"State Department: No secret plan to invade Canada"
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Exploring a Comprehensive Approach to Public Diplomacy (Heritage Foundation) - link.brightcove.com. Via JH on Facebook
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
State Department Briefing By [Spokesperson] Victoria Nuland, September 20, 2012 - enewspf.com:
"QUESTION: Is the State Department paying for the ads condemning 'Innocence of Muslims' running on Pakistani TV now?
MS. NULAND: Let me just put this in context. As you know, our public diplomacy efforts include, obviously, our efforts here in Washington, but we also have public diplomacy sections in all of our embassies and most of our smaller missions overseas. So we ask all of our public diplomacy teams in circumstances like this to identify and use the most effective means of communicating within the unique environment in which they work.
In the case of Pakistan, it is common and traditional to have to buy airtime on Pakistani TV for public service announcements. So in that environment, it was their recommendation that we buy some airtime to make sure that the Pakistani people would heard the President’s messages and the Secretary’s messages, so we did purchase some time, is my understanding, on Pakistani TV stations, all of the stations.
This was a short message; it includes the U.S. seal to make it clear that it’s official, and it also includes a notice that the ads were paid. As you know, after the video came out, there was concern in lots of bodies politic, including Pakistan, as to whether this represented the views of the U.S. Government. So in order to ensure we reached the largest number of Pakistanis – some 90 million, as I understand it in this case with these spots – it was the judgment that this was the best way to do it.
I can read the messages that went out, if that’s helpful.
QUESTION: Please.
MS. NULAND: Yeah. So --
QUESTION: These were English, Toria, or these were in --
MS. NULAND: No, these were in Urdu. And I would simply say that as you know, we translate and push statements by senior U.S. officials into the press to the extent that we can in countries around the world in their native languages. We work in 10 to 12 different languages, Urdu being one of them.
So this particular message said – had President Obama, and he is – he says, 'Since our founding, the United States has been a nation of respect – that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.' And then you have – Secretary Clinton comes on, saying, 'Let me state very clearly that the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. The – America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.' So those were clips from statements they had both made within the last week.
QUESTION: Is it possible to see the produced videos?
MS. NULAND: We can take care of that for you, Roz.
QUESTION: What’s the size of the buy? Is there precedent for this going on in other countries as well?
MS. NULAND: My understanding is we have done in this in a select group of other countries at other times when you’re working in a media environment where this kind of purchase of public service announcements is the norm for getting your message out. But in Pakistan, we do it quite regularly, as I understand it, including – we did a little bit of research when the question first came. We know we did it in 2005 in the context of the earthquake. We don’t – weren’t able to find, before I came out here, exactly what the message was at that time.
QUESTION: Can I ask --
QUESTION: Just one clarification. You said that it noted – that it adds that they were paid. Does it add that the messages were paid for by the U.S. Government?
MS. NULAND: I don’t know the answer to that. I can get that for you.
QUESTION: Can we get copies of these?
MS. NULAND: If you’d like, get with our folks afterwards, and we can push the actual link to you.
QUESTION: I’m sorry. I’m sort of not understanding the format. So these are clips of the President and the Secretary in other settings speaking in English, correct?
MS. NULAND: These are, as I understand it – and I haven’t seen them myself because this came up about an hour before we came out, but this is a single thirty second public service announcement that comes up with video of, first, the President making the statement I read, and then the Secretary making the statement that I read. They are speaking in English, but I don’t know whether it’s dubbed over into Urdu or whether it is --
QUESTION: Subtitled.
MS. NULAND: -- subtitled in Urdu. And it – the U.S. seal appears, and also a clear statement that these were paid public service announcements.
QUESTION: And did they record these statements before the PSA, or is this taken from speeches that they made?
MS. NULAND: It’s taken from speeches. There was no special recording. And we do this all over the world to try to – embassies take what principals say, what we say here, they clip them into video and they encourage local media to use them when they want to see what U.S. officials are saying. As you know, we also have this global platform that foreign media can pull from to get clips of things that have already been said.
QUESTION: And are we doing this in other countries in the context of 'The Innocence of Muslims' film, other countries than Pakistan right now?
MS. NULAND: I do not know the answer to that, but we have done this kind of thing in countries where this is the media environment before. I will check for you, Wendell, whether any country other than Pakistan, in this case, had the tradition where you needed to buy time in order to have your message heard.
QUESTION: Toria, can I ask about that?
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
QUESTION: Because you talk about an environment where you need to buy time to get your message out. Does that – I mean, these were news events, if these were the public statements --
MS. NULAND: Right.
QUESTION: -- that the Secretary and the President had made. Those were very widely disseminated. I’m sure that they were on every wire service, TV agency, including several represented in this room. Is it your belief that – or was it the Embassy’s conclusion that Pakistani TV channels just were not giving any air time to either the President’s statements or the Secretary’s statements, and therefore the only way for you to get those to Pakistanis was to pay for it and buy the time and broadcast them yourselves?
