"The only downside is that I now think every newspaper article I read is propaganda."
--A student in the class, "Propaganda and US Foreign Policy: A Historical Overview," in his evaluation of the course; image from
VIDEO
Columbia Journalism Review Discusses Journalism in the Digital Age - BBG Strategy. Via LJB.
Image: VOA Director David Ensor from entry
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Does Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan Work? Go Tell the Marines – Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: [Metrics:] “The old saying, any road will get you there if you don’t know where you’re going, applies here. If I was to ask a question of someone important in Public Affairs, I’d ask this: why isn’t your whole ‘PD’ strategy built around sending out messages in bottles dropped into the ocean? Now of course the analogy only goes so far, but just as the message in the bottle strategy can be dismissed with a quick thought experiment (who knows who reads what, and what they do after the read it), can anyone really make a different claim for the State Department’s current efforts? Metrics start with a clear goal, an end state to use the military term, and work backwards from there. One of the core problems with the State Department, and the one that most significantly contributes to the Department’s increasing irrelevance in foreign policy, is that State seems just content to ‘be,’ to create conditions of its own continued existence. What if instead the organization had more concrete goals? Then we could measure back from them. I’ll not trouble readers with my own list of foreign policy goals, but if the best you can come up with is something so broad as ‘engage the public’ then you are pretty close to having no real goal at all. Best to throw notes into the ocean and hope for the best. Several Public Diplomacists at State wrote in, claiming that they were ‘sure they were effective’ but said that there was no way for them to measure their effectiveness, apparently apart from some gut instinct they acquired in training. Yeah, right. Go tell that to the Marines. [The Marines Man Up:] The Marine Corps decided their own public diplomacy strategy in Afghanistan (though they call it psyops, and other[s] refer to it as propaganda) needed to be evaluated by a third party. They hired the Rand Corporation to review their programs, and then freaking published the results, good and bad, for the world to see. ... [T]he Marines were willing to seek an assessment, and then published that assessment, warts and all, on the internet. Sure, this is not perfect. But the assessment does include recommendations, and so now anyone concerned, including the entire Corps, is aware of the good and bad, and knows the way forward. One team, one voice kind of thing. It is of course more likely that I will awake tomorrow with a third nipple than that the State Department would seek such an assessment of its efforts in Afghanistan and then go on to announce the results publicly. In fact, with a great sigh of relief from the State Department, the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy was shut down in December 2011, closing off even that modest portal of review. [Want $10 Million Dollars?:] Meanwhile, the American Embassy in Kabul is moving ahead, offering grants of up to $10 million a project for things as vague and broad as ‘Strengthen people-to-people ties to deepen the partnership between communities within Afghanistan and between Afghanistan and the United States .’ You can also get multi-million dollar grants to teach English to Afghans, a worthy goal considering the Government Accountability Office cited lack of language skills as one of the problems dogging State’s efforts in Afghanistan . Assessment? How about this self-assessment from a Public Diplomacy practioner in Afghanistan , headlined ‘NATO can win the war in Afghanistan with Pubic Diplomacy’ (her typo in the headline, not mine, check the link yourself): [‘] This is a Facebook post from a young Afghan who just graduated from Kabul University Afghanistan . But in reality there is progress in Afghanistan and young Afghans are the future of their country. ['] [The Twitter Tells All:] And finally, no discussion of Public Diplomacy at State is complete with a word on social media, the newest flavor of Kool Aid at Foggy Bottom. Winning hearts and minds? Maybe not. Here’s some messages from today’s American Embassy Kabul Twitter feed, following Obama’s victory lap into Kabul announcing a new dawn or whatever:
Mahtab Farid – Facebook: “Honored to announce Dr. Ali Ahmad Jalali, former Interior Minister of
Bureau of International Information Programs Coordinator Dawn L. McCall Travels to Los Angeles and Atlanta - Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson, U.S. Department of State: "Bureau of International Information Programs Coordinator Dawn L. McCall is in Los Angeles, California to meet with media industry experts, then travels to Atlanta, Georgia to meet with international digital campaign experts. Discussions will focus on the latest developments in digital engagement and connective communication technology to inform and expand IIP’s array of public diplomacy products and services for embassies and consulates around the world. In particular, Coordinator McCall’s meetings will focus on developments in social media, gaming for social impact, mobile platforms, video campaigns, and evaluation and measurement. For more information, please email IIPInquiries@state.gov."
