Part III: The short-term. The U.S increase training to engage in mediated public diplomacy on the popular regional media. Together, these goals will work to help 'win the hearts and minds' of the publics of the Middle East and North Africa while at the same time helping develop the region and educating Americans about the people of that region." Image from

Mid-Week Quote: “information consequences of policy ought always be taken into account” - www.MountainRunner.us: A Blog on Understanding, Informing, and Influencing Global Publics, published by Matt Armstrong: "Today’s quote comes from the Fourth Semiannual Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information,

submitted to the Congress in April 1951. [']Sometimes policy is 'made' by the junior officer who writes an original memorandum. Sometimes it is made by an unexpected utterance at a top-level press conference. But the information consequences of policy ought always be taken into account, and the information man ought always to be consulted.['] The Mid-Week Quote will be a recurring feature of the blog, although it may not appear every week. Email me to suggest a quote. See below for more on the report this quote is taken from. The 22-page report (available at the website of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy) assessed that the State Department’s information program is being effectively administered, that the personnel has greatly improved, and that most of the Commission’s previous recommendations had been put into effect. The Commission expressed concern whether taking the program outside of the State Department to the about to be established United States Information Agency would be an improvement or a detriment to operation. The Commission recommended that the program should be expanded, better evaluated, and remain closely tied to the policy-making and public affairs areas of the State Department." Image from article

Remembering the purpose of Smith-Mundt - www.MountainRunner.us: A Blog on Understanding, Informing, and Influencing Global Publics, published by Matt Armstrong: "Many of the questions being asked today are ... are similar to those of the past. The only difference today is that over the last several decades we’ve forgotten the importance of engaging people in favor of governments. In the 1940s, the reality of the 'war among the people' was acute."

A Voice for the Voiceless: Interactive Radio in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Ken Banks, National Geographic: "Zydrone Krasauskiene, Editorial Manager of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, explains how they try to prevent those extremists from robbing the people of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and Afghanistan of their voice. By broadcasting in Pashto to the people of the FATA through their station, Radio Mashaal, they have taken back the airwaves, making a place where listeners can finally have the chance to articulate and discuss the real problems, debates and events that make up their everyday lives. But the station doesn’t just provide information. FrontlineSMS software.

has opened up new frontiers for Radio Mashaal – literally – by creating a completely new and unorthodox way of making interactivity possible for the people of the FATA. By enabling listeners to talk back to the radio, they can counter the voice of the extremists and draw attention to issues that really affect them. In some cases, this citizen journalism has embarrassed the government into acting to resolve problems affecting the people of the FATA. Using mobile technology, Radio Mashaal has opened up a space for debate, advocacy, music and joking in one of the most isolated places in the world. ... Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reports the news where a free press does not exist or is not allowed by the government. RFE/RL reaches nearly 25 million people in 28 languages and 21 countries in Russia, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia. In 2010, RFE/RFL began broadcasting in Pashto in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and part of Balochistan, with its new station, Radio Mashaal. The station is so important because, with no print media and no TV, these geographically different tribal border areas are effectively under an information blackout. Radio is the only feasible and available medium. Image  from article. Via LJB

'Prague winter' for USA's Radio Free Europe/Liberty - Alsou Taheri, the pseudonym of a journalist working at RFE/RL in Prague, news.az: "These days, Soviet-style samizdat is doing the rounds at the Prague headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

