February 28

"'cultural diplomacy', 'public diplomacy' now there's even 'health diplomacy'. Statesmen are not social workers!!!"

--The Westphalian Post on Twitter; image of 1951 Nash Statesman Super from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

‘Oscar diplomacy’? Obama ought to try it on Iran - David Ignatius, Washington Post: "So here’s an off-the-wall “red carpet” proposal: President Obama should invite the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi to the White House — not to talk politics, a subject over which the two countries are sharply divided, but to talk about what makes a good movie, which Farhadi’s award-winning film 'A Separation' surely is. ... Farhadi’s acceptance speech was moving because it was as clear and direct as his film: 'At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us, and I imagine them to be very happy.

They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture — a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.' So, Mr. President, invite this gifted filmmaker to the White House to celebrate his wonderful film — and signal to his countrymen that while the United States resolutely opposes Iranian policies and its threat to Israel, we respect the people of Iran and the country’s culture." Image from, with caption: Asghar Farhadi said that he accepts the award on behalf of fellow Iranians.

Why Won’t Obama Speak Frankly About Iran - Jeffrey Herf, New Republic: "The world is nearing the point where it is going to have to make some difficult decisions about how to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon—among them, a decision about whether to use military force. Given Iran’s deep hostility to the United States and Israel, as well as its history of sponsoring terrorism, the importance of denying Iran a nuclear weapon cannot be overstated. ... [Comment:] 02/28/2012 - 12:30am EDT | roidubouloi[:] TNR beating the war drums again. The reason why Obama's rhetoric is circumscribe is rather obvious. He is not prepared to use military force at this time, and all the things that Herf demands that Obama say would both make it that much more certain that Iran will not cooperate and make the quick use of force politically necessary. Once the saber is drawn, there is not choice but to use it. Herf wants the saber drawn. There is plenty of reason for ambiguity in public diplomacy and less there is a firm commitment to particular course of action and it is time to let friend and foe know just what it is. Herf wants to leap over the question whether we are well-served by the use of force and by the use of force at this time and simply make it inevitable. If and when the decision to use force is made, there will be time for the speech Herf longs to hear."

America's Ad Hoc Foreign Policy May Not be Enough in an Unstable World - George Friedman, thecuttingedgenews.com: "In the Middle East, there was little receptivity to Obama's public diplomacy. In practical terms, the expansion of Iranian power was substantial. Given Israeli fears over Iranian nuclear weapons, Obama found himself walking a fine line between possible conflict with Iran and allowing events to take their own course. This emerged as the foundation of U.S. foreign policy.

Where previously the United States saw itself as having an imperative to try to manage events, Obama clearly saw that as a problem. As seen in this strategy, the United States has limited resources that have been overly strained during the wars. Rather than attempting to manage foreign events, Obama is shifting U.S. strategy toward limiting intervention and allowing events to proceed on their own. ... The weakness in Obama's strategy is that the situation in many regions could suddenly and unexpectedly move in undesirable directions. Unlike the Cold War system, which tended to react too soon to problems, it is not clear that the current system won't take too long to react." Image from

American Music, Coast to Coast - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "I have been out of bloggy touch this week because I have been on the road with the auditions for the American Music Abroad program. As I have previously noted, the American Music Abroad program is the flagship cultural diplomacy program of the US State Department, which my organization American Voices administers. The program is the evolution of the famous Jazz Ambassadors program. We had received nearly 300 applications for the program, a record and more than double the previous year, of which the panel of judges selected approximately 40 ensembles for live auditions. This week we held the live auditions in New York, St. Louis and San Francisco. The ensembles that were invited to the live auditions were, frankly, amazing and represent the broad spectrum of the canon of American music. Over the week we heard auditions from groups representing Jazz, Hip Hop, Bluegrass, Hawaiian, Western, Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, and even genres as diverse as Indo-Appalachian blue grass. ... It is nice to know that I have a good job that appreciates my services and will let me continue to practice PD in the field and travel long and far."