Russia and US continue to discuss cultural stand-off - Senior officials aim to lift loans suspension following dispute over sacred Jewish books - Sophia Kishkovsky, theartnewspaper.com: "Mikhail Shvydkoy, the Kremlin’s international cultural envoy and Tara Sonenshine, the US’s new Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, have discussed the cultural stalemate between Russia and the US over sacred Jewish books. Russian state television has reported that Shvydkoy said that he and Sonenshine agreed in April that they 'must reach an intergovernmental agreement as quickly as possible that would guarantee the security of Russian cultural treasures exhibited in the US'. Shvydkoy, who was at the US state department to discuss cultural, educational, sports and media exchanges between the two countries, said that he and Sonenshine had 'discussed separately those difficulties that exist in Russian-American relations as a result of the famous suit over the Schneerson collection, according to the Rossiya television channel. Russia suspended exchanges following a 2010 court ruling due to a prolonged legal wrangling over a collection of books and religious documents sacred to the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community. As The Art Newspaper reported earlier this month, talks had broken down and Chabad has moved to have Russia fined by the US federal court. Major US museums have confirmed that they are not seeking loans from Russian museums while the impasse continues. 'We are discussing with our Russian counterparts ways to ensure that valuable cultural exchanges between Russian and American institutions may resume,' a US state department official told The Art Newspaper. 'Those discussions are ongoing.' The objects in dispute include more than 12,000 books and 50,000 religious documents, usually referred to as the Schneerson library and archive, gathered by five generations of rabbis of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement
[The Schneerson Library is a collection of old Jewish books and manuscripts, put together by rabbis of the Chabad Jewish community in the late 18th century in Belarus. It is one of the Jewish religious relics. Part of the collection amassed by Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, was nationalized by Bolsheviks in 1918 and ended up at the Russian State Library. The other part was taken out of the Soviet Union by Schneerson, who emigrated in the 1930s]. . ... [The] US continues to promise Russia that there is no risk to its works of art. 'We have attempted to reassure Russian authorities that, under the 46-year-old US statute granting immunity from judicial interference for works of art on loan from foreign countries for temporary exhibit in the United States, all such artwork—including Russian art—has been safely returned,' the state department official told The Art Newspaper. ... Meanwhile, as exchanges are yet to resume, Shvydkoy has helped to organise an exhibition, beginning in May at New York’s ABA Gallery, of 18th to 20th-century Russian art, drawn from American and European private collections, including those of dancer and choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov and violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov. 'It’s to remind our colleagues that Russian art exists,' said Shvydkoy. 'Because a serious vacuum has developed.'” Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson image from
Overcoming Obstacles, Closing the Gap: Strengthening the Political Participation of Women - Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson, U.S. Department of State: "Tara Sonenshine, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, will represent the U.S. Department of State in 'Overcoming Obstacles, Closing the Gap: Strengthening the Political Participation of Women' on May 9 in Washington DC. This event, sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Embassy of Switzerland, will feature panel discussions and remarks by women political and government leaders from the United States and Switzerland, academic authorities on gender issues, and civil society leaders. Panelists will discuss the challenges, best practices, next steps, and the role of governments and civil society in furthering gender equality in the political sphere. Other speakers at the event include U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Swiss National Councilor Christa Markwalder, and Shauna Shames, an expert on gender and race in American politics. For further information, please contact Elizabeth Sullivan at SullivanEG@state.gov or (202) 647-1982."
Get “Smart”: Paving the Way to a More Efficient Alliance - atlantic-council.ca: "NATO’s Smart Defense initiative aims to provide more security for less money. The Alliance can reach this goal by facilitating more cooperation, providing efficiency mechanisms, encouraging cooperation amongst like-minded states, and including non-NATO actors.
