February 20

“'Know thyself'? If I knew myself I'd run away.”

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Warhol Goethe image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Happy President's Day - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "The United States is celebrating its President's Day today, quite a significant and symbolic holiday. And although for most of the Americans it's a day off, logging on to Facebook is not a big deal I guess.

Especially in the name of public diplomacy. I'm specifically referring to a post, earlier today, by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on their Facebook page [includes video]. It is an unofficial 'production' by an enthusiast, and although the transitions between the portraits of the presidents are a little awkward, I did find it very creative. And well, in a sense, it's a great example of people-to-people diplomacy, simply facilitated by the official capacity of the Embassy." Image from

paid to host a foreign exchange student Host - Hosting TechTEFL: "There are many private and U.S. government-sponsored international exchange programs that bring international exchange students to the USA to experience life in America. [S]tudents are eager to learn about American culture and give back to their country, sharing their newfound knowledge of America and Americans. Americans can take part in these exciting programs and contribute to our public diplomacy efforts by hosting aninternational exchange student. Hosting is an extremely rewarding experience forall members of the mily and the community."

I Think We Can Cut A Department or Five (or, Did You Ever Feel Bloated) - lunchtime-leftovers.blogspot.com: "Awhile back, during the debates Ron Paul said he wanted to eliminate five federal agencies, those being, Education, Interior, Commerce, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development. Rick Perry said he would cut three, but he couldn't remember which three and had to ask Paul to tell him. And I

haven't heard anyone else, including Obama, saying they would cut any. Keep in mind in 2011 the US government spent $10 billion PER DAY. ... Think we could cut one, two, or five, or 50, or 100 of these and survive?? [including] ... Broadcasting Board of Governors (Voice of America, Radio TV Marti and more)." Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (State Department) Radio and TV Marti (Español) Radio Free Asia (RFA) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Image from article

Minxin Pei says Beijing’s expensive efforts to portray a positive image of the nation in the West are misguided. Instead, it needs to show the world the real, unvarnished China to win hearts and minds Behind the mask - Minxin Pei, South China Morning Post, posted at Behind the mask: "Winning the hearts and minds of the West may have become mission impossible for Beijing. Chinese leaders have recognised this daunting challenge. In recent visits by senior leaders abroad, they have made serious efforts to engage in 'public diplomacy' – until recently a novel concept for Beijing. President Hu Jintao, for example, went to a China- sponsored Confucius Institute in Chicago a year ago when he was on a state visit, high- lighting Beijing’s new campaign of projecting its soft power. On Vice-President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States this week, undoubtedly the most important diplomatic test for China’s leader-in-waiting, he is apparently devoting more time to public diplomacy than to high-level dialogue. His itinerary includes a reunion with Iowan farmers whom he befriended more than two decades ago and attendance at a Lakers’ basketball game in Los Angeles. Whether such personal efforts by senior Chinese leaders will yield real results is anybody’s guess. But nobody should fault them for trying. To be sure, China’s initiative to improve its image abroad consists of a far more comprehensive, if not expensive, public relations campaign. Readers of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal may find paid full-page supplements of the China Daily, China’s official English-language newspaper, advertising China’s success. Chinese news agencies are expanding their presence aggressively in the West, hiring a large number of professional staff and leasing expensive office space in desirable locations. (Xinhua, for example, opened its new office in New York City’s Times Square in May last year with much fanfare.) China Central Television has plans to increase its overseas staff fivefold by the end of this year. In Washington alone, it has a 60-person bureau. A question that needs to be asked about China’s public relations or public diplomacy campaign is whether the current approach is effective. Based on the experience of other countries that have pursued such diplomacy much longer than China, it seems that Beijing’s strategy is based on erroneous assumptions and excessively focuses on using the instruments of the Chinese state in projecting its soft power. ... What drives public sentiment abroad, particularly in the West, is Beijing’s policy, not knowledge (or the lack thereof) about China.

