"The reason Americans don't trust others' propaganda is because theirs comes so naturally to them."
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruce Gregory’s Public Diplomacy Resources – #65 - takefiveblog.org: GW School of Media and Public Affairs and Georgetown Adjunct Assistant Professor Bruce Gregory compiles an annotated bibliography of Public Diplomacy-related readings and other resources. Intended for teachers of public diplomacy and related courses, here is an update on resources that may be of general interest. Bruce Gregory Suggestions for future updates are welcome and should be directed to Bruce Gregory at BGregory@gwu.edu.
ORGANIZATIONS
"The Center for American-Russian Engagement of Emerging Leaders (CAREEL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which promotes collaboration between young American and Russian leaders. We empower the first generation of leaders born after the Cold War to replace outdated preconceptions and stereotypes with firsthand experience. ... Richard Portwood, Executive Director. Richard is a graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington DC."
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Redefining relations - Zhu Zhe, chinadaily.com.cn: "China and the United States will increase comprehensive exchanges, as the countries commit to building a new type of power relationship, the presidents of the world's two largest economies said on Friday. After the first meeting of their two-day summit, President Xi Jinping and US counterpart, Barack Obama, stressed the importance of the countries' ties in a globalized economy. ... Ma Zhengang, deputy president of the China Public Diplomacy Association and former Chinese ambassador to Britain, said it is encouraging to see both sides strengthen their consensus of building a new type of power relationship.
'Neither China nor the US wants confrontation,' Ma said. 'It's especially notable that they pledged to improve military ties, the most sensitive issue that have occasionally strained relations.'" Image from article, with caption: President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama meet the media after their talk at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, on Friday.
Chinese media picture Xi at home on world stage: Media keen to convince public their leader can handle foreign affairs - Minnie Chan and Teddy Ng, scmp.com: "Professor Zhou Qingan, who teaches public diplomacy and global communications at Tsinghua University, said the Chinese public had high expectations of their leader's overseas trips. 'The Chinese people hope that Xi will defend China's national interests during diplomatic occasions unswervingly, and [during the press briefing with President Obama], Xi did express himself in a frank manner,' Zhou said. ... Meanwhile, a Gallup poll conducted before Xi's US visit found that 55 per cent of Americans regarded China as an ally or a nation friendly to the US, while 40 per cent said it was either unfriendly or an enemy."
Chinese soft power: more Huntington than Nye? - Nicholas Dynon, line21project.wordpress.com: "In a recent opinion piece for the Global Times, Professor Liu Aming of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of International Relations writes that soft power 'is a kind of power which can also make enemies.' At first glance, Liu’s comment is a curious one: how can a power that aims to attract
rather than coerce also be a power that makes enemies? Strip away the ostensibly benign surface of public diplomacy, cultural exchanges and language instruction and it becomes clear that the US and China are engaged in a soft power conflagration – a protracted cultural cold war." Image from entry, with caption: Propaganda poster at a Beijing subway station. Photograph taken January 2012
Messing With Michelle - dish.andrewsullivan.com: "[A] self-described 'old abrasive lesbian' ... [heckled the First Lady] at a private DNC [Democratic National Committee] gathering – and kinda regretted it ... Quite how this protest in a private home was supposed to accomplish anything is somewhat beyond me, but sometimes an old abrasive lesbian’s gotta do what an old abrasive lesbian’s gotta do. But she picked the wrong woman. The audio here doesn’t exactly sound very dramatic, but watch the right-wing jump all over this. Meanwhile, there is a genuine First Lady issue that Dan Drezner notes – a conflict between public diplomacy and family life: [']In the grand scheme of things, the relationship between Michelle Obama and Peng Liyuan doesn’t matter. That said, the major theme in all of [former National Security Council's] Tom Donilon’s
leaks the press coverage has been that this summit is about Obama and Xi trying to forge a good personal rapport so as to better define the bilateral relationship. Furthermore, for the Chinese, this relationship is a lot about prestige. Even small gestures that acknowledge the importance of
Departing AIT official leaves mark on Taiwan-U.S. cultural ties - Elaine Hou, focustaiwan.tw: "One of the driving forces behind the increased number of exhibitions and cultural activities organized by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) over the past three years in Taiwan will soon be leaving the country for a new assignment. Sheila Paskman, who took up the post as the AIT's public diplomacy section chief in July 2010, is coming to the end of her three-year term in Taiwan and recently looked back at her efforts to promote cultural links between the United States and Taiwan.
