July 3

"I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

--Golfer Greg Norman; via KS on Facebook; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The Real Reason the US Should Consider Cutting Military Aid to Egypt - Shadi Hamid, theatlantic.com: "The U.S. could still withhold military aid to Egypt. Leverage, though, is a tricky thing. After the U.S. backed down on its last public threat to revoke aid, the challenge is making the SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] believe that it really could lose the aid this time. Therefore, the best way to restore American credibility – and, with time, to restore leverage as well — is to actually follow through on the threat.

Naturally, many Egyptians will interpret this as unwelcome interference in their domestic affairs. The U.S., then, would need to explain its position, its 'red lines,' and the consequences for crossing them through renewed public diplomacy, engaging directly with Egyptian political parties and civil society actors." Image from

Weird Moments in Public Diplomacy, No. 54 - Peter van Buren, We Meant Well: "Are the public diplomacists at the State Department getting cranky? This blog has raised questions in the past about gauging the impact of State’s Public Diplomacy and social media efforts. The old saying, any road will get you there if you don’t know where you’re going, applies here. If I was allowed back into the building and 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? 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. So, if social media is a new cool thing, and Congress will pay for it, then social media it is. 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. The good news is that apparently State is now ready to answer these questions, by the Twitter. Here goes:

Um, OK. Any links to go with those? Proof? Statistics? Anything? Bueller? Need some help understanding the difference between an 'assertion' and creating an 'argument'? Credibility means more than just saying something in a loud voice over and over. God help us all, these are the same people we pay money to to carry America’s message abroad." Image from entry

Photo of the Day: Because a U.S Flag Pin is Just What This Girl Needs? - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "US Embassy Uganda/Flickr [:] US Embassy Uganda: 'The DCM places a U.S Flag pin on a Karamajong girl'

Here’s our imagined conversation on this one: U.S. official in white shirt: I’m going to pin this U.S. Flag on you. Karamajong girl: Why? U.S. official in white shirt: Because it’ll look good on you. Karamajong girl: Okay, if you must. Is this something my sister and I can eat later? U.S. official in white shirt: Um, no, this is an American flag pin, a decoration for your dress. Karamajong girl: A decoration for my dress, yipee… but I have no shoes… We really hate/hate this photo of a tiny barefoot girl carrying a baby on her back, tolerating a U.S. official pinning a U.S. flag on her. Is this supposed to be an example of our people to people diplomacy in Africa? What are we doing pinning American flags on kids? We have seen tons of photos posted by our embassies on Flickr and FB but this is one of the few that makes us really want to puke." Image from entry, with caption: US Embassy Uganda: The DCM places a U.S Flag pin on a Karamajong girl.

Zimbabwe CLSC member visits Institution - Leah Harrison, The Chautauquan Daily: "Constantine Chimakure, Zimbabwe journalist and member of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle in Zimbabwe, visited Chautauqua Institution during Week One. In March 2011, Chautauqua Institution partnered with the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, to create one of three international Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circles. Through a grant for innovations in diplomacy, the U.S. State Department supplied Kindles loaded with 12 CLSC books to 46 Zimbabwean leaders.

One of those leaders completed a weeklong stay at Chautauqua Institution over the weekend. A member of the senior reading circle, Constantine Chimakure extended an international investigative journalism tour of the United States to visit Chautauqua. As editor of NewsDay in Zimbabwe, Chimakure is interested in investigative journalism techniques used in the U.S. and how they might help alleviate oppression in his country. 'We cannot keep quiet for a long time,' Chimakure said. 'We have to stand up and speak truth to power.'” Chimakure image from article; via SHD on Facebook.

Diplomacy Travels on Its Stomach, Too - Marian Burros, New York Times: "In [Secretary Clinton's] three and a half years at the State Department, she has transformed the way food is chosen, cooked and served at the agency’s Foggy Bottom headquarters here, and she has given it prominence as an important part of what she calls 'smart diplomacy.' ... Natalie Jones, a deputy chief of protocol, said that food is crucial 'because tough negotiations take place at the dining table.'”

