September 19

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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

USAFRICOM: Libyan Consulate Attacks Suggest Flawed US Policy - Sarah Schwartz, Global Security Monitor: "Moving forward, the US and Libya have a difficult task in determining the right course of action, though both Libya and the United States have made strides towards ameliorating the situation. The State Department is increasing security for the US facilities in Benghazi, and the National Congress of Libya is officially electing a new Prime Minister. The United States will need to aid the nascent Libyan government in establishing a monopoly on the legitimate use of force and reinforcing its legitimacy in the eyes of the Libyan people.

The US cannot pull back its diplomatic mission from Libya at a time when public diplomacy between Libya and the US is crucial for the continued strengthening of relations between the US and the Arab world; to pull back our diplomatic mission would seriously damage the strides that we have made made in strengthening these relations. However, the US must also recognize the real threat of extremist violence coming from Libya’s provinces, and cease overestimating the success of Libya’s popular revolution in establishing a peaceful and stable democratic country." Image from

U.S. issues Mideast travel warnings - Travel News: "The State Department on Monday issued a travel warning for Lebanon, the latest Middle Eastern country the U.S. government has deemed unsafe for American travelers because of the recent violence, capped by the death of the popular American ambassador to Libya, that’s partly in response to a crude video disparaging Islam’s prophet Muhammad. All but essential diplomatic personnel have been pulled from Sudan, while U.S. citizens are urged to avoid or use extreme caution in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and other places where protesters have targeted American facilities. The State Department calls the moves warranted precautionary measures for a volatile region; critics counter that the department is overcompensating for being caught off guard in the attack on its lightly guarded consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died last week. Apart from losing valuable perspective on the new political realities of the Middle East, the stringent new security precautions will hamper the government’s ability to use American soft power, the quiet infusing of U.S. values into societies struggling to find new identities – and new relationships with the United States – after decades of autocracy. Meanwhile, the restive nations are losing not only tourist dollars as Americans heed the travel warnings, but also a battle against extremist forces that are at odds with the young revolutionaries who sought Western-style civil liberties and legitimacy among the international community. 'At a time when the United States seems very much in need of public diplomacy in the Middle East, in cases such as these, scholars, the host countries and the American public are all losers,' said Maurice Pomerantz, a Fulbright scholar who had planned to spend the year teaching comparative literature in Lebanon but was relocated to Jordan because of the State Department’s security concerns. 'Programs of academic and cultural exchange are often the first things to be eliminated, whether in cases of political unrest or domestic budget cuts,' he said. 'Yet, it is in these areas that the most valuable and lasting connections are actually forged.'”

Gay Ambassador David Huebner Remembers his Fallen Foreign Service Colleagues - Karen Ocamb, lgbtpov.frontiersla.com: "The deep sense of patriotism, transcendent service and community among foreign service officers was felt thousands of miles away from Libya after the murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department officer Sean Smith, and former SEAL members Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty in the brutal terrorists attacks on the US Consulate in Benghazi last week. All American embassies went on alert but

Huebner still posted information and reaction on his blog – David Huebner.com - which he and the State Department consider an exercise of public diplomacy and outreach in social media." Image from entry, with caption: He's [Huebner] pictured here with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Cook Islands Prime Minister Puna and Mrs. Akaiti Punaafter in early September; his spouse, Dr. Duane McWaine, is in sunglasses in the back