It is a press release on the letter to Croatian government by Snjezana Pelivan, a Croatian journalist living in Prague. Her case against the Czech Republic as a country that tolerates the national discrimination practised on its territory by the American RFE/RL, is in the European Court of Human Rights. In her letter, she officially requests the government of Croatia to support her lawsuit in Strasbourg. ... In 28 languages, RFE/RL broadcasts to 21 so-called 'target countries'. In Prague, the Radio employs hundreds of foreign nationals forming the great majority of broadcasting departments. Eighteen of the RFE/RL broadcasting languages are spoken predominantly by Muslim people. Snjezana Pelivan, daughter of the first prime minister of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, was responsible for the placement of RFE/RL programs with affiliated radio stations abroad, particularly in the Caucasus and former Yugoslavia. The termination of her employment was met with disbelief and consternation. ... With a straight face and disdain for the listener’s intelligence, RFE/RL represents itself as 'independent' and 'private'. The insiders laugh: it’s about as ridiculous as calling Russia's Gazprom an independent private company. At that, Gazprom has slightly over 50 percent of state capital. RFE/RL has 100. ... Foreign journalists working on the uniformly discriminatory contracts provided to them by RFE/RL ... are bitter: 'Here the Wild West met the Wild East'. Most of them sincerely share the high ideals and goals of the RFE/RL official mission. It is not with a light heart that they read the now innumerable articles in the Czech and international mass media, print and electronic, denouncing their place of work: 'hypocrisy', 'betrayal of ideals', 'violation of human rights', 'lawlessness', 'double standards', 'moral disaster', 'fraud', 'cynicism', 'Guantanamo in Prague', 'public idiocy instead of public diplomacy', and the like. ... RFE/RL acting director of communications, Julian Knapp, got sick and tired of publicly defending the Radio’s deceptive labour policies. He took his hat and left Prague last September. John O’Sullivan, RFE/RL executive editor, is about to go, too." Image from

Non-Lethal Weapons Systems - Grand Strategy: The View from Oregon Grand strategy and geopolitics from the perspective of the Pacific Northwest: "It has been widely reported that Public Intelligence has released a 108 page document from the U.S. Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons Program, the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD), titled Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) Reference Book and published in 2011. ... The document defines NLWs as:'Weapons, devices and munitions that are explicitly designed and primarily employed to incapacitate targeted personnel or materiel immediately, while minimizing fatalities, permanent injury to personnel, and undesired damage to property in the targeted area or environment. Non-lethal weapons are intended to have reversible effects on personnel or materiel.' JROCM 060-09, Initial Capabilities Document for Counter Personnel Joint Non-Lethal Effects and Initial Capabilities Document for Counter Materiel Joint Non-Lethal Effects [.] And in the 'frequently asked questions' there is this nice summary: 'NLW provide another ‘option’ to the force.

In past operations, the effective employment of NLW resolved escalation of force situations. Specifically, the NLW created the right ‘direct effect’ on the personnel/materiel targeted. The use of NLW has also generated positive ‘psychological effects’ on others in the area and helped to contribute to mission accomplishment. The perceptions associated with the use of NLW have been a positive and powerful influence in local communities on ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the local populace. The employment of NLW has helped reduce the loss of life and collateral damage.' Implied but not explicitly expressed in this document is the danger of NLW being employed in such a way as to cause permanent injury or disfigurement to its targets. From the perspective of public diplomacy, the old 'dead men tell no tales' adage holds: while I suspect most people would prefer to be alive even if injured to being killed, the fact remains that bodies are buried and forgotten, while an injured individual would likely enter into the 24/7 news cycle and could conceivably cause more damage to the political image of a nation-state employing NLW than outright killing of targets. The human interest angle here is impossible to avoid. As interesting as this possibility is, it is not the most interesting thing about NLW. The most interesting thing about NLW is their paradigmatic role in the political constraints on weapons systems that are increasingly driving defense thinking. These political constraints on weapons systems are in turn a manifestation of a fundamental shift in warfighting away from major conventional engagements between peer powers to low-level, chronic unconventional and asymmetrical warfare." Image from article