Via Paul Rockower, Levantine, who writes: "The NYTimes reports on State Dept's culinary diplomacy. Notice: I didn't call it gastrodiplomacy. I am working on a working definition of the field. Culinary Diplomacy is done at a more diplomatic level, while gastrodiplomacy is done as public diplomacy to introduce cuisine at more people-to-people level." Image from

Pakistani Fashion Show in New York – a riot of colours! - pakistanpressfoundation.org: "A two-hour fashion extravaganza, held at the Pakistan House in New York on Sunday night, showcased the talent and creativity of top Pakistani designers and models before a large and distinguished audience. The catwalk was a riot of colours as over a dozen models in a range of garments, including formal wear, sashayed down in a range of garments, including formal wear, with popular Pakistani music playing in the background. ... 'This is an exercise in cultural and public diplomacy to project positive image of Pakistan and to highlight Pakistani culture and heritage,' said Consul-General Fakir Asif Hussain, the spirit behind the event. Welcoming the guests, Asif Hussain said 'With the world focused on Pakistan’s problems in recent years, many other positive areas of the country, including its thriving fashion industry, have not received the recognition they deserve. Far from being confined within geographical borders, Pakistan Fashion has gone global, leaving its distinct mark on almost every major culture in the world.'”

Is NATO Deterring Itself? - Julian Lindley–French, spearheadresearch.org: "Is NATO deterring itself? A two day meeting here in a searingly hot Rome on NATO’s Deterrence and Defense Posture Review (DDPR) reaffirmed to me the deep transatlantic gulf over NATO’s twenty-first century role. Sadly, no answer will be found to NATO’s existential twenty-first century question: is the Alliance integral to America’s world view or merely a group of failing regional actors with whom Americans may from time to time act? The DDPR concerns the twenty-first century modernization of NATO’s core Article 5 collective defense, or at least it should if the Alliance knew anything about public diplomacy.

DDPR has four elements: nuclear deterrence, missile defense, defense against cyber-attack, and the maintenance of a sufficient number of linked up, moveable fighting soldiers to deter or strike back at any aggressor be it a state or a terrorist organization. There is also a fifth element: arms control and disarmament inserted mainly at the insistence of the Germans to assuage domestic political opinion." Image from

Why Rio+20 Was Really Iran+20 - Eric Ehrmann, algemeiner.com: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought his sanction busting Iranathon to Brazil under the green cover of the United Nations Rio+20 sustainability conference recently, stealing the show with accusations that Washington and its pro-embargo allies are 'bullying' the Islamic republic. But the big backstory on the event is how Iran– over the past twenty years– has become the biggest loudspeaker for anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial on the planet, stealing the thunder from Neo Nazis in Germany and Austria and right wing hate groups in Russia and the United States. ... The Wiesenthal Center also weighed in with a statement asking president Dilma and other world leaders not to meet with Ahmadinejad, who does have a documented history of using public diplomacy platforms to deny the Holocaust."

Re-Balancing of India-US Equation - P S Suryanarayana, southasiandiaspora.org: "As of June 2012, both India and the US are, at best, trying to hedge against the possibility that China may rise above the extraordinary state of flux in global affairs and may even reach the top of the world-order. Such a hedging against China is evident from the public diplomacy of the relevant countries at play. Moreover, there is no discernible action behind the scenes to indicate a coordinated US-India move against China. Indeed, the current international context militates against a potential anti-China move by two or more countries."

leisure and entertainment - Power Level in Diablo 3, Gold in Diablo 3: "Morning news reporter ZouLe Zhangshuo will advance the public diplomacy activities in Beijing Morning News (Xinhua Zou Le Zhang Shuo), municipal Foreign Affairs Office Director Zhao Huimin, Director of the Office of the Organizing Committee of the Forum yesterday said in media interviews, public diplomacy is an important complement to national official diplomacy, organizing international forums are an important part of national public diplomacy, they can meet the national official diplomacy, cityAnd national influence.