One of the exhibitions that gained the most attention was 'American Footsteps in Taiwan, 1950-1980,' which chronicled American influence in Taiwan during a turbulent historical era. The exhibition, which toured Taiwan, showed the U.S.'s influence on the country's cultural, economic, education, military and public health development through historical photos, artifacts, documentaries and oral interviews. The exhibition 'really talked about our strong history,' Paskman said in a recent interview with local media in Taipei, days before her departure for Washington. Another example was the 'Immigrants Building America' exhibit, which highlighted contributions made by immigrants from Taiwan and China to the U.S. in past decades." Paskman image from article
US senior diplomat to attend US-Islamic World Forum [2013-6-8] - Xinhua: "US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine will travel to Qatar to attend the annual US-Islamic World Forum, the State Department announced in a statement on Friday. Sonenshine will be in the Qatari capital of Doha, from Sunday to Monday, to speak at the forum which is jointly hosted by the Brookings Project on US Relations with the Islamic World, and the State of Qatar, said the statement. This year's forum, entitled "A Decade of Dialogue," is expected to discuss the transitions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, conflict in Syria, and the economic challenges within emerging democracies, according to the statement. ... Reports have said that Sonenshine is leaving in July after 15 months in the current job." See also: (1) (2) (3).
Blind To Terror: The U.S. Government’s Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts And The Impact On U.S. Middle East Policy - Patrick S. Poole, gloria-center.org: "One victim of the administration’s blacklisting has been Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. When Jasser testified in March 2011 before the House Homeland Security Committee on radicalization in the American Muslim community, he was branded a traitor and an 'Uncle Tom' by many of the government’s Muslim outreach partners, and even by political allies of the White House, such as the Center for American Progress and The Nation magazine. Prior to his congressional appearance, he had been nominated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to a post on the State Department’s U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, which is tasked with 'appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics.' However, after 15 months of vetting and receiving a top-secret security clearance, Jasser was informed that his name had been 'removed from consideration' without any explanation. Senator Jon Kyl commented on the affair by saying that 'the Obama administration has chosen to sideline Dr. Jasser.' ... The legacy of the U.S. government’s Muslim outreach programs since the 1990s is a monument of failure by any measure. With more American lives and body parts strewn across American streets once again in Boston, these outreach partners threatening the health and legitimacy of our constitutional republic with their demands. It is clearly past time for Congress to ask whether this long since failed experiment should come to an immediate end."
After Iran Tech Sanctions Fix, are Medicine Shortages Next? - Ryan Costello and David Elliott, Huffington Post: "The administration should stand with the Iranian people by opening banking channels for humanitarian goods and other U.S.-authorized transactions by providing third country banks a blanket waiver that they will not be sanctioned for facilitating legitimate humanitarian transactions. Alternatively, the Obama administration could heed the recommendation of a recent Atlantic Council report by '[d]esignating a small number of US and private Iranian financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian, educational, and public diplomacy-related transactions carefully licensed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.' This measure would completely cut out the need to use foreign banks as intermediaries. As the Atlantic Council notes, this would be a major step to facilitate people-to-people ties with Iranians, whose opinion of
Iranian Nuclear Program: Taking Small Steps to Solve a Big Problem - Jeannette Villar, vigilesintel.com: "Instruments of Statecraft; Applicability and Utilization in Approaching the Iranian Nuclear Program [:] Instrumentalities of statecraft refer to the diplomatic tools that countries employ in the interaction with one another. The instruments of statecraft can be classified under an umbrella of three different categories: political, economic, and military. Falling under the political spectrum are the strategies of negotiations, public diplomacy, international law, and organization alliances. The economic category encompasses foreign aid, financial aid, trade policy, and sanctions. Lastly, military instruments include the persuasive use of force, war fighting, intelligence operations, and covert action. This section will explore how these tools should be effectively applied to ensure Iranian cooperation and membership within the NPT."
New book assesses US diplomacy in Mideast - Iran Book News Agency: "Imam Sadegh University Press has recently published a new book on the US diplomacy in the Middle East region. The book chiefly considers the US diplomacy in the region after the 9/11 events in the US. The book’s author, Mojtaba Azizi Basati, pursues the book’s theme through contemporary international relations theories in assessment of the US soft power and public diplomacy in the interval between 2001 and 2012.