Social media and national security‎ - Fergus Hanson, Government News: "Across the foreign and security policy spectrum, Australia and the United States share a great deal in common. On one foreign policy issue there is a virtual chasm between the two: ediplomacy. For the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), launching a single Twitter feed was agonising. The US State Department by contrast has almost 200 feeds and over 600 social media accounts worldwide. Where DFAT obsesses over guidance and the supposed risk of letting highly educated adults post one sentence messages, Washington has a more laissez faire approach. At a ‘Tweetorial’ I attended at the state department, training 50 diplomats on how to use Twitter, policy guidance 5 barely rated a mention, and participants—some of whom had never used social media before—were exhorted to give it a go, ‘you can’t go wrong’. Failing to adapt DFAT’s communications and public diplomacy strategy to 21st century realities is concerning, but there is an even bigger consequence. The fixation on the risks of social media has blinded DFAT

to the wider applications of new technologies to diplomacy. While DFAT hasn’t even established a dedicated ediplomacy unit, at State it has now spread beyond the 40 person Office of eDiplomacy. ... New technologies are commonly resisted by foreign ministries but it is now ten years since State established its Office of eDiplomacy. DFAT needs ediplomacy if it is going to continue to coordinate policy across an increasingly internationalised bureaucracy." Image from

Is it time to revive RFE Hungarian? [on article that appeared in The Washington Post] - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "The authors are certainly correct about avoiding the establishment of a 'bad news' station. So how is the goal of providing independent journalism to Hungary best accomplished? In 2012, Hungarians won't huddle around their shortwave sets. They probably don't even have shortwave sets. They might, in limited numbers, listen to a medium wave frequency from a neighboring country. The radio station would also be available via satellite and the internet, but this still would not attract mass audiences. A website (with the obligatory accompanying social media outlets and mobile version) might seem more suitable for the present media environment.

Again, the audience could be limited, especially because of the thousands of competing sources of information on the internet. Many Hungarians have access to satellite dishes. A channel on one of the popular European satellites could bring audiences larger than those for radio or internet efforts, but would also cost more than the other options. If it is a commercial channel that succeeds in selling advertising, those costs could be offset. Should this be an indigenous Hungarian effort, such as Klubradio using a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy and corresponding European organizations? On the other hand, the Radio Free Europe name does have stature, even if it also has a mixed historical legacy. The fact that RFE has been revived in Hungarian would itself send a message, inside Hungary and beyond. Of course, some member of Congress, perhaps forgetting that there ever was an RFE Hungarian Service, will slip in an amendment calling for the resumption of a Voice of America Hungarian Service, with the result being we will have both VOA and RFE broadcasts in Hungarian." Image from article

Smith and Mundt go to London: BBC adopts its own version of the domestic dissemination ban, BBC Worldwide press release, 22 Feb 2012 - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "'BBC.com today unveiled the latest of its new sections - Future – to offer audiences outside the UK a host of universal topics focused on future trends in the worlds of science, technology, environment and health. The new pages will be rooted in robust research to ensure they are informative yet entertaining and complement the technology, science, environment and health news pages already available on the site. At launch, Future will comprise of 12 columns, specially commissioned features from leading writers in science and technology... At launch Future will be supported by commercial partner LEXUS in America.'" [Elliott comment:] Not even Lexus spells Lexus LEXUS.

I went to BBC.com to find BBC Future, but saw no link, nor any mention of this new section. So remember this URL: bbc.com/future. The press release specifies "audiences outside the UK." Will BBC Future not be domestically disseminated? NB: James Cridland informs us that this is what is visible to UK internet users: BBC Future (international version) [']We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com. If you are looking for health, technology, science and environment news in the UK, please visit: Health, Technology, Science and Environment.[']" Image from

NATO's Public Diplomacy Overload - Daryl Morini, atlantic-community.org: "Today’s NATO suffers from a public diplomacy overload rather than an image problem. Far from being a panacea to its democratic deficit, the dominant influence of public diplomacy strategies and their advocates on Allied decision-making is arguably part of the problem. ... But what, if anything, can the Alliance do to encourage closer identification among NATO members, and between respective national publics and the Alliance as a whole? At least three steps can help to increase public identification with NATO, none of which will be easy.

Firstly, NATO policy-makers need to review their overreliance on the public diplomacy instrument, to be sure that this Janus-faced policy enabler does not itself become a policy substitute. ... Secondly, the rhetorical balance of official NATO pronouncements between soft, values-based statements and hard power expressions of interest needs to be reexamined in favor of a blunter use of language. ... Finally, if NATO is serious about its espoused liberal-democratic values, then the Public Diplomacy Division should act concretely on these by persuading the Allied ambassadors of the North Atlantic Council to accept the introduction of regular (perhaps weekly) live sessions of Council meetings. ... Any public diplomacy initiative short of this bold display of transparency and democratic accountability is just recycling old wines in new bottles - nobody will buy it." Morini image from article

Watershed Interview on Brazil’s growing role in the world - Oliver Stuenkel, postwesternworld.com: "Brazil’s natural leadership role in South America is far from uncontested, and countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia and Chile reject Brazil’s claims that it can represent South America. Attempts by Brazil to exercise regional leadership have therefore not always been received warmly.