The U.S. and Iran Are Already Locked in Economic War - Yochi Dreazen, theatlantic.com: "Hard-hitting U.S. sanctions on Iran's central bank and new Iranian threats to attack U.S. vessels in a vital oil-shipping route underscore a little-noticed aspect of the growing tensions between Washington and Tehran: Armed conflict may not break out anytime soon, but Iran and the U.S. are already fighting a low-level economic war that seems likely to escalate in the months ahead. ... Suzanne Maloney, an expert on the Iranian economy at

the Brookings Institution, said the two countries are already looking for ways of hurting each other that stop short of full military conflict. 'It's not an overstatement to say that the sanctions we've put on Iran in recent weeks constitute a full-fledged attack on the Iranian economy,' she said in an interview. 'This is now a regime that sees itself locked with an existential conflict with the U.S., and they're going to use every lever at their disposal--economic, irregular warfare, public diplomacy--to fight back.'" Image from article: Iranian Navy commander Habibollah Sayyari points while standing on a naval ship on the Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran

Iran should consolidate national unity - campaigniran.org: "As Iran's naval maneuver in the Persian Gulf has captivated the media’s attention since last week, news agencies report of an unprecedented 30 billion dollar arms trade between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates also received its share of Washington’s advanced weapons in a 3 billion dollar deal. Has another arms’ race in the region been triggered? Iranian Diplomacy discusses the topic in an interview with Hassan Beheshtipour, professor at Shahid Beheshti University and an international affairs analyst: ... HB [Hassan Beheshtipour]: We are not at a dead-end situation yet, and avoiding a war is still seriously important. Iran should activate both its public and official diplomacy.

In terms of public diplomacy, we should offset the adverse effect of the Iran-phobia project and consolidate national unity; on the official terrain, Iran should increase its interaction with regional and extraregional states and prove to them it is not seeking a military confrontation. We should not embrace war, and should try to solve all problems through a rational policy, though our enemies should know that Iran always stands up for its rights." Image from entry

Iran News Round Up (Jan. 1-3) - fluechtlingshilfeiranev2010.wordpress.com: "Hamid-Reza Moqaddam-Far, Revolutionary Guards Cultural commander, slams the Foreign Ministry’s public diplomacy effort. Moqaddam-Far says 'The British themselves wanted the people to enter the embassy compound… Unfortunately, this time, the officers of the soft-warfare played into the enemy’s hand…'"

Chinese-funded institutes raise concerns on U.S. campuses - Elizabeth Redden, USA Today: More than 300 colleges in more than 90 countries -- including about 70 institutions in the United States -- host Confucius Institutes, centers of Chinese language and culture education and research funded by China's government. The infusion of Chinese government funding into international universities has enabled significant expansions in language teaching, cultural programming, and China-related conferences and symposia, but it has also raised fears regarding academic freedom and independence of teaching and research. Critics have questioned why colleges would provide their imprimatur to institutes that have been described by Li Changchun, China's propaganda chief, as 'an important part of China's overseas propaganda setup.' ... The Confucius Institutes

are run in cooperation with Chinese partner universities and overseen by Hanban, a Chinese Ministry of Education subsidiary. Typically, host universities receive a yearly appropriation from Hanban -- in the range of $100,000 to $150,000 -- and Hanban also pays the salaries and travel costs for visiting Chinese instructors who staff the institutes. Hanban creates its own teaching materials. The majority of Confucius Institutes focus primarily on language teaching and public outreach and programming. ... Scholars have characterized the Confucius Institutes as instruments of soft power, defined by the Harvard University political scientist Joseph Nye as 'the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals and policies.' ... The influx of Confucius Institute dollars comes at a time when U.S. government funding. specifically National Resource Center funding for area and language studies, has been slashed by 47 percent." Image from

Soft Power through China’s Confucius Institutes: A Conversation with Jian (Jay) Wang - USC-China Institute: "[Wang's] CPD-sponsored project examines the Confucius Institute as a platform for China’s cultural diplomacy within the larger context of U.S.-China relations. It aims to develop a framework for better understanding the opportunities and challenges facing organizations of cultural diplomacy in contemporary times."