The impact of US policies on stability and security of the region’s countries especially Afghanistan, Iraq, the occupied Palestine and the Islamic Republic of Iran. General issues, theoretical framework, nature structure and objectives of US public diplomacy, the US public diplomacy regarding Afghanistan and Iraq, the US public diplomacy regarding the occupied Palestine and the Islamic Republic of Iran are the titles of the book’s five chapters." Image from entry
Iran Special: The 2nd Presidential Debate - Joanna Paraszczuk, enduringamerica.com: "1335 GMT: Jalili: America uses culture --- like through the movie Argo. Jalili talks about 'cultural justice' which he says includes money for building mosques. Government and especially president must have this precise understanding, and that's why the President must be a religious figure under the Constitution. 1333 GMT: Saeed Jalili steps up to the podium. He says that: 'Culture is like breathing. When you think about things like traffic regulations, that is a way to achieve results through regulations but you can also achieve results through culture. Regarding the nuclear issue we need to hvae a precise understanding of nature of our cultre to avoid making mistakes and undermining our capacities.' 1329 GMT: Haddad Adel --- Iranian culture in the region has been influential through its sublime concepts. A Turkish expert told me that Iranian culture in the world of Islam is like that of Greece in Europe. 1328 GMT: Rouhani is warned to stick to his time allocation. He asks Haddad Adel about literature --- 'what is your proposal for more activity on literature'. 1321 GMT: Haddad Adel waxes poetic --- 'Culture is a waterfall' and 'Culture is a source of life' 1319 GMT: Gholam Ali Haddad Adel --- prominent MP, relative of the Supreme Leader, and professor of philosophy --- takes the podium. He issues declarations like, 'Culture is the spirit of the body of society and its identity.' 1310GMT: Rouhani goes into extra time to slam the government for its treatment of students and academics, and says that some university professors have been fired over the past 10 years and harsh restrictions imposed on students.
1305 GMT: 'Independent' candidate Mohammad Gharazi, the least-prominent of the eight men, takes the podium. Gharazi does not offer much beyond the reiteration --- from Rohani and Aref --- that 'culture belongs to the people'. That sparks a fight-back from Haddad Adel, who tries to present people protecting their culture and beliefs by supporting the Revolution led by Imam Khomeini --- in other words, the claim that the system brought convergence between the people and their leaders. 1250 GMT: Qalibaf makes a general call for 'generation of wealth' through culture, while maintaining 'dignity': 'We are not a capitalist society....We believe under Divine guidance we protect human freedom and dignity.' Other candidates criticise Qalibaf --- justifiably, in my view --- for vagueness. The surreal criticism comes from Haddad Adel: 'Art is like a vegetable. If it is on the table, people will eat. But if it is not on the table, people won't starve.' Qalibaf's response talks about 'culture as an important basis for manpower, mosques are even more important than oil and gas'. He wanders to his position as Mayor of Tehran, 'If I tell the people the sidewalks will be mended, they will be mended.' [A tweet re a statement made in the debate:] 'Rouhani Campaign @HassanRouhani we have celebs, scholars etc, we can introduce them as cultural #ambassadors in public #diplomacy..unfortunately haven't seen much of that.'"
Senate Bill: Better for Legal Immigration - David Bier, openmarket.org: "Free market immigration advocates recognize that freeing up
partly by how much it increases the availability of visas, particularly employment-based visas. ... "[Comment by:] Tom Areton June 4, 2013 at 12:52 pm What David forgot to mention is that, under the Senate Bill, all DoS J-1 work-based student programs: Camp Counselors, Au Pairs, Summer Work and Travel students and Internship/Trainee participants – the cornerstone of the U.S. Public Diplomacy efforts – will be eliminated. That is approximately 200,000 young people from all over the world, all elite university students (except for Au Pair), the future leaders of their countries. The Senate Bill reclassified all of these as 'foreign labor' (under Subsection F, 'Human Trafficking') and as such, the U.S. employers would have to pay for all the students’ program expenses, including their airfare, insurance, housing and visa fees – in addition to their salaries. Schumer’s amendment adds insult to injury by making the U.S. sponsors post an additional $500 bond for every Work and Travel student (to be put in a Federal fund to repair the border). No businessman in his right mind will pay students’ airfares to flip hamburgers in Virginia Beach. This was basically a piece of raw meat thrown to the Unions, who maintain that these students are stealing jobs from the Americans, in exchange for more laxity with the Guest Workers, requested by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.(Since the guest workers come mostly from Mexico, no expensive air fares need to be provided.) Student exchange organizations, which will be wiped out if the Senate Bill passes, were not invited to sit at the negotiation table. Their fate was decided a la 1938 Munich diktat – without their presence." Image from entry
Teen from Yemen completes year at Mt. Blue High School - dailybulldog.com: "When Omar Abdullatif Mohammed Salem Alkazmi (5 of his 10 familial /tribal names), age 16, arrived in the Farmington area last September, little did this boy from Yemen know that, during his school year at Mt. Blue High School, he would run in track meets, carve faces on pumpkins, learn to kayak 5 miles down Minnehonk Lake, act as a Page for the Senate in the State House, and attend his first Prom.