At the same time, several countries seek to copy Brazil’s economic strategy, and a strong and stable Brazilian economy has a positive impact on the entire region. This attractiveness and economic dynamism does in fact increase Brazil’s soft power much more than any kind of public diplomacy. Yet there is also a growing uneasiness about Brazil’s economic presence in the region, and smaller neighbors are increasingly concerned about whether Brazil’s rise will be a threat to their economies, or whether they will benefit from it. On this front, Brazil probably needs to do more to assure its neighbors of its regional commitment." Stuenkel image from article

Boko Haram, CIA and Conspiracy Theories‎ - AllAfrica.com: "'The Dee Cee 'Public Relations Firms' and the government 'Public Diplomacy' and the 'Think Tanks' are secretly paid with taxpayer money to repeat the cover-up narratives. The Underwear Bomber Conspiracy has now been added to the list of forbidden topics.'- Noam Chomsky (Deterring Democracy: The Underwear Bomber Conspiracy [.] Avram Noam Chomsky is not your typical rabble-rouser by any stretch of the imagination. He is also not the sort of intellectual to hides behind linguistic guile only to pass naked prejudice and premeditated slander for the truth, like some well-travelled pseudo-intellectuals have developed a habit of doing in Nigeria."

Abu Dhabi University launches new B.A in Mass Communication - zawya.com - "Abu Dhabi University [UAE] announced the launch of a new program in Mass Communication, which will be offered to students on both the Abu Dhabi and Al Ain campuses. The new B.A in Mass Communication, offers students the choice between three areas of concentration which are: Print Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, and Strategic Communication. ... Commenting on the program's diverse concentrations, Dr. Radwan Al Jarrah, Dean of ADUADU's College of Arts and Sciences said: '... The concentration on Strategic Communication incorporates courses on public relations, advertising, and audience research components and will qualify graduates to work as speechwriters, media strategists, crisis communicators, public diplomacy experts, non-profit leaders, advertising executives, and public relations professionals'."

A call to fund-raising and educational action - New Jersey Jewish News: "The Jewish Federation of Monmouth County’s much anticipated Community Action Day — taking place Sunday, March 11, at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft — will provide an 'experiential community engagement' opportunity, said federation board chair Dr. Stuart Abraham. The daylong event will include a campaign phonathon, a PJ Library family performance, a security preparedness training program, and a community briefing on the threat from a potentially nuclear Iran. ... The security preparedness training session ... highlights one of the ways federation is being proactive and adding value for its partners . ... The panel will feature [among others] ... Gil Lainer, consul for public diplomacy at the Israeli consulate in New York."

News Article about the jetBook Color in Russian Schools - ectaco-global.blogspot.com: "We stumbled upon an article today from Progorod11 - a Russia news site in regards to eTextbooks in classrooms with a big picture of the jetBook Color being used by a student and teacher. ... A translated portion of the article is below: Schools will test electronic textbooks: Students will be engaged with eReaders. In the near future, five classes in five schools in the Komi as an experiment will go from paper to electronic textbooks.Readers and netbooks will benefit students 6-7 classes.

In each class entitled to 36 devices, with a reserve, in case of the failure. Compare the parallels. 'Readers' have come to the school through participation in a federal experiment, Komi, 'Testing of various types of interactive multimedia e-books (IMEU) in secondary schools a number of subjects of the Russian Federation.' - The purchase of units spent about three million rubles, divided into technical and humanitarian Wow high schools, school № 1 Vylgorta, Lyceum of public diplomacy, and Syktyvkar Ezhva gymnasium № 1, - said the expert of the department of information Minobraza Komi Vitaly Olshanov. - What class will use the 'reading room', to solve the educational institution. Under the terms of a parallel experiment, the class will be taught by the traditional scheme, at the end of the year to compare the results." Image from

Speaker promotes diplomatic careers - Emma McKay, duclarion.com: "Retired senior foreign service officer Andrew Koss encouraged students to pursue a career as a foreign diplomat during a speech at the Korbel School of International Studies last Wednesday. 'I recommend a career in public diplomacy because it's the perfect combination of foreign policy and creativity,' said Koss. 'It's a chance to make a difference in the conduct of our country's diplomatic affairs.' About 40 students and faculty attended the event, which was the third part in Korbel's 2012 Public Diplomacy Series."

Kudankulam: The Empire strikes back! - blogs.rediff.com: "Daly [John Daly of Johns Hopkins University] it was ... who founded the journal known as The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, which all keen observers of the politics of Russia’s ‘near abroad’ would know, is a diligent flag carrier of the US’ public diplomacy on Russia and Central Asia."