Atlantic-community.org’s 'Your Ideas, Your NATO' policy workshop competition challenged students and young professionals to answer the question: How might NATO encourage nations, concerned about diminished sovereignty, to invest in Smart Defense? What mechanisms would make this kind of cooperation efficient and effective? ... 'Your Ideas, Your NATO,' is sponsored by the NATO Public Diplomacy Division, the US Mission to Germany, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation." Image from
China's Soft Power Deficit: To catch up, its politics must unleash the many talents of its civil society - Joseph S. Nye, Jr, Wall Street Journal: "I was recently invited to lecture at several Chinese universities about 'soft power'—the ability to get what one wants by attraction and persuasion rather than coercion or payment. Since the 1990s, thousands of essays and articles have been published in China on the topic, and the lectures drew large crowds. ... China is spending billions of dollars to increase its soft power. China has also created several hundred Confucius Institutes around the world to teach its language and culture. The enrollment of foreign students in China increased to 240,000 last year from just 36,000 a decade ago, and China Radio International now broadcasts in English around the clock. In 2009-10, Beijing invested $8.9 billion in external publicity work, including 24-hour cable news channels. ... Great powers try to use culture and narrative to create soft power that promotes their national interests, but it's not an easy sell when the message is inconsistent with their domestic realities.
As I told the university students, in an Information Age in which credibility is the scarcest resource, the best propaganda is not propaganda. The 2008 Olympics was a success abroad, but shortly afterward China's domestic crackdown on human rights activists undercut its soft-power gains. The Shanghai Expo was also a great success, but it was followed by the jailing of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo. His empty chair at the Oslo ceremony was a powerful symbol. And for all the efforts to turn Xinhua and China Central Television into competitors for CNN and the BBC, there is little international audience for brittle propaganda. ... After I finished speaking, a party official told the students that the Chinese approach to soft power should focus on culture, not politics. I hope this changes. The development of soft power need not be a zero-sum game. If Chinese soft power increases in the U.S. and vice versa, it will help make conflict less likely. All countries can gain from finding attraction in each others' cultures. But for China to succeed in this, its politics must unleash the talents of its civil society." Image from article, with caption: Visitors are seen in front of the Chinese pavilion at the site of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
“Winds from the East: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Influence the Media in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia” – A Crit[i]cal Review - misgee, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 4: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "The world as we look at it today has gone through visible cycles of change regarding how nations conduct their foreign policy relations to achieve political advantage, and even more paramount, economic presence in a less than stable fiscal state of affairs. One of these changes has been the global trend of public diplomacy dictating how states engage with publics, both foreign and local.
China, like many of the major nations is powering its ‘soft power’ initiatives gradually, yet, with effective stealth. Where states in the west have reduced media support outside of its borders due to constraints brought about by the economic downturn of the past few years, China, however, is bucking the trend, as it reaches out to the foreign audiences of Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Th[e above-cited] report is an analysis of how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is 'using various components of public diplomacy to influence the media in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia' (Farah andMosher 2010, p.4). It was co-authored by Douglas Farah and Andrew Mosher for ‘The Center for International Media Assistance’ (CIMA), a project of the National Endowment for Democracy which aims to 'strengthen the support, raise the visibility, and improve the effectiveness of media assistance programs' to democracies around the world (http://cima.ned.org/)." Image from entry
Canada’s public diplomacy - sad0469, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 2: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University
Critical Review of the Danish Foreign Ministry’s ‘Danmark i Dialog Med Verden’ - kif0042, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 2: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "Due to the accelerating speed of globalization and the communications revolution the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recognised the importance of grabbing the prominence of public and cultural diplomacy to promote a more positive image of Denmark abroad. Reasoned the major diplomatic setback Denmark experienced as a result of the Cartoon Crisis, Denmark has assigned greater priority to the MENA-region as a crucial strategic target of PCD.
The report, ‘Danmark i Dialog med Verden’ (Denmark in Dialogue with the World) provides a range of examples of public and cultural diplomacy initiatives around the world with a particular focus on the MENA-region. A special emphasis on cooperation with non-state actors such as NGOs, companies, interest-organisations and the media is articulated." Image from
Institute for Cultural Diplomacy – Leaders for Tomorrow - cdnews1.wordpress.com: "Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD)1 is an international and nongovernmental organization founded in United States in 1999. Based in Berlin, with headquarters in Washington, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ecuador, ICD represents a global network of organization involved in public and private sector, individuals and distinguished persons from all areas with the same goal and idea — promoting interconnections between people and culture in order to exchange knowledge, experience and ideas. The ultimate ICD goal is to promote global peace by strengthening social and cultural interactions between people interested with and involved in the field of cultural diplomacy. ... In promoting the field of cultural diplomacy, ICD organizes programs that target the development of awareness and understanding of the practice of cultural diplomacy. The aim of the ICD programs is to gather young scholars from all parts of the world, to encourage and support them to explore the field of cultural diplomacy according to their interests and field of expertise and, if it is possible, to subsequently initiate independent projects of their own. Senior lecturers who participate in ICD events are members of long list of distinguished names from academic, political, military, public diplomacy and civil society areas."