Digitally dissuading tomorrow’s terrorists - Judith McHale and Richard LeBaron‏, politico.com: "The State Department, working closely with other government agencies, has helped to reduce the enlistment of terrorists by using public diplomacy to engage potential young recruits. This effort is not about a 'war of ideas,' or winning the hearts and minds of huge numbers of people. It’s about using digital platforms to reach that small but dangerous group of people around the world who are considering turning to terrorism and persuading them to instead turn in a different direction. The first rule of public diplomacy is 'understand the audience.' This is particularly important when trying to reach small groups. In the past, some communications efforts against terrorism focused on large groups of Muslim populations around the world. Wrong audience — most Muslims don’t wake up in the morning thinking about terrorism. Just as most Americans don’t wake up worrying about it. The vast majority of Muslims oppose terrorism; many have suffered its consequences; and millions resent being lumped into a category of people to be feared because of their faith.So how do we reach the tiny but dangerous minority of mostly young men who are vulnerable to the enticements of terror organizations or easily mobilized by the acts of marginal players, like the producer of the film that ignited protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and other diplomatic outposts across the Middle East? In the summer of 2010, President Barack Obama approved a State Department proposal to take a different approach to this problem. The new strategy was conceived by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, building on her discussions with Cabinet colleagues and others. As part of this new strategy, we created the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications within the State Department. We started with two principles: First, this new organization needed to integrate the vast amount we have learned about terrorists since Sept. 11, drawing on information from the intelligence community as well as from think tanks and academia. We needed to make sure we understood the audience in some detail. Second, it was vital to strengthen interagency cooperation in addressing this communications challenge.

We built on the strong foundation our colleagues across government had established and added the unique on-the-ground perspectives of Foreign Service officers in our embassies and missions around the world. ... Judith McHale is the former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and former president and chief executive officer of Discovery Communications. Richard LeBaron was the first coordinator for the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications and a former U.S. ambassador to Kuwait." Via LJB. Comment on Facebook re this article: "Even though they think they've moved beyond 'moving the needle' this article shows me they're still doing the same." Image from

Culture Posts: Giving Voice to Publics - R. S. Zaharna, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "What’s happening between the U.S. and publics in the Islamic world reflects the immediate consequence of the paradox of value promotion – both sides are trying to communicate what they value, but rather than being understood – they are less so. The more they persist in their efforts, the more likely the cycle may escalate. In the long term, a battle over value promotion is a no-win scenario in today’s global communication arena. To be savvy, public diplomacy strategists need to find ways to give voice and bring the public into the public diplomacy equation. ... To be effective in a connected network world, the U.S. as a superpower needs to shift its perspective from thinking of 'mutual interests and benefits' with equally powerful players to 'mutuality' and adjusting its power with less powerful players. We live in an interconnected world. The publics around the world have seized on the reality. Adopting the mindset of mutuality will help ease the communication tensions and create communication bridges instead of battles."

Harold Koh on International Law in Cyberspace - Chris Borgen, opiniojuris.org: "Yesterday, Harold Koh, the Legal Adviser of the U.S. State Department, spoke at the U.S. Cyber Command Inter-Agency Legal Conference on the applicability of international law to cyberspace ... [Koh:] [T]he more widespread the understanding that cyberspace follows established rules – and that we live by them – the stronger we can be in pushing back against those who would seek to

introduce brand new rules that may be contrary to our interests. ... The diplomacy ... is not limited to the legal issues this group of lawyers is used to facing in the operational context. These issues are interconnected with countless other cyber issues that we face daily in our foreign policy, such as cybersecurity, cyber-commerce, human rights in cyberspace, and public diplomacy through cybertools." Image from

Broadcasting Board of Governors not quite sure whether Putin restricts media freedom in Russia - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. federal agency in charge of international news programs designed to overcome censorship and strengthen democracy abroad, has posted on its official website the following announcement: BBG Panel: New Russian Laws – Tightening The Noose On Free Speech? Please note the question mark.We think that the question mark sends a really bad signal to human rights activists in Russia — the Broadcasting Board of Governors executives are not quite sure whether Mr. Putin’s new media restrictions are really all that bad after all. Was the question mark really necessary or was it justified?We know what is bad about this announcement, although Broadcasting Board of Governors senior executives would no doubt disagree with us. It is bad journalism, bad public diplomacy, and bad public relations." On Putin, see more in below "Related Items."

The Last Three Feet Now Only Inches Away - Anthony C. E. Quainton, American Diplomacy: "The Last Three Feet, the fourth in a series of books published by the Public Diplomacy Council over the past eight years, maintains the high standards of its predecessors. Editor William Kiehl has assembled an informative collection of articles, which bring to both the general public and more specialized academic audiences refreshing insights and professional understanding about the nuts and bolts of American soft power. The articles in the volume cover a variety of different and innovative PD programs using social media as well as elaborations of traditional activities including media monitoring (Pakistan), trade fair exploitation (Shanghai) and youth exchange programs (Brazil).