Beijing’s New Year’s Eve Diplomacy? - ryanjsuto.blogspot.com: "This year for our New Year’s Eve festivities, my girlfriend and I decided to finally go to Times Square to watch the ball drop. It was a lot of fun. However, I couldn’t help but see certain festivities in the light of public diplomacy. ... 'The Sino-American Friendship Association ('SAFA') present[ed] a spectacular Chinese cultural performance of the Lion Dance to begin the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration on the Nivea Countdown Stage at Duffy Island between 46th and 47th Streets.' ... Before the performance and display, representatives from the Sino-American Friendship Association spoke of a desire for a strong friendship between China and the U.S., as well as China’s strong culture. Also representatives from the city of Beijing noted that Beijing and New York are sister cities, and spoke of the beauty and history of Beijing. Lastly, employees or volunteers of the Times Square Alliance handed out tourist maps of Beijing to the audience. ... [T]he whole time I was thinking, is this public diplomacy? It certainly felt

like public diplomacy. However, it was presented as a collaboration between the tourism bureau of a city and a (presumably) non-profit organization, neither being a national government (of course I don’t know whether the Chinese national government was involved at all). ... I assert that in order for an action or utterance to be considered public diplomacy, the action or utterance itself must be coordinated and intentional, and have goals in line with the definition, concepts, and values of public diplomacy. The actor or utterer needn’t consciously decide to engage in public diplomacy as such, merely consciously decide to engage in actions which could reasonably be construed as public diplomacy." Image from article

“Soft Power”: Comparing China and Europe - justrecently.wordpress.com: "European 'soft-power' policy concepts a[re]

reviewed by He Zengke (何增科), a Chinese researcher in an official academic function, in an article published by ChinaReform (中国改革论坛网) . ... Some of He Zengke’s views on America‘s 'soft-power' policies or public diplomacy can be found in this previous post/translation." Image from article, with caption: Saarländischer Rundfunk, Europawelle Saar (SR-1), QSL, 1980s, featuring the Heusweiler medium wave transmitter of 1936. Click photo for a history of the Heusweiler transmission site.

Citizen diplomacy taking shape in China - Maria Siow, channelnewsasia.com: "Citizen diplomacy is a concept defined as individuals taking actions to engage with those outside of their country in a meaningful and mutually beneficial dialogue. The concept is still in its infancy in China, with individuals taking steps to increase cross-cultural understanding and knowledge between China and the rest of the world. ... Unlike public diplomacy, which are actions undertaken by the authorities, ... citizen diplomacy ... are individual actions that were unheard of just a couple of years ago. While their efforts may be limited, they constitute part of China's ongoing, growing and changing interactions with the rest of the world."

Former U.S. officials said the United States and China 40 years of diplomatic inaccurate - SparkGabriel: "In 2003, the war in Iraq, the Bush administration allocated billions of dollars each year to improve America's image of the world up, but with little success. Audit Commission report criticized the United States, said the Office of the State Council presided over public diplomacy efforts to improve the image of the messy and disorganized, or no assessment of the effectiveness of their mechanisms. And in some countries, especially in the Middle East, Americans made more friendly to all, has caused resentment in the local people seem more and more. Not that they are not hard, nor are they stupid mind, it is because in all seriousness bigger unified style of political propaganda too does not meet the character of the Americans."

Israel looks to gays to improve its image  washingtonexaminer.com: "When it comes to stating its case internationally, Israel is tired of playing it straight: "It is recruiting gays and lesbians as unofficial envoys. In a bid to boost its international image, the country's ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has established a cadre of diverse volunteers who speak about Israel around the world.

In a recent post on its website, the ministry encouraged minorities and members of the gay community to step forward. Ministry spokesman Gal Ilan said Thursday that the goal was to highlight Israel's diversity. He said when people think about Israel, the gay community is often overlooked. There are no details yet on how many people have volunteered. Israel has recently been promoting itself as a gay friendly oasis in an intolerant Middle East." Fuzzy image from article

Detroit Jewish leaders head national delegation to Middle East - thejewishnews.com: "Dr. Conrad Giles of Bloomfield Hills and his wife, Dr. Lynda Giles, led a 16-member delegation of American Jewish community leaders to Israel for meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, members and advisers of the Israeli government, academics, and religious and social leaders. Giles, former president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, chairs the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the Washington-based public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community. The Dec. 4-8 meetings were held within the framework of the JCPA annual leadership mission to Israel. ... Being welcomed into the beautiful home of Israeli President and Nobel Laureate Shimon Peres, who expressed the hope that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will commence soon. Volatility in the Arab world, he observed, makes reaching a final peace agreement that much more important.