One Handshake at a Time……..Really?! - misgee, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 4: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "So what is citizen diplomacy? Hmm, another question I cannot seem to make sense of."
RELATED ITEMS
The U.S. is right to strike hard at terrorists in Yemen - Editorial, Washington Post: The White House recently authorized an expansion of drone attacks in Yemen. In addition to targeting designated leaders connected to plots against the United States, the new authority allows strikes against militants who are believed to be preparing attacks but whose identities might not be fully known.
Drone strikes alone will not eliminate the threat: The United States must also aim at the political and economic stabilization of Yemen. But President Obama is not only justified in responding with military force, he is obligated to do so in order to defend the country. Image from
Quarantining U.S. Propaganda Overflow In Yemen - James Gundun, The Trench: A large amount of information and disinformation has been released from two events in Yemen. Following the death-by-drone of Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, a midlevel player in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Obama administration approved the public release of a foiled bomb-making plot involving a double agent. The resulting mass of intel must be broken down and sorted in accordance with Yemen's environment. The current wave of U.S. propaganda wasted no time gathering momentum from the death of al-Quso, who was targeted on May 6th in Shabwah governorate (in al-Awlaki territory). By eliminating high-profile AQAP figures and thwarting a small number of external plots, the administration can sell its policy in Yemen (and the overall war against al-Qaeda) as an undeniable success - even though AQAP has grown its footprint throughout this time.
I’m Bin Laden and I Approve This Message - Mark Tapson, frontpagemag.com: As if SEAL Team Six’s successful elimination of Osama bin Laden weren’t a big enough score, the raid on his compound in Abbottabad also yielded captured documents for analysis by experts in the Intelligence Community. These communications between bin Laden
and his lieutenants have so far led to interesting revelations about al Qaeda, such as the jihadist organization’s perceptions about exploiting Western media to promote its propaganda to the public. Image from
From Beijing With Love - Jeffrey H. Smith, New York Times: The case of Chen Guangcheng, the dissident who escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the American Embassy in Beijing, attracted global attention not only because Mr. Chen bravely stood up for human rights in China but also because American officials seemed to stumble when he sought our help. But these cases are never simple. In the Chen case, the administration may have made some missteps, but the solution — to let him enter the United States as a student — seems a good one. Our consistent support of dissidents during the cold war played a key role in the collapse of Communism, and American officials must keep this history and our values in mind as they struggle with each case. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton got it right when she sought a solution to the Chen incident “that reflected his choices and our values.” That must never change.
The U.N. Wants to Run the Internet: Authoritarian regimes want to prohibit anonymity on the Web, making it easier to find and arrest dissidents - L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal: Here's a wake-up call for the world's two billion Web users, who take for granted the light regulation of the Internet: A group of 193 countries will meet in December to reregulate the Internet.
Every country, including China, Russia and Iran, gets a vote. Can a majority of countries be trusted to keep their hands off the Web? The Internet shows how creativity can flourish when government governs least. The Web allows permissionless innovation, where no one needs an operating license or other authorization. This doesn't leave much of a role for multinational groups like the U.N., even if some governments are plotting otherwise. Image from article
America and the Value of 'Earned Success': 'We found that even when good things occurred that weren't earned, like nickels coming out of slot machines, it did not increase people's well-being' - Arthur Brooks, Wall Street Journal: Earned success is at the root of American exceptionalism. The opposite of earned success is "learned helplessness," a term coined by Martin Seligman, the eminent psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. It refers to what happens if rewards and punishments are not tied to merit: People simply give up and stop trying to succeed.