Among these various stories the two most interesting come from Bahrain where PAO Rachel Leslie describes the challenges of trying to use social media in the midst of the Arab Spring demonstrations and from Baghdad where Aaron Snipes explains how the Embassy used social media to reach a wider audience than the traditional English-speaking elites with which the Embassy was in contact. Equally interesting is Embassy Jakarta’s experience with @America, a reinvention of the classical off-site cultural center, which permits Indonesians once again to get within those last three feet." Image from

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 China Tour: A Case Study of Cultural Diplomacy During the Cultural Revolution - Francis B. Tenny, American Diplomacy

Broadening the Base of UN Troop- and Police- Contributing Countries – New Report - protectiongateway.com: "[T]he UN’s New Horizon initiative and the General Assembly’s Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34) have called for an 'expanding of the pool of available capabilities.' The Human Protection Hub is a part of the Providing for Peacekeeping Project, whichwas established by the International Peace Institute in New York to inform and assist this endeavor. The project’s recently released first thematic report, written by Alex Bellamy (Human Protection Hub) and Paul D. Williams (George Washington University, Washington, DC) reflects on what broadening the base of UN troop- and police-contributing countries will entail

in practice, and provides a framework for thinking about why UN member states do, or do not, provide peacekeepers to UN-led missions. ... The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which the UN might begin to improve its ability to expand the pool of peacekeeping capabilities. It recommends providing incentives to encourage larger and better contributions of uniformed personnel, enhancing public diplomacy related to peacekeeping, improving the way in which the UN Secretariat makes its requests to member states for peacekeepers and relevant specialist capabilities, and strengthening analysis of contributing countries as a precursor to developing a strategic plan on force generation." Image from article

efforts to form a traditional civilization and modern culture go hand in hand - tanned.me: "Chahar Society President Han Fangming announced: the initiative of the principal leaders of Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, and to solicit 'the Chahar public diplomacy Annual Meeting Zhangjiakou 2012' delegates views Chahar learn to make the following resolutions: First, the annual high-level inter-civilization dialogue activities Chahar dialogue; 'the Chahar dialogue' the permanent site is located in Zhangjiakou City,air jordan pas cher, Hebei Province."

Notes From A Sunny Island - Beau Geste, Mon Ami: The Chronicle of My Journey to and through the Foreign Service: "An advantage of working in a small embassy is that the entire team can pick up and get away together for a teambuilding long weekend. Team Port Moresby flew across the island to the Tufi Dive Resort for a three day weekend of reef diving and diplomacy around the pool. Good cigars and single malt whiskeys sharpened our focus and much was accomplished. ...

The Public Diplomacy, Econ and Political sections each interact with the local government, NGOs, communities and populace then feed the results of those interactions back to their counterparts in the Harry S. Truman Department of State headquarters in Washington, D.C. They write cables, give grants to worthy causes and advocate for our foreign policy." Image from article, with caption: The Sogeri SingSing was held just outside of Port Moresby.

Author emphasizes fundamental difference between individuals who join terrorist groups, those who choose not to - prnewschannel.com:

In his book 'Winning the Minds: Travels through the Terrorist Recruiting Grounds of Yemen, Pakistan and the Somali Border' (ISBN 0615653448), published by CITA Press, Francisco Martin-Rayo tells his story of a financial analyst who leaves behind the glamour of New York to study counter-terrorism at Harvard. ... Francisco Martin-Rayo holds a BA in International Relations and a B.Sc. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania as well as a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is an expert in counter-radicalization and public diplomacy programs and his work has been published by Foreign Policy magazine, The Guardian newspaper and Harvard University."