Nothing is perfect, he asserted, and while you can’t change people, it is possible to change situations. Hasbara (public diplomacy) is a matter of perception. Israel is inevitably perceived as the occupier of the Palestinian people. Nothing other than peace, Peres maintained, fundamentally will alter this perception." Image from article, with caption: Dr. Conrad and Dr. Lynda Giles flank Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres at his Jerusalem residence.

Public diplomacy program needed to combat legislation against shechita in Europe' - EJP, ejpress.org: "Better public diplomacy needs to be used in order to prevent a wave of legislation proscribing shechita, the kosher slaughtering of animals, Rabbi Goldberg, Deputy Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), told a committee of the Knesset, Israel's parliament. 'The only way to prevent a wave of anti-shechita legislation in Europe

is by explaining the facts,' he told the Knesset committee for aliya, absorption and diaspora affairs headed by Danny Danon of the Likud party. The committee meeting was organized to discuss the attempts by various parties across Europe, including the Green parties, to proscribe religious animal slaughter. In December, the Senate, the Dutch parliament's upper house, expressed its concern about a bill that would have required stunning of animals before slaughter or the provision of evidence that non-stunned animals did not suffer unnecessarily. Jewish organizations argued that such a demand would breach the framework of constitutional rights, particularly the freedom of religious practice." Image from article, with caption: Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs from Holland (in the middle) confers with Rabbi Arie Goldberg (L), Deputy Director of the Rabbinical Center of Europe, and MK Michaeli after the meeting of the Knesset committee for aliya, absorption and diaspora affairs.

Grapel: Swap for my release ‘not humiliating for Israel’ - Oren Kessler, Jerusalem Post: "Ilan Grapel – the dual US-Israeli citizen arrested in Egypt this summer on charges of espionage – said Monday he does not regret traveling to the country and defended his conduct there as helping strengthen understanding between Egyptians and Israelis. ... Grapel traveled to Egypt in May 2011 to work at a nongovernmental organization that provides legal assistance to asylum-seekers from conflict zones. In June he was arrested at his Cairo hotel on suspicion of working for Israeli intelligence to foment sectarian strife and gather intelligence on the country in the wake of president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. ... On Monday Grapel reiterated that his behavior was neither reckless nor naive. ... 'With regards to my hasbara [public diplomacy], it was not the cause of my detention (nor my main reason for going), but it facilitated my release...Because I sometimes told people and friends I was from Israel, the prosecutor and the mookhabarat [secret police] strained to believe their story after a couple of weeks.' ... 'Hasbara, the Hebrew term that refers to efforts to

explain the Israeli viewpoint, has much to gain from such a strategy, given the pernicious myths about Israel and Jews prevalent in much of the Arab world,' Grapel wrote. 'My hasbara provided a viewpoint that changed the mentalities of former Muslim Brotherhood members, the prosecutor and my guards, whose last words were ‘Shalom, we hope you forgive us,' he wrote. 'Israelis and Arabs can continue to maintain the status quo of mutual avoidance or they can dare to coexist. To those who wrongly held me, I say simply, I forgive you.'” See also (1) (2). Uncaptioned image from article

Israel kicks off J'lem 'New7Wonders: Cities' campaign - Melanie Lidman: "Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein kicked off a campaign to have Jerusalem nominated as one of the 'New7Wonders: Cities' on Wednesday outside of Jaffa Gate. After failing to have the Dead Sea included in the New7Wonders of Nature, Israel is set to try to get the capital on the list of the most amazing cities."