MS. NULAND: I can’t speak to the whole decision tree there, because obviously this is our decisions that we authorize our communicators in embassies to make, but I think the sense was that this particular aspect of the President and the Secretary’s message needed to be heard by more Pakistanis than had heard it, and that this was an effective way to get that message out.
QUESTION: Can you give us an idea of the size of the buy?
MS. NULAND: My understanding of the spend was somewhere around $70 million and about seven stations – something like that.
QUESTION: $70 million dollars?
MS. NULAND: $70,000 dollars. I’m so sorry. Let’s correct the record -- $70,000. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: I was going to say, My God, I’m going into the Pakistani TV business. (Laughter.) That’s how much they’re charging for --
MS. NULAND: Those are some gold-plated advertising. Yeah, I just want to --
QUESTION: Is this the Pakistani Superbowl? Is this (inaudible)? (Laughter.)
MS. NULAND: $70,000. Okay, let’s just make this a clean bite: $70,000.
QUESTION: Did you spend – was there any --
MS. NULAND: And very much within keeping of the budget that we have out there.
QUESTION: How many channels you said --
MS. NULAND: About seven.
QUESTION: Was it specific shows that you wanted this aired during, do you know?
MS. NULAND: Again, I don’t have that level of detail.
QUESTION: So you say that this is the most effective way to get that message out, right?
MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: How effective do you think it was, given the fact that you had tens of thousands of protesters trying to get in – trying to storm the diplomatic compound?
MS. NULAND: Well, again, we’re going to have to evaluate this over time. But --
QUESTION: Okay. Well, when did they begin running?
MS. NULAND: I don’t have the answer to that, Matt. We’ll get more for you.
QUESTION: Do you – I mean, did they – okay. Well, it would be interesting to know. I mean, do you have any evidence at all that these ads were effective in getting the message out, considering the virulence and size of the crowds that were still protesting, presumably after these ads started running?
MS. NULAND: Well, again, we are going to have to measure the metrics of effectiveness across this region on our public diplomacy, and I don’t know that we’re going to be able to do it on the timeline that you’re looking for. But that’s something that we’ll have to look at is what means did we use to make sure that publics around the world understood where the U.S. Government stands, and were those effective, and that kind of thing. But I don’t have metrics for you at the moment.
QUESTION: Madam, public and those protesters are asking U.S. apology as far as this video is concerned before the violence is down.
MS. NULAND: Again, the Secretary, other principals of this government, have made absolutely clear that the U.S. Government had nothing to do with this." Images of Nuland from (a) (b) and (c)
US moves to stem protest over anti-Islam film - business-standard.com: "As anger in the Muslim world over anti-Islam film continued to smolder, the US Administration has turned to social media and television ads to try to stem global protest. The Obama Administration’s campaign was launched in Pakistan by the US embassy in which President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton figure. In the 30-second TV advertisement broadcast across seven networks, both Obama and Clinton explained American position in a bid to disassociate the US Administration from the provocative film. ... Some Pakistani outlets carried it free of charge, but others used it as a paid public service announcement, and added their own required labeling that the video was 'paid content'. 'We are going to have to measure the metrics of effectiveness across this region on our public diplomacy,” [State Department spokesperson Victoria] Nuland said. 'But that’s something that we’ll have to look at is what means did we use to make sure that publics around the world understood where the US Government stands, and were those effective, and that kind of thing,' she said."
Violence Over Video Continues in Pakistan Ahead of Public Holiday - Salman Masood, New York Times: "On the eve of a public holiday to protest an anti-Islam video made in the United States, thousands of demonstrators battled with police officers for hours on Thursday near the capital’s diplomatic quarter, and the United States Embassy broadcast advertisements on local television stations showing American leaders denouncing the video. The ads, a public relations effort to tamp down anti-American sentiment, featured clips of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizing the YouTube video, which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizing buffoon. The clips, which carried the official seal of the American Embassy in Islamabad, were broadcast in English and subtitled in Urdu, the national language."
US buys airtime on Pakistani channels to counter 'propaganda' - AFP: "The United States has bought time on Pakistani television stations to run a series of adverts in a bid to stem Muslim protests at an amateur anti-Islam film, a US official said Wednesday. The State Department has spent some $70,000 dollars to air the ad in Urdu across seven Pakistani TV channels in a bid to disassociate the US government from the inflammatory film, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said."
Image from article, with caption: Pakistani demonstrators torch a US flag during a protest against an anti-Islam film in Karachi on September 20, 2012.