The Beijing Municipal Government will in the future according to the needs of the country’s overall foreign, combined with the construction of 'world city' goals, continue to advance the public diplomacy activities. (Editors: Lv Yang)." Image from

CUSIB Advisory Board Member Appo Jabarian thanked Congressman Schiff for supporting Voice of America, discussed funding and need for transparency at Broadcasting Board of Governors - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting Board Member Appo Jabarian, who serves as the Executive Publisher and Managing Editor of USA Armenian Life magazine, met with Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) in Pasadena on Monday July 2, 2012 to discuss ongoing concerns about the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Voice of America (VOA) and BBG-managed grantee broadcasters.

Mr. Jabarian thanked Congressman Schiff for his record of support as Member of the House Appropriations Committee for approving funding for radio and television programs to areas of the world that rely upon U.S. broadcasting services for news and information because their local media are subject to government censorship. Congressman Schiff pointed out that he has been a long time supporter of Voice of America and will continue to do so." Image from entry, with caption: Congressman Adam Schiff and CUSIB member Appo Jabarian

Why independent reporter Matthew Russell Lee annoys Voice of America? - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "BBG Watch has reviewed copies of emails sent by Mr. Lee to Steve Redisch, VOA director David Ensor, and another VOA senior executive Sonja Pace. We did not find them threatening or even harassing. In his emails, Mr. Lee stated that he has become a target of threats from Sri Lankan extremists because of his investigative reporting on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and attempts by UN officials to deny war crimes in that country. He was asking VOA executives that their correspondent cease her move to have him expelled from the United Nations Correspondents Associations since he saw this action as emboldening individuals making these threats."

XX Diplomacy—When Women Lead, the World Improves - Cari Guittard, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "[W]we need more women in diplomacy and global careers. I am encouraged to see more and more women in my Corporate Diplomacy courses at USC. They are pursuing Masters in Public Diplomacy and are passionate about making a difference in the world. I know they will and I am excited to see their careers progress – I just wish there were hundreds and thousands of them ready to go."

‘Will Intern for Travel’ - blogs.hsc.edu: "One aspect of my internship I like is the variety of the work. Public Affairs consists of three sections: press relations, cultural affairs, and academic affairs. Being the only intern in the office, I’m asked to work on substantive tasks for each. I mentioned in my last posts that we are holding a concert for the Fourth of July. ... My job was to distribute the tickets, ensuring that important people were seated where they needed to be. In this process I realized how important the locally employed staff really is in the embassy. Diplomats leave every 2-3 years, so when the next attaché comes in, the very competent and experienced locally employed staff provides continuity for the section, maintaining contacts and providing cultural and historical advice. ... The academic affairs section works on many different programs, the most notable is the Fulbright scholarship. Each year, about 15 Fulbrighters go to earn graduate degrees in The U.S. and are to return to the DR [Dominican Republic] to apply their experience here. The DR government actually funds the majority of these scholarships because they are so popular here. Right now we are finding high school students for a bi-national camp this summer. Relations between Haitians and Dominicans are best described as volatile. I thought our border debate in the U.S. could become heated, but it can be really bad down here. The camp is taught in English and is focused on mutual understanding between Haitians and Dominicans. I interviewed high school students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in a mix of Spanish and English. ... Another perk of working in public affairs is

we are the party people. If we didn’t plan the party, we need to be there to handle the press or for someone in my office to emcee it. Though I’ll be working, I look forward to going to the exclusive Fourth of July lunch at the embassy before the much larger concert event. ...All jokes aside, it should be cool to see more of the fun side of public diplomacy." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