India needs its own culture of strategic thought - watchespen.org: "Vice President Hamid Ansari Saturday advocated the need for India to develop a culture of strategic thought

and called for creating a national resource-base of language professionals for more nuanced formulation of foreign policy. He also underlined the need for a ‘closer scrutiny’ of the demand to make archival records available to scholars. ‘We need to evolve a uniquely Indian understanding, based on the historical context of our relations with other nations and peoples, as also contemporary realities and concerns,’ Ansari said. He was inaugurating the first conference on international relations. The conference has been organised by the public diplomacy division of India’s external affairs ministry in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research, a think tank." Image from

Face2Face is way to open govt - digitallearning.eletsonline.com: "The departments leading in their social media efforts for effective interface with citizens include Public Diplomacy Division at Ministry of External Affairs and Traffic Police in cities like New Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai and Mumbai. The ease of accessibility through social media raises the hope for a more responsive and citizen-centric governance. An example is the unprecedented response from citizens on the Facebook page of Delhi Traffic police. A citizen watch area [.] Even though Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) neither intended nor asked citizens to upload images of people violating traffic laws on the road, the citizens started uploading such images on the DTP Facebook page and requested for legal actions. Slowly, the practice caught up so much that within six months, DTP had more than 39,000 followers on Facebook. On the Facebook initiative, Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police sys, 'The idea of getting on Facebook had come om [sic] Special Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police. In May 2010 we opened a page on the popular social networking site, Facebook. Seeing the great potential of interacting with myriad number of people ... on such web enabled social platform, I started taking note of all the things happe[n]ing on our Facebook page, with the help of a small

team comprising an inspector level officer and some constables. Initially, the thought was to inform and educate our followers on the traffic rules, and the norms and behaviour expected of road users. But the response from [f]acebook users was phenomenal. People on their own started uploading images. We took it as a very positive development and have been trying to live up to citizens’ expectations.'” Uncaptioned image from article

India Blog Series: India and the Internet: An Ambiguous Relationship - Jerry Edling, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "The issue of Internet freedom is a surprisingly delicate topic in U.S. – Indian relations. ... When Indian Communications Minister Kapil Sibal insists that the world’s largest democracy supports free speech, but adds that Websites such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo has “had images which could be an insult to Indians,” it dilutes the claim that India is the world’s largest democracy and hurts its public diplomacy, especially in comparison to China."

Sunset 2011 - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "I arrived to Delhi [in 2011] to work with INDIA Future of Change to push Indian public diplomacy in new directions."

India Blog Series: Commonalities and Complexities - Jessica Castillo, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "The real complexity, perhaps, is communicating to those abroad that India is its own nation, and determined to resolve any problems in its own way."

Canadian Public Diplomacy, Then and Now - Daryl Copeland, themarknews.com: "The Government of Canada was, until fairly recently, regarded as somewhat of a PD pioneer.

That reputation would now be difficult to sustain. Indeed, I have come to the rather stark realization that, whatever this country may at one time have achieved by way of advancing its interests through PD, those days are now long gone." Image from

Falklands’ success story, centre of 30th anniversary of the conflict — MercoPress" "Chair of the Falkland Islands 2012 Committee Lewis Clifton explained it was likely to be 'the last big anniversary' as military veterans of the war and Islanders involved grow older, and was therefore being given a profile similar to a 50th anniversary. Around 100 veterans are expected to pilgrimage to the Islands for the Remembrance Day ceremony, others would also visit throughout the year. ... By early January it has been planned

that a booklet will be available for issue to 30th anniversary guests, but also for Members of the Legislative Assembly to use during overseas visits, that will highlight some of the Islands’ achievements in the last 30 years. ...[Clifton] noted that this theme and the booklet also fitted in with the wider Falkland Islands Government public diplomacy initiative that involved attempting to dispel some of the misleading rhetoric on the Falklands, coming out of Argentina." Image from article, with caption: Lewis Clifton: the tremendous changes and opportunities of a vibrant economy