And that in this spirit, a fund has been established in his name to support this important, yet unfinished, endeavor. The family envisions the Fund to support activities that promote religious tolerance, cultural understanding, educational youth exchanges, and other people-to-people programs." Stevens image (left) from entry. See also John Brown, "Ambassador Stevens as a Public Diplomacy Envoy," Notes and Essays
Public Schedule for September 21, 2012 - U.S. Department of State: "UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TARA SONENSHINE 11:15 a.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine meets with Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Mohamed Tawfik, at the Department of State.(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)"
Diplomatic Security: Tweeting the Public Diplomacy Gospel - Marissa Cruz-Enriquez, PD News – CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "21st Century Statecraft refers to the U.S. State Department’s recent complementing of traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft. The goal is to fully leverage the networks, technologies, and demographics of our interconnected world. It recognizes that just as the Internet has changed economics, culture, and politics, it is also significantly impacting the practice of foreign policy. To ignore this digital component of international communication would be to do a great disservice to
Setting the Table for Diplomacy - Paul Rockower, Levatine: "In the latest instance of flag following fork, the U.S. State Department launched a new culinary diplomacy program, entitled 'Diplomatic Culinary Partnership: Setting the Table for Diplomacy' The new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership initiative was unveiled on September 7th at the penthouse of the State Department, and this gastrodiplomat was on hand for the lovely soiree. ... The new State Department Culinary Diplomacy Initiative has three stated objectives: Enhance formal diplomacy by elevating the quality of food preparation, presentation and service at official U.S. State Department functions through the use of public-private partnerships with renowned chefs and other resources from the culinary field -- Cultivate cultural understanding by sharing the American culinary culture abroad and with visiting dignitaries at home and using food
as a foundation for public diplomacy programs to learn about different cultures and discuss important related issues such as nutrition, sustainability and food security. -- Strengthen bilateral relationships by using food and the dining experience in a thoughtful and purposeful way to engage dignitaries, further dialogue and reinforce diplomatic messages. ... On the whole, I think the program is quite good. It is innovative in scope and dimension, and takes good advantage of public-private partnerships. My only recommendations would be to get state-level support. There are numerous states that support international activities, as I saw at the Shanghai Expo and Taipei Flora Expo—where various states like Texas, Montana and Indiana helped support the expo displays. Just as there are nation brands, there is also room for state branding especially in areas of cultural diplomacy and gastrodiplomacy." Image from
Wibbly Wobbliness, Who Does it and What is Public Diplomacy? - ckilbyus, publicdiplomats.wordpress.com: "[A]ttempts to define public diplomacy and strategic communication are important, given that it [sic] continues to be treated as an amorphous topic."
Sports Diplomacy and the 2012 London Olympics - atvn.org: "The USC Center on Public Diplomacy and the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles are pleased to host a conversation about the role of sports diplomacy in 2012. In hosting the games, London contributed to the branding of GREAT Britain and to ambitious economic development. The 2012 London Olympic Games were not just about sports. While the time and dedication each athlete gave to his or her sport captured the world's admiring attention, the Olympics also allowed us to peer into the lives and cultures of 204 participating countries.
Sports have always had a place at the diplomatic table. From the beginning of the Olympics to today's events that highlight individual and team achievement, the games have provided deeper understanding of how nations and individuals relate to the global community. Participants include CPD Advisory Board Member, Barry A. Sanders, British Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay, USC students and Olympic athletes Flora Bolonyai and Stina Gardell, and CPD Director, Philip Seib (moderator)." Image from, with caption: The Collapsible, Flatpacked Olympic Stadium
240 ‘Accessible’ Services to be Held on Yom Kippur - alljewishlinks.com: "A joint project of Tzohar, the Ba’yachad bridge-building organization, the Israel Association for Community Centers and the Ministry for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, will see more than 240 'accessible' prayer services held across the country on Yom Kippur. The motivation behind what is now an annual campaign is to create a welcoming experience for people who might otherwise be disinclined to attend synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in Hebrew, is traditionally devoted to continuous prayer and fasting to bring about divine clemency for wayward behavior during the year past."
Israel Solid Investment: Steinitz@Conference - wisemoneyisrael.com: "The 'Innovate. Invest. Israel.' conference in New York, organized with The Wall Street Journal, discussed Israel’s global impact as a leading exporter of technologies, ideas, innovations, and entrepreneurial spirit. Israel is a solid investment, despite the many challenges it faces, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told the 'Innovate. Invest. Israel.' conference in New York this month. The one-day conference, organized by the Israeli Finance Ministry, together with The Wall Street Journal, Barrons and the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, hosted dozens of business leaders and economists from across the U.S. and Israel."