Public Diplomacy Intern to the Embassy of Denmark, Dhaka, Bangladesh - obbank.aau.dk: "The intern participates in the daily work within the areas of Public Diplomacy and Communication. As a part of the Embassy's public diplomacy activities, the intern assists in organising the Embassy's external communication and participates in implementing the overall communication strategy. The intern will refer to the responsible at the Embassy for Public Diplomacy and Communication, but will work with all sections and programmes."

RELATED ITEMS

What should America's top foreign policy priority be? Survey says... - ketknbc.com: What's the first foreign policy issue the next U.S. president should tackle after the election? More than 1,000 aspiring foreign secretaries in 114 countries and territories around the world weighed in on CNN International's latest Facebook survey to give us their answer. The verdict: 45% of voters said America's post-Arab Spring policies should be the top foreign policy priority for either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Our Facebook survey also reflects lingering worries about the European debt crisis: 21% of respondents said America's top task should be to address the crisis that threatens to undermine the euro. Nearly one in five (18.5%) believe sorting out relations with China should be the next president's first order of business. But just one in 10 people see Iranian and North Korean nuclear proliferation as the top priority.

And last but not least, just one in 20 people (4.7%) chose fighting al Qaeda as the number one foreign policy for the U.S. president -- despite the fact al Qaeda militants and associates are now fighting for influence from Mali to Pakistan. Last week's Facebook survey (insert link) was dominated by men (75%), and this week even more so: four out of five (80%) who cast votes in our foreign policy survey were male. Via KAE. Image from

Republicans Push Bill to Help Foreign Science Graduates Stay - Julia Preston, New York Times: Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, hoping to pass a measure before the November elections to improve legal immigration, are pushing for a vote this week on a bill that would increase the number of permanent resident visas for foreigners graduating from American universities with advanced degrees in science and technology. The largely partisan bill was introduced on Tuesday by Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It would allocate up to 55,000 visas, known as green cards, each year to graduates with master’s or doctoral degrees from American universities, by means of a trade-off. The bill would abolish a lottery run each year that distributes the same number of green cards randomly to applicants from countries that do not have large immigrant populations in the United States.

Russia boots out USAID - CNN Wire Staff: Russia has thrown out the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department said, claiming that the aid agency has undermined Russia's sovereignty. "We have recently received a decision of the Russian Government to end USAID activities there," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week. "The United States is extremely proud of what USAID has accomplished in Russia over the last 20 years, and we will work with our partners and staff to responsibly end or transition those programs." Senior Russian officials have said that some of the agency's programs, such as some human rights groups and election monitoring, have undermined Russia's sovereignty, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti.

Nuland, speaking at a State Department briefing Wednesday, countered with: The issue of protecting Russia's sovereignty came up several times during the run-up to Russia's presidential election this year. On election night in Moscow in March, Vladimir Putin punctuated his victory speech with a jab at foreign influence when he said: "We showed that no one can impose anything on us -- no one, nothing! We showed that our people can distinguish between the desire for renewal and political provocation that has but one goal: to destroy Russia's statehood and usurp power." In December, he blamed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for giving a "signal" to Russians protesting his rule to turn out for street demonstrations. Nuland, speaking at a State Department briefing Wednesday, argued that U.S. officials "completely reject the notion that our support for civil society, democracy, human rights, in any way interferes with elections whether in Russia or anywhere else in the world." "It is regrettable that the Russian people are not going to be able to benefit from the support that the American people are sending their way in this areas of health (and) environment," Nuland added. "We will continue to work with those Russians in civil society who want to work with us. We do that in many parts of the world where we dont have AID missions, and we are looking now at precisely how we'll work this through, but we are committed to stay on the side of those who want to see a more democratic, more just Russia," she said. Image from

Will Obama stand up against Putin’s abuses? - David J. Kramer, Washington Post: The decision to halt USAID work in Russia is just the latest in what has been an especially bad year for human rights in that country, though you wouldn’t know it from the virtual silence of Western leaders. Since Vladimir Putin’s formal return to the Russian presidency in May, there has been an across-the-board crackdown on civil society and the opposition.