White Houses rolls out Kenya Propaganda Plan: Aims to 'groom' journalists for favorable coverage from Nairobi to New York - Steve Peacock, wnd.com: Now that the Obama administration is pouring vast amounts of money into Kenya, it’s going to need some help selling its spending to the people. The USAID/Kenya Strategic Communications Plan 2012-2013 emerges at a time when the level of U.S. government projects in Kenya has outpaced agency resources. As WND reported, U.S. spending in Kenya has grown ‘exponentially’ under Obama, forcing USAID to hire contractors to oversee it all. On June 29 USAID attached the Kenya propaganda plan – which itself is dated June 16 – as an addendum to its procurement documents. The Kenya strategic plan maps out its intentions in the context of the White House’s position that a “stable and prosperous Kenya is central to American foreign policy.” Indeed, the document’s first line establishes that “USAID/Kenya is playing a lead role implementing President Obama’s vision for global development, which sees development assistance as a pillar of foreign policy and crucial to America’s national security and economic interests.” The document repeatedly asserts that helping Kenya is crucial to safeguarding those interests, claiming that “U.S. development efforts can defuse the anger and injustice that fuel conflict.” It declares that the U.S. government therefore must exert greater effort to influence how “targeted opinion leaders” in both nations portray U.S. assistance in Kenya. The USAID/Kenya Development and Outreach Communications, or DOC, team – in conjunction with privately contracted “implementing partners” – must leverage tactics spelled out in the strategic plan to successfully sway those leaders. The agency also refers to those leaders as “message multipliers.” “Journalists, editors and media personalities are also opinion leaders,” the document says. “They determine what gets written or talked about in the media.”

The real national security threat: America's debt: Our growing national debt is a threat not only to domestic programs but to a U.S. tradition of an activist foreign policy that helped America prosper - Kenneth Lieberthal and Michael O'Hanlon, latimes.com: Another decade of underinvestment in what is required to remedy America's debt situation will make an isolationist or populist president far more likely because much of the country

will question whether an internationalist role makes sense for America — especially if it costs us well over half a trillion dollars in defense spending annually yet seems correlated with more job losses. American economic weakness undercuts U.S. leadership abroad. Other countries sense our weakness and wonder about our purported decline. Image from

Syria and the Russia connection: Delegates in Geneva agree to a new peace plan, but Moscow is still sending mixed signals as the conflict threatens to spill into other countries - Editorial, latimes.com: We have supported the Obama administration's unwillingness to intervene militarily in Syria or to arm the Syrian opposition, whose agenda is still unclear. But if the violence continues and a civil war threatens peace between Syria and its neighbors, the pressure for military action by the U.S. and its allies will increase. The Geneva agreement offers an alternative, but only if Clinton's assessment of Russian intentions is correct.

Obama's Iran Loopholes: All 20 of Iran's major trading partners have sanction exemptions - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: We've never considered sanctions likely to persuade Iran to drop its nuclear program, but it's dangerous to pursue them half-heartedly while claiming progress and keeping the international temperature down as Iran's centrifuges spin.

That's been the Obama Administration's consistent approach, and it'll probably continue at least through Election Day in November. It's a good way to comfort adversaries in Tehran and Beijing while undermining friends in Jerusalem and beyond. Image from

Castro & Co. Are Best Kept at Arm's Length: Economic growth in Latin America is at risk if tyrants are welcomed as legitimate leaders. As my family learned in Panama, poverty and tyranny go hand in hand - Juan Williams, Wall Street Journal: To romanticize any dictator is to kill those dreams by condemning poor kids in Latin America, to tyrants and the burden of limited education and economic opportunity. When we Americans have the opportunity to help neighbors prosper while standing for freedom, we ought to take it. Global capitalism and defiance of dictators are not mutually exclusive ideas. In fact, they work best when they work together.

Iranian Imams Fear Spread of House Churches - Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News: The rise of Christianity and the accompanying spread of its clandestine house churches in Iran is seen as a serious threat by the Islamic state's senior clerics.