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Pakistan police open fire on crowd protesting anti-Islam video, killing man in television news car - cbsnews.com (September 21): "Pakistani police opened fire on rioters who were torching a cinema during a protest Friday against an anti-Islam film, killing one man on a day declared by the government as a public holiday for people to demonstrate against the video. Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when bullets hit his vehicle in the northwest city of
Why Presidents Love Foreign Affairs - Daniel W. Drezner, New York Times: Poll after poll shows that when Americans are asked what they consider the most important issue in presidential campaigns, an overwhelming majority choose the economy. Answers related to foreign policy or national security typically yield between 3 and 5 percent. If Americans suddenly started to vote based on national security issues, presidents would have to start to care about the domestic political consequences of their overseas actions.
Wait, You Still Don't Like Us? Why the Muslim world hasn't warmed toward America over the past four years - Richard Wike, Foreign Policy: Why hasn't America's image improved? In part, many Muslims around the world continue to voice the same criticisms of U.S. foreign policy that were common in the Bush years. U.S. anti-terrorism efforts are still widely unpopular. America is still seen as ignoring the interests of other countries. Few think Obama has been even-handed in dealing with the Israelis and the Palestinians. And the current administration's increased reliance on drone strikes to target extremists is overwhelmingly unpopular -- more than 80 percent of Jordanians, Egyptians, and Turks oppose the drone campaign. The opposition to drone strikes points to a broader issue: a widespread distrust of American power. This is especially true when the United States employs hard power, whether it's the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the drone attacks in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. But it is true even for elements of American soft power. Predominantly Muslim nations are generally among the least likely to embrace U.S. popular culture or the spread of American ideas and customs.
Only 36 percent of Egyptians like American music, movies, and television, and just 11 percent believe it is good that U.S. ideas and customs are spreading to their country. But America's image problems are not due solely to fears of American power. In some ways, the issue of anti-Americanism is part of a broader story about mutual distrust between Muslims and Westerners. Even so, there are some hopeful signs. For one thing, it is important to keep in mind that the "Muslim world" is not monolithic. Moreover, some aspects of American soft power are appealing to Muslim publics. American-style business is especially popular in Arab nations. And even though U.S. democracy-promotion efforts have been met with skepticism by many Muslims over the last decade, America's democratic tradition continues to have some appeal. Via BJ on Facebook; Image from article
Flawed US policies have alienated Arabs: By continuing to appease Israel and choosing military intervention over diplomacy, Washington has eroded any goodwill it had in the Islamic world - Patrick Seale - Gulf News: Not only has the US failed to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, it has also built Israel up into the regional bully, and must therefore be judged complicit in its numerous assaults against its neighbours. Has the US given the Middle East security?
Or has it spread calamitous insecurity? Does the Gulf really need the US 5th Fleet, squadrons of warplanes and thousands of infantry and armour? Is the US presence stabilising or destabilising? Might it not be time to disengage? The Islamic revival, which has been such a striking feature of the Arab Spring, should be seen as a rejection of western meddling and of western controls, and a reaffirmation of Muslim identity. It is only the latest phase in the Arabs’ long struggle for independence. Via LJB. Image from
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Vietnam bloggers set for 'anti-state propaganda' trial - malaysia.msn.com: Three high-profile Vietnamese bloggers, including one whose case has been raised by US President Barack Obama, are set to go on trial Monday for "anti-state propaganda", a lawyer told AFP.
'Truthful Propaganda' From Gaza - Ralph Seliger, blogs.forward.com: “Tears of Gaza,” a Norwegian documentary about the Gaza Strip under assault during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead of December 2008 and January 2009, is presented in Arabic with English subtitles. It may be characterized as “truthful propaganda.”
There’s no reason to doubt most of what you see, but the film makes no apology for showing only one side. The press notes indicate that the Norwegian director, Vibeke Løkkeberg, and her producer were prohibited by Israel and Egypt from entering Gaza. They recruited Gaza Palestinians to provide footage and find the speaking subjects. Image from article
Salman Rushdie and “The Innocence of Muslims”: Art vs. Propaganda - calahalexander, patheos.com: The difference between “The Innocence of Muslims” and The Satanic Verses is like the difference between the Nazi propaganda of the 30′s and Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. “The Innocence of Muslims” was designed to whip up hatred against Muslims. The fact that it backfired just shows how poor the craftmanship was. The horrible Nazi films of the 30′s that interposed images of masses of rats with images of masses of Jews were just as disgusting but much more effective. The Satanic Verses and The Metamorphosis are both true works of art that struggle to express and come to grips with the alienation of an entire people. Propaganda seeks to obscure truth, to blind and hypnotize the masses. Art seeks to shed light, to bring clarity and catharsis. Taking art in the one hand and propaganda in the other and elevating them as equals on the basis of “freedom of speech” is reprehensible and dangerous.
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ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
“Ah, now the mudslinging begins.”
--Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a distinguished academic, reacting to James Buckley's first reference to him as “Professor Moynihan” in their initital debate in 1976. Moynihan image from
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