Kenya: China's Media Footprint in Country - Committee to Protect Journalists, posted at allafrica.com: Will China's quickly expanding media presence in Africa result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on the continent--much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English service in 2006--or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda? Beijing's soaring investments in Africa, which rose 87 percent last year according to China Radio International, include a heavy concentration in the media, especially in Kenya. This year China launched CCTV in East Africa with its headquarters in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. The state broadcaster has 50 local staff here and 14 correspondents across the continent in South Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Senegal with plans to expand to 150 staff, according to operations manager and Editor Robert Soi. Since January, Kenyans have been able to hear a daily one-hour broadcast of CCTV's "Africa Live," and the channel plans to become an all news, 24-hour channel similar to France 24 or CNN by 2015.
The Victory Day - sputnikinbelarus.blogspot.com: "On this day 67 years ago Nazi Germany capitulated to the Soviet Union in the Second World War (also known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union). Heroines of my story were all active participants of the war. They are 'Heroes of the Nation'. I was portraying women – veterans of the Second World War. I was inspired by Svetlana Alekseyevich’s book War’s Unwomanly Face. I wanted to meet women who were brave enough to be soldiers. All these brave women of different origin were fighting in World War II for their homeland. The war was difficult for them. They were very young when the war had started (16-18) and they had to learn plenty of things necessary during the war. They were nurses, truck drivers, work in communications, they were partisans. Most of them went to army as volunteers because to defend their homeland. They had to fight and to share difficult living conditions with men soldiers. Soviet and post-soviet propaganda didn’t forget about them. They were given medals and prizes and stated 'Heroes of the Nation'. They were taking part in the parades, invited to schools to tell pupils about heroic time of war. They looked strange surrounded by men heroes but there was a equality of men and women in the USSR so no-one could forbid them to be heroes. It didn’t change after the fall of the Soviet Union. All Belarusian history and identity is about war - this is what my friend's Andrey Liankievich's story is about. Now the old ladies I met are at the end of their lives.
Belarus is their home. A lot of them miss Soviet Union. They don’t understand why the empire collapsed. In Belarus no-one asks questions about the war. There is no public discussion about it. The veterans are heroes and they have good lives with good pension. Every year in May their faces are on propaganda posters in Minsk, Brest, Grodno and other cities. No-one realizes that not everybody was happy of freedom brought by Soviet Army. Meetings with these old Belarussian women made me also aware of how differently the history of my own country (Poland) and that of her heroic veterans’ country are written. There is a lot on history and propaganda in this summary. But in the end the story is just a record of intimate meetings with brave, old women, who experienced a lot and who are at the end of lives. Most of them are happy. This is so optimistic! It is like a happy end." Image from article
Azerbaijani Government Media Stopped Its Anti-German Propaganda Campaign - On the eve of 67th anniversary of the end of the World War II, pro-government media in Azerbaijan unilaterally suspended the information war against Germany. This week has shown the absence of anti-German journalists and materials and semi-official statements of the administration of the president Aliyev.
Mexican Congress Candidate Issues Topless Poster - thejakartaglobe.com:
Image from article, with caption: Mexican candidate to federal deputy for District 8 of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Natalia Juarez poses with a propaganda poster depicting herself and other activists posing topless in Guadalajara, Mexico. Mexico will hold presidential elections next July 1, 2012.
President in petticoats: Photography exhibit shows wildly imaginative depictions of Jefferson Davis as he fled the South after Lee's surrender - dailymail.co.uk: He led the Confederacy during its charge for succession. But after its inglorious surrender in the American Civil War, President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, was very much caught with his skirt up, according to these propaganda photographs.
The statesman, who became a political fugitive after the South fell, is said to have fled in such haste he grabbed his wife's overcoat rather than his own - a story re-imagined by northern artists depicting reports of his capture in a woman's petticoat. Image from article, with caption: Portrait of disgrace: 'Jeff Davis in disguise', 1865, was said to have depicted Davis at the time of his capture - in womens' dress
AMERICANA
"As historian James McPherson has so nicely put it, after the Civil War the term 'United States' became a singular rather than plural noun."
--Joseph J. Ellis, "When American narratives collide: Conservatives have the Founding Fathers' story; liberals have the arc of history. Which will prevail?," latimes.com
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
"The researchers found that the brain regions associated with reward -- the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) -- were strongly engaged when people were talking about themselves, and less engaged when they were talking about someone else."
--Deborah Netburn, "Facebook, Twitter, other social media are brain candy, study says," latimes.com; image from article, with caption: The front door of Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
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