From the BBC World Service's Facebook page - Public Diplomacy and International Communications: Thoughts and comments about public diplomacy, soft power and international communications by Gary Rawnsley - "[T]he BBC World Service will no longer be funded by the British Foreign Office but will have to compete with the rest of the BBC's output for finance. ... China in particular is engaged in an aggressive investment programme to expand its reach across the globe - the British are cutting back, closing language services (closing Mandarin is not just a mistake, it is a crime) and forcing

the World Service to become a competitor for funding. Can the UK claim to be serious about public diplomacy and soft power while denying its most treasured instrument of international outreach the funds and independence to do its job?"  Image from

Britain's Global Mission is to Control Natural Resources - karl-naylor.blogspot.com: "In democracies much of the presentation of foreign policy aims is 'public diplomacy'. This entails selling war or intervention' to bemused citizens and voters by promoting 'our values' as being better than those other Powers such as China vying for control over minerals and oil."

Seborga - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "The tiny Princely State of Seborga, a breakaway principality in Italy, looks like it needs some public diplomacy. I think I will offer my services."

Colombiano: Dispatches From A Wanderer, Year-old hostel an epicenter for good times, Getting around both easy and comfortable - Nevada Tolladay, Pahrump Valley Times: "Nevada Tolladay is a Pahrump resident who traveled in Colombia. He submitted these dispatches along with photos shortly before Christmas and the New Year. ... It’s party central here at The Wandering Paisa Hostel in the Laureles barrio of Medellin . ... For a time, Miles [evidently a member of the party] played with the MTV award winning band Art of Chaos and later toured with Linkin Park for a month. Never losing sight of his educational goals, he completed his Masters in Public Diplomacy at the University of California in 2009. ... Wishing to promote inter-cultural experiences, Miles initiated salsa classes ... "

RELATED ITEMS

Huge Embassy Keeps U.S. Presence In Iraq - Michele Kelemen, NPR: As the final U.S. troops leave Iraq, they leave behind the largest U.S. Embassy in the world. There will be about 16,000 people working for the State Department at the embassy in Baghdad and consulates elsewhere in Iraq. At least 5,000 of those in Iraq will be private security contractors, and there are lots of questions about whether the State Department is ready to run such a big operation in such a volatile country. The price tag for all of this will run about $3.5 billion a year.

Image from article, with caption: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani speaks at the opening of the huge U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Jan. 5, 2009. It is the largest U.S. Embassy in the world. Via

Talking With the Taliban - Editorial, New York Times: President Obama has pledged that the bulk of NATO troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. That will be easier to achieve if there is a political agreement with the Taliban, but it must be one that ensures that Afghanistan does not again become a launching pad for attacks on this country and doesn’t revert to the horrors of Taliban rule.

Strait talk with Iran: The U.S. should make clear to Tehran that closing shipping lanes won't be tolerated - By Frederick W. Kagan, latimes.com

Let's Get Rid of the State Department [humour] - Dennis Jett, Huffington Post: The 270-some embassies and consulates around the world would also be closed. That is no problem since we don't need to know what the people in those countries are thinking. They all just want to be like us anyhow, and if they don't, they should be ignored.

With no diplomatic posts overseas, foreigners won't be able to get visas to come to the United States. But since some of them are bound to be terrorists, keeping them all out will make us safer. Together with a ten-foot high fence around the entire United States, it would be the ultimate in border security. Jett image from

How does Israeli TV translate to U.S. audiences? Very well: 'Homeland' and 'Who's Still Standing?' are among the shows that began life as Hebrew-language series. And more — with a few tweaks for American viewers — are on the way - Steven Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times: Israelis have long been obsessed with American television, which in recent years has led to some unexpected consequences. "We all grew up watching American television," said "Pillars of Smoke's" Stollman, whose show has been compared to "Twin Peaks." "And I think what a lot of us did was reflect that back, maybe through a slightly off-kilter lens."
It's one of several theories cited to explain the surging popularity of Israeli shows in Hollywood. Some others: Israeli television's gallows humor fits with post-9/11 American anxiety; Israelis

are preoccupied by some of the same subjects as American network executives ("the country has more psychologists per capita than anywhere else in the world, and that leads to psychologically complex stories," said David Nevins, Showtime's president of entertainment); a U.S. business that has grown restless with traditional sources; Israeli shows are relatively cheap; and Israeli TV's small budgets birth creative storytelling. Image from article, with caption: Damian Lewis and Claire Danes in "Homeland." Via