Foreign waters - dailytrojan.com: "Ruben van Gendren (left), a research fellow at Katholieke Universiteit Beuven in Belgium, speaks to Matthew Ery (right), an almunus, at the Water Diplomacy: A Foreign Policy Imperative event on Monday.

The conference, sponsored by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, addressed the issue of water scarcity in Third World countries." Image from article

Coming Soon - Kaffeeklatsch of Civilizations: "To the teeming tens of readers of my little corner of the blogosphere, I apologize for the temporary posting slowdown. I have a bit of manuscript work to do, but there are 2 posts in draft, one on public diplomacy and one on Iran, and I expect to have them live by the end of the week. Thanks for checking in and thanks for reading!"

RELATED ITEMS

The tweets that homeland security spooks look for - Rob Beschizza, Boing Boing: Joel Johnson found that the Department of Homeland Security's list of Facebook and Twitter search terms was not in an easily-available public format, "curiously embedded as an image of text" in a PDF to prevent indexing.

Image from entry

Senate study provides insight into radicalized U.S. Islamist, recommends more coordinated response - Mark Rockwell, The Internet and social media are integral ingredients in the rapid radicalization of homegrown terrorists, said a staff study by the Senate homeland security committee that recommended a coordinated government response to counter online radical propaganda and help communities intervene in the radicalization process. The report, released on Feb. 27 by the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was based on the close study of the personal writings of Zachary Chesser, the Bristow, VA man now serving a 25-year sentence for threatening the writers of the South Park television show, soliciting violent jihadists to desensitize law enforcement, and attempting to provide material support to Al-Shabaab.

GAO: Overlapping government programs cost billions - Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post: The report also identifies 18 ways that the government could save money. Among them: The State Department could reconsider requests to train and equip Iraqi security forces.

Afghanistan on edge: As recent violence over the burning of Korans shows, the U.S. mission there is fragile - Obama's acknowledging the offense to Muslim sensibilities was the decent thing to do and may have prevented an even worse backlash than the one that has cost four American lives so far. Meanwhile, the U.S. is gingerly exploring the possibility of a political solution in Afghanistan while reorienting its anti-terror strategy to targeted attacks on individuals.

Someday -- sooner rather than later, we hope -- U.S. troops will be gone and there will be less of an opportunity for clashes of culture like the conflict over the burning of the Koran. Image from article: U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker is seen during his swearing ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 25, 2011

A U.S.-Led Exit Strategy for Assad: An offer of immunity from prosecution for crimes against humanity if he left Syria would save many lives and deal a blow to Iran - Jane Harman: The U.S. should work with the Friends of Syria -- some 70 countries that met in Tunis on Friday to broker an immunity deal with the Assad regime. If Assad were allowed to leave with a guarantee of safe haven, the real work of encouraging a Syrian-led transition to a democratic and pluralistic political system could finally begin.

Arm Syria’s Rebels - Roger Cohen, New York Times: Get weapons to the Free Syrian Army. Train those forces, just as the rebels were trained in Libya. At the same time, mount a big U.N.-coordinated humanitarian effort centered on enclaves for refugees in Turkey, Jordan and elsewhere, establishing, where possible, safe corridors to these havens.

Israel says it won't warn U.S. before a strike against Iran - AP, USA Today: Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential attack.

The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran's nuclear program. Image from

NK cranks up propaganda ahead of milestone date - Kim Young-jin, koreatimes.co.kr: With just over six weeks to go before North Korea has pledged to become a “strong and prosperous state,” Pyongyang’s state-run media in recent days has been churning out reports of economic development to highlight progress ahead of the important date. The reports, which come in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder Kim Il-sung on April 15th, have focused on what observers say are key symbols of the North’s efforts toward development, including its project to refurbish Pyongyang’s Mansudae district with high-rise apartments and cultural facilities. The Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the North’s ruling Worker’s Party, recently said that as of last week, workers had “mainly finished the framework of over 20 public buildings and buckled down to internal and external projects of the buildings” among a flurry of developments. Analysts say the project intends to show the people that progress is being made in quality of life.

IMAGE

--From DiploPundit, with comment: A Mongolian service member uses a sledgehammer to smash a concrete block off the chest of another serve member during a martial arts demonstration by Mongolian military forces at the Mongolian Day ceremony Feb. 18, at International Security Assistance Force Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to ISAF, Mongolia has been part of the mission since 2010, contributing more than 100 troops in Afghanistan. They are involved in the training of Afghan National Army in Kabul and providing stability and security to Afghan populations in the northern part of the country.