Whenever Chinese leaders pursue policies or engage in behaviour both at home and abroad that are seen as unfair, harsh or plainly wrong, they tarnish China’s image – and no amount of public relations can undo the damage. For example, when the Chinese government kept the Nobel Peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, in prison and prevented his wife from going to Norway to claim the award in 2010, its actions shocked the world. ... Given how influential the Western media are in informing and shaping public opinion around the world, Beijing should have much better success in image management, at no cost, if it treats Western journalists with minimum professional courtesy and allows them greater access inside China. Their stories about China may not be flattering, but by creating the conditions for them to portray a more realistic and unvarnished China to the international community, Beijing can help the world see China as it is, warts and all." Image from

Blatter hails Chipolopolo - zambianinquirer.com: "FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said Zambia’s 2012 Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final triumph over Ivory Coast in Gabon last Sunday is proof enough that the Chipolopolo’s [nickname of Zambia's national soccer team] return to Libreville was

meant to honour their 1993 fallen heroes. ... Chipolopolo’s triumph has significantly enhanced Zambia’s visibility everywhere in the European communities as a major tool for the country’s public diplomacy with rave reviews in the media." Image from

Strategic and International Studies Center organizes a British-Bahraini discussion seminar - bna.bh: "Tuesday morning is the launch of the discussion seminar titles: External Factors Influencing British-Bahraini Relations; prospects for trans-regional co-operation, organized by Bahrain's Centre for Strategic and International Studies and Energy and the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies 'RUSI'. King's Advisor for Public Diplomacy and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Center for Strategic and International nd Energy Studies Dr. Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar announced that he will speak at the launching ceremony of the discussion seminar along with Chief of Public Security Major-General Tariq Al-Hassan and British Ambassador to Bahrain Iain Lindsay and Dr. Jonathan Eyal is Director of Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)."

The PR Octopus & Its Incredibly Long Tentacles - marcowenjones.wordpress.com: "[T]he information war in Bahrain is insidious, inexorable and unpleasant.

The snapshot provided in the blog is just one aspect of a broader trend – the attempt control information and ’media content through propaganda, psychological operations, information intervention, and strategic public diplomacy.’ (Bakir, 2011)" Image from article

Monday, February 20, 2012 - jobs-kenya.blogspot.com: "INFORMATION SPECIALIST Recruiter: U.S. Embassy Location: Nairobi Available: Immediately Category: Media Offer: FP-5; FSN-10 Introduction The Somalia Unit in Public Diplomacy Section has an opening for the position of Information Specialist. The position will be available immediately."

RELATED ITEMS

Green Zone empties out under Iraqi control - Dan Morse, washingtonpost.com: BAGHDAD — Green Zone. International Zone. The Bubble. To the foreigners still living there, the Iraqi capital’s fortified center has a new name: Ghost Town. The Iraqi government has taken full control of the former heart of the American occupation. It decides who gets past the 17-foot-tall concrete blast walls encircling the zone.

On the inside, Iraqi police and military forces have raided the offices of private security companies, prompting the firms and commercial companies that rely on them to relocate. “They have hit a point where it’s virtually impossible to stay,” said Doug Brooks, president of the International Stability Operations Association, a trade group that represents foreign firms and nonprofit organizations in Iraq. The result: The International Zone has become the Iraqi Zone, and an increasingly isolated one at that. Image from article, with caption: The empty streets of Baghdad's International Zone in Iraq. To the foreigners still living there, the Iraqi capital’s fortified center has a new name: Ghost Town.

War on terror -- Round 3: Even as our troops march hither and yon, America seems to be losing the thread in an 'era of persistent conflict' - Andrew J. Bacevich, latimes.com: Kill the people who want to kill Americans and don't stop until they are all dead: This defines the strategy of undersecretary of Defense for intelligence Michael Vickers, which has now become U.S. strategy. The United States is finished with the business of sending large land armies to invade and occupy countries.

Instead, it uses missile-firing drones along with hit-and-run attacks to eliminate anyone the president of the United States decides to eliminate (including the occasional U.S. citizen). As Israel has discovered, once targeted assassination becomes your game, the list of targets has a way of getting longer and longer. Image from article, with caption: This file photo taken on August 25, 2011 shows Pakistani security personnel examining a crashed U.S. surveillance drone.

The President Has Been Given a False Choice on Iran: The Joint Chiefs have said a massive, sustained air campaign would be needed to set back the nuclear program. Not so - Edward Luttwak, Wall Street Journal: In September 2007, when the Israeli air force invisibly and inaudibly attacked the nuclear reactor that Syria's Assad regime had imported from North Korea, wholly destroying it with no known casualties. To be sure, an equivalent attack on Iran's critical nuclear nodes would have to be several times larger. But it could still be inaudible and invisible, start and end in one night, and kill very few on the ground. The resulting humiliation of the regime might be worthwhile in itself.