WSJ: "In Skies Over Iran, a Battle for Control of Satellite TV" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting.

Image from entry

Iran's HispanTV and its international competition - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook - Ali Abunimah, electronicintifada.net: The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world. NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home.”

China’s Parallel Online Universe - Christopher Walker & Sarah Cook, the-diplomat.com: China has developed a set of “social media clones” that ably mimic the functions of the most popular, internationally recognized social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The replicas, however, come with a major catch: they systematically comply with the Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship requirements. Image from article. Via

China morning round-up: New Year propaganda vow - bbc.co.uk: Li Changchun, a Standing Committee member of the Communist Party's Politburo, told propaganda officials from across the country to continuously enhance "the ability of opinion guiding and international communication, and strive

to create an objective and friendly international public opinion environment in favour of our country". Image from article, with caption: Li Changchun said more work was needed on shaping public opinion.

China Cracks Down On ‘Excessive Entertainment’ - theworld.org: Satellite broadcasters in China have cut entertainment TV by two-thirds following a government campaign, state news agency Xinhua has reported. An order by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)

to curb ”excessive entertainment” came into effect on January 1st. The number of entertainment shows aired during prime time each week has dropped from 126 to 38, said the watchdog. However, as The World’s Mary Kay Magistad explains, savvy Chinese youth are simply turning away from their televisions, and switch on laptops and pirated western DVDs instead. Image from article. Via RC on twitter.

China's vice president orders more thought control over students: Xi Jinping, the Chinese Vice-President, who is tipped to take over from President Hu Jintao later this year, has ordered universities to increase thought control over students and young lecturers - Peter Simpson, telegraph.co.uk: Xi's call for more ideological indoctrination comes amid a ratcheting up of propaganda ahead of next autumn's keynote Communist Party congress, which is likely to see Mr Xi


unveiled as China's next leader. University Communist Party organs must adopt firmer and stronger measures to maintain harmony and stability in universities," Mr Xi said told Communist Party members at a meeting attended by the country's universities chiefs in Beijing. Xi Jinping image from article

Propaganda, Terror, and Mass Communication Part 2 - rightsidenews.com

AMERICANA

Greatest Map of the U.S. - David Pescovitz, Boing Boing: Each year, the annual competition of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society awards a "Best of Show" prize for excellence in map design. The winners have included the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Census Bureau, and National Geographic Magazine. This year though, the winner was one guy: David Imus. David Imus worked alone on his map seven days a week for two full years.

Nearly 6,000 hours in total. It would be prohibitively expensive just to outsource that much work. But Imus—a 35-year veteran of cartography who’s designed every kind of map for every kind of client—did it all by himself. He used a computer (not a pencil and paper), but absolutely nothing was left to computer-assisted happenstance. Image from article

MORE AMERICANA


"Whenever possible, computers should be located in a more remote part of the library for viewing of adult material."

--Editorial, "Libraries walk a tightrope on porn: Without engaging in censorship, many can and should be doing more to protect patrons from seeing pornographic images on the Internet," Los Angeles Times.  Image from

2 comments:

justrecently said...

According to reliable sources, the meant-to-be-totally-harmless, non-ideological "Public Diplomacy and Press and Blog Review Review" is not easily accessible in Mainland China.

Thanks for your interest in my blog posts! As for accessibility, Wordpress and Blogspot blogs are frequently blocked in China - wholesale, more or less, basically the same way Facebook or Twitter are.

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