Beyond the show trial of members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot, authorities have raided the homes of government critics and their family members, conducted criminal investigations and prosecutions of opposition figures and their spouses, and used brutal force against protesters. Meanwhile, aside from spokesmen’s statements of concern, President Obama and most of his European colleagues have said next to nothing. A clear condemnation of Putin’s actions is necessary out of principle and to show support to those brave Russians who are fed up with authorities’ rampant corruption, abuses and heavy-handed tactics. Putin image from

Obama's Russian 'reset' worked, says Pentagon policy chief - Kevin Baron, Foreign Policy: The Pentagon's policy chief, Under Secretary of Defense Jim Miller, argued on Wednesday that the Obama administration is not being naïve toward Russia when it comes to national security. In an exclusive interview with the FP National Security channel, Miller claimed the so-called "reset" has helped win Moscow's support for two of the U.S. military's top priorities: war supply routes into Afghanistan and the toughest-ever economic sanctions on Iran.

Pakistan Orders Aid Group's Foreign Staff to Leave - voanews.com: Pakistan has ordered the foreign staff of Save the Children to leave the country, underscoring how aid agencies in Pakistan often must cope with a difficult environment. Save the Children spokesman Ghulam Qadri said the government did not give any reason as to why the group's six international staff members had to leave.

But he said the charity’s work in the country would not stop. The aid group had been under scrutiny for suggestions it was involved with organizing meetings between the United States and the doctor who helped track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed last year by a U.S. raid into Pakistan. Qadri denied allegations the aid group put the doctor, Shakil Afridi, in touch with the CIA. Afridi was accused of helping the CIA by running a fake vaccination campaign, and was jailed by Pakistan for high treason. Image from

Ambassador Chris Stevens’s Libyan legacy - Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, Washington Post: Libya lost one of its most ardent international supporters and a true friend last week with the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The terrorist attack on the American compound in Benghazi is still being investigated, but it is clear that the perpetrators sought to derail Libya’s democratically elected government and to injure its vital relationship with the United States. Our appreciation for steadfast U.S. support is reflected in a Gallup finding last month that a majority of Libyans approve of America’s leadership. This is among the highest approval ratings Gallup has ever recorded on the question in the Middle East and North Africa. Mustafa A.G. Abushagur is prime minister of Libya.

Can 'Innocence of Muslims' trailer really be that potent? The Obama administration says attacks in Egypt and Libya were merely a response to a YouTube video promoting 'Innocence of Muslims.' Even if that's true, it's damning evidence of poor Mideast policy - Jonah Goldberg, latimes.com: According to the Obama administration, its policies in the Middle East are working.

The Cairo speech, the tougher line with Israel, the withdrawals from Iraq and pending drawdown in Afghanistan, Obama's coolness to Iran's failed Green Revolution: These have all been part of the successful effort to repair the damage done by the previous administration. Yet all of that hard work can go up in smoke if some crackpot says something mean about the prophet Muhammad on YouTube? Progress that flimsy is no progress at all. Image from

Look in Your Mirror - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: We need to make two things very clear — more clear than President Obama’s team has made them. One is that an insult — even one as stupid and ugly as the anti-Islam video on YouTube that started all of this — does not entitle people to go out and attack embassies and kill innocent diplomats. That is not how a proper self-governing people behave. There is no excuse for it. It is shameful. And, second, before demanding an apology from our president, the young Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Yemenis, Pakistanis, Afghans and Sudanese who have been taking to the streets might want to look in the mirror — or just turn on their own televisions. They might want to look at the chauvinistic bile that is pumped out by some of their own media — on satellite television stations and Web sites or sold in sidewalk bookstores outside of mosques — insulting Shiites, Jews, Christians, Sufis and anyone else who is not a Sunni, or fundamentalist, Muslim. We should respect the faiths and prophets of others. But that runs both ways.

Refusing to play Assad’s sectarian games in Syria - David Ignatius, Washington Post: If you want to put a face on the Syrian revolution, try an activist named Samar Yazbek. She understands that the United States fears the rise of the jihadists. But she says the longer America lets this fire burn, the more likely it is that the haters and killers will own the future.

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