Iran Raid Seen as a Huge Task for Israeli Jets - Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times:  Should Israel decide to launch a strike on Iran, its pilots would have to fly more than 1,000 miles across unfriendly airspace, refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses, attack multiple underground sites simultaneously — and use at least 100 planes. That is the assessment of American defense officials and military analysts close to the Pentagon, who say that an Israeli attack meant to set back Iran’s nuclear program would be a huge and highly complex operation. They describe it as far different from Israel’s “surgical” strikes on a nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.

War Propaganda Corporate Media Steers World Toward Disaster - Kurt Nimmo, globalresearch.ca: The establishment media has slipped into overdrive. It is determined to fan the flames of hysteria and set the stage for a devastating attack on Iran. [Includes videos].

Iran Propaganda Campaign Ramps Up Again - Michael S. Rozeff, lewrockwell.com: An overt Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran is not a foregone conclusion, not yet. The (thinly-traded) Intrade market-assessed odds at this time are about 1.7 to 1 against it by September 2012 and about 1 to 1 (or 50–50) by December. These odds change all the time. The September odds were 4–1 in late January. They've jumped in February. What we are now experiencing is another step in a concerted propaganda campaign initiated and conducted on purpose by the U.S. government. The major media are the conduit for it.

Israeli propaganda aimed at American dogs, literally - As'ad, The Angry Arab News Service: A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and Art: "Dogs in California have a new source of entertainment: a TV channel by a former Israeli Army propagandist. An Israeli company launched a new TV channel for Dogs in San Diego; the Executive chairman, Yossi Uzrad, was executive producer of the Channel 2 news company and the head of the news desk at the IDF (Israeli Occupation Army) radio station in Israel.

In a nutshell, an Israeli army propagandist is running a Dog's TV channel. Are you sure your shows would not make America's dogs aggressive or convince them of occupying some family's home after moving them to a refugee camp?" Image from

Column: What could we do for Syria? - Michael O'Hanlon,USA Today: One possibility is a naval or air operation to spur a coup against Assad. A second option could be a broader air campaign, similar to what NATO conducted in Bosnia in 1995 and in Kosovo in 1999. A final option would be to create a safe zone for Syrian civilians, using airpower and some modest number of outside ground troops.None of these ideas looks decisive, and all are risky. But it's not too early to start debating them — and to start threatening the Syrian regime that unless the violence ceases, the world will reassess its options.

News About Syria: Information or Propaganda? [video] - counterinformation.wordpress.com

U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014 - Ronald E. Neumann, Washington Post: The transition strategy must be adaptable. In some areas, the Afghans would lead, with U.S. advisers and with larger U.S. combat formations available to support as needed. In other areas, where tough clearing operations are required, the U.S. military would continue to lead for some time.

WikiLeaks, a Postscript - Bill Keller, New York Times: WikiLeaks transformed our world really, not all that much. The publication of so many confidences and indiscretions did not bring U.S. foreign policy to a halt. But it did, at least temporarily, complicate the lives of U.S. diplomats. American officials say that foreign counterparts are sometimes more squeamish about speaking candidly, and that it is harder to recruit and retain informants around the world. Here’s the paradox the documentaries have overlooked so far: The most palpable legacy of the WikiLeaks campaign for transparency is that the U.S. government is more secretive than ever.

AMERICANA

U.S. manufacturing sees shortage of skilled factory workers - Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post: Through a combination of overseas competition and productivity gains, the United States has lost nearly 4 million manufacturing jobs in the past 10 years. But many manufacturers say the losses have not yielded a surplus of skilled factory workers.

Instead, as automation has transformed factories and altered the skills needed to operate and maintain factory equipment, the laid-off workers, who may be familiar with the old-fashioned presses and lathes, are often unqualified to run the new. Compounding the problem is a demographic wave. At some factories, much of the workforce consists of baby boomers who are nearing retirement. Many of the younger workers who might have taken their place have avoided the manufacturing sector because of the volatility and stigma of factory work, as well as perceptions that U.S. manufacturing is a “dying industry.” Image from