Addressing the leaders of the Organization of Islamic Propaganda in Qom, Imam Hojatol-Eslam Seyed Mohammad Saeedi warned against "the enemy's efforts" to establish house churches and called on Iran's cultural authorities to lead the way in promoting Islamic teachings, according to Mohabat News. Image from article

Number of arrested students ‘on the rise’ in Turkey - hurriyetdailynews.com - A recent report prepared by the Solidarity with Arrested Students Platform says that there are currently 771 students in jail in Turkey. Prepared by academics from different universities, the report underlines that the majority of the students are charged with “propagandizing for an illegal organization,” although most of the arrested students are not members of any illegal organizations.

“None of the students have exerted violence against anyone. Most of them are not members of any illegal organization, although they are charged with making propaganda for them. The issues they are charged with are asking for free education or education in Kurdish. Image from article, with caption: This file photo shows a protest for the release of student Cihan Kırmızıgül.

City launches contest on Vietnam, Laos relationship - saigon-gpdaily.com.vn: The Propaganda and Education Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee has issued certain rules and regulations for organizing the contest “Learn History of Special Relationship between Vietnam and Laos”. Accordingly, gov’t officials, party members, soldiers, union members, youth league members, ordinary citizens and foreigners living and working in HCMC can participate in the contest.

Propaganda and Textiles: The USA Edition - seersuckersally.blogspot.com: A while back I wrote this post about the book "Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Britain, and the United States" in which the author, Jacqueline Atkins, shows how fashion was used to elicit feelings of patriotism during World War II. My favorite images from the book were those in which the patriotic elements were subtly incorporated into textile designs.

Since reading that book, I've been on the look out for other possible intersections of fabric and propaganda. Image from

Americas Dictatorship Phobia Goes Way Way Back… - Windows to Russia: "I read books to Sveta in English. Lately I have taken to reading the very old Nancy Drew Series to her and she loves them. They are designed for teen girls in America and are very very propaganda to sway teen minds. Sveta and I can see through that kind of stuff and we enjoy the stories about Nancy Drew and her detective escapades. The older books are based on communism and the newer books are based on terrorism. I wonder if you even realized that for over 80 years, a variety of writers using the pen name Carolyn Keene have been writing one of the biggest propaganda series in history. 80+ years of Nancy Drew saving America from the evil world. I bet you did not know, Nancy Drew was that old? (Tidbit info time – Nancy Drew first appeared in 1930!) But this latest book that I am reading to Sveta, called “Deadly Doubles” it is Nancy Drew #7 (Nancy Drew Files #7) is about dictators. This book is part of a series that was done in the eighties. It is a little more modern wording and uses the latest words of government propaganda, more familiar to today’s audience, than the original Nancy Drew’s…It uses terrorists, instead of communist and of course the term dictator is prevalent through out the book as that is what the book is about! An evil, terrible, disgusting and terrorist dictator from a South American country and what is really interesting is that the book explains to the reader that America is the cause of these revolutions happening in South America and such. Explained in such a way that makes it perfectly normal and acceptable that we interfere in a country with a Dictator…So true to form, America is interfering in a country that has a dictator as she always does and our populace has been conditioned from birth with propaganda material to make our young people consider our interference as a normal part of everyday life and that all good honest countries like America have a patriotic right to destroy dictators everywhere in the world… :) I am lucky that Sveta just likes the story and she is not into politics, for she might think that America intentionally writes books for young girls to read that includes material to sway and shape young girls minds. That is a good thing, huh!"

Discovery of Russian artist's sketch shows secret side of Soviet propaganda: Cambridge exhibition reveals before and after versions of pro-revolution poster and show how Lenin was put in the picture - Maev Kennedy, guardian.co.uk: Maksim Vladimirovich Ushakov-Poskochin, born in 1893 and best known as a book illustrator, was arrested as a political dissident in 1941 and survived just two years in the Gulag forced-labour prison camps, dying in 1943. The striking but conventional printed version of his 1925 poster showed a parade led by four heroic Soviet workers marching past a statue of Lenin, carrying a banner reading: "Hail the international proletariat revolution!"

Like thousands of other artists who became politically suspect, Ushakov-Poskochin had his work almost forgotten in the decades after his death, and the poster was unsigned. Mel Bach, the curator of the exhibition, thought she recognised his style, managed to track down his grandson Andrei Ushakov through a Russian antiques forum, and was amazed to discover that his son was also still alive, aged 89. They identified his work immediately, but had never seen the finished poster and had no idea that it had ever been printed and distributed. They sent a copy of the far more radical original drawing which had survived in the family's archives. "Identical in many respects, the sketch and the finished poster differ most noticeably in one respect," Bach said. "The place that is taken in the poster by a statue of Lenin is, in the sketch, a puppet representing the bourgeoisie dangling over a cauldron of fire." Image from article, with caption: UShakov-Poskochin's original has a puppet representing the bourgeoisie instead of a statue of Lenin. Photograph: the estate of Maksim Vladimirovich Ushakov-Poskochin

Propaganda Map - mapcatalogjaymedupchurch.blogspot.com: Propaganda maps are also known as cartographic propaganda maps are created with the goal of persuading the viewer to believe a specific way. The maps use images, scale and design to accomplish the manipulation of the viewer.

The example propaganda map is from World War II, this shows what the German Government wanted to portray to their people: the whole world was out to get them.

Blog 9: The Failure of Propaganda - Rachel's Thoughts on History:"Source: Bytwerk, Randall L. Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004. 155-169. Print. Summary: Before examining the failures of the propaganda systems of Nazi Germany and the GDR, Bytwerk discusses some of their successes. 'The primary success came in establishing the illusion, both at home and abroad, that National Socialism and Marxism-Leninism had a depth of support greater than they in fact had' (155-156). The idea was to create an image of uniformity that was not, in fact, the case. They had great goals that were easy to agree with, and propaganda provided a reason to ignore the parties’ failings. Also, the propaganda provoked actions that imitated true belief. Bytwerk gives three reasons for the failure of totalitarian propaganda: · It is untruthful · It encourages hypocrisy · It is 'in the biblical sense idolatrous, placing a human absolute in place of a divine absolute' (160). He ends the book with a biblical metaphor: 'the great dictatorships of the twentieth century … built houses upon sand that could not resist the storm' (169). The illusion of a unanimous support system was not enough because it was not real, and when the storm came, it vanished.

My Opinion: On page 164, Bytwerk makes an interesting comment: 'Whereas religions tend to integrate belief and action, totalitarian systems tend to disintegrate people’s thoughts and actions, no matter how much propaganda is poured into them.' Earlier he quotes Ellul, saying, 'The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action' (159). Bytwerk adds, 'Actions change attitudes at least as much as attitudes change actions. Propaganda builds habits of belief and expression.' Were the propagandas of Nazi and East Germany misdirected? Should they have promoted ideas rather than action? Or are 'habits' and 'actions' more important than 'ideas' and 'attitudes'? The disintegration of thoughts and actions is an important concept. If you want to have a fully convicted and engaged public, they must believe in the doctrine and then act on it. Bytwerk gives the reason that totalitarian governments fail at this: 'The fundamental problem is that the freedom to disbelieve is essential if one is to believe. Both systems demanded belief, and made it unpleasant to disbelieve, at least outwardly. Citizens knew why they were doing what they were doing in public, and felt no pressure to internalize the demands of the system, to make them their own' (164). What I really wondered while reading this chapter is, what is the role of propaganda? It sounds like a two-edged sword: it can support a system, but can also weaken the system. How do you utilize propaganda and public education without weakening your cause? I think the idea that I just brought up in the preceding paragraph has something to do with it—you need to integrate belief and action, aiming to both modify ideas and promote action." Image from

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

"Low Expectations Easily Met"

--Headline in Sydney Morning Herald

"[I]t would be nice not to feel sexually dead.”

--Ms. B., 45, a professor in New York; cited in Abby Ellin, "More Women Look Over the Counter for a Libido Fix," New York Times

IMAGE

From, with caption: A show of patriotism or just a pretty design?