Especially he didn’t expect to be freezing though a long Maine winter! ... Omar is a guest in our community through an organization called American Councils for Secondary Education, which administers a US State Dept.-funded exchange program whose aim is to build mutual cultural understanding and to create 'public diplomacy' between the US and countries with whom we have struggled. This includes four sub-programs, the oldest being FLEX which brings over teens from former Soviet Union countries, and the newest being YES which invites students from predominately Muslim populations. YES (Youth Exchange and Study) was the brainchild of Senators Ted Kennedy and Richard Lugar after the events of 9/11." Image from entry, with caption: Left to right, Wayne Davis, Omar Salem and Christine Merchant.
Rotarians remember Anne Smedinghoff at memorial in Oak Park - Jack Casey, oakpark.com: "Approximately 130 people, many clad in suits, dresses, and Rotary International pins, gathered in Oak Park June 5 for a memorial luncheon and the presentation of a Rotary International award to honor the life and service of Anne Smedinghoff, the young River Forest woman who was killed in a roadside bomb while working in Afghanistan. ... The event continued with a brief lunch where Smedinghoff's family sat with several of the Rotarians who had worked with Anne while she tried to establish the club. Following the meal, Ambassador Hans Klemm, the principal deputy assistant secretary for Human Resources with the State Department, delivered the event's keynote address.
Klemm discussed Smedinghoff's service while working as a diplomat and how it aligned closely with Rotary International's ideals. He also hit on specific examples of Smedinghoff's service overseas, including her efforts to deliver books to schools in the Kabul area and her efforts to organize local concerts for the Afghan people. 'Though her time with the State Department was all too brief, Anne [Smedinghoff] distinguished herself not only as an excellent Public Diplomacy Officer, but also as a young woman of outstanding character who, just like the Rotarians, put the needs of others ahead of her own,' Klemm said." Image from article
Mister Brett Bruen ! Madagascar ne sera jamais la Guinée et bon débarras ! [has Google English translation] - madagate.com: "Heureusement qu’il va quitter définitivement Madagascar. Mais il ne s’est pas empêché de parloter, en mentant comme un charretier. Il, c’est ce Brett Bruen, 'Conseiller en Communication et aux affaires culturelles' mais tout bonnement l’homme fort de l’ambassade des U.S.A. devant lequel le Chargé d’Affaires Eric Wong ne peut que s’effacer. ... En 2009, il était en Irak. Eh oui. Dans le monde de l’espionnage sous couvert de la diplomatie, il n’y a jamais de hasard. Il y était pour reconstruire ce que son pays avait détruit au nom de la démocratie. ... Il aura beau s’expliquer, s’il a appris la langue irakienne, ce n’est pas pour y faire du tourisme… Quand Brett Bruen passe, tout casse…"
Image from article, with caption: "As the U.S. forces look toward our draw down out of the country, this is a great potential legacy that we can leave behind; showing that we took proper care of the ancient sites and history of the Iraqi people," said Brett Bruen, Public Diplomacy Officer for the PRT in Salah ad Din. Ah bon ? Après avoir tout détruit ?
Being cynical: Julian Assange, Eric Schmidt, and the year's weirdest book: In 'The New Digital Age' [by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen] we learn what happens when Google stops being polite and starts getting real - Joseph L. Flatley, theverge.com: "Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen have spent the bulk of their short, happy lives sucking up to power. ... Cohen treated the State Department like a startup, wowing Condi and Hillary with his Twitter proficiency and by throwing around terms like 'Public Diplomacy 2.0' and '21st-Century Statecraft,' as if they weren't meaningless. Highlights from Cohen's All-American Speakers Bureau bio include positions with the National Counterterrorism Center and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a highly publicized phone date with Jack Dorsey. Not bad for a man who was once labeled 'Condi's Party Starter' by The New Yorker, presumably through no fault of his own. Most recently, Cohen was named the director of Google's 'think/do' tank, Google Ideas. Indeed, under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US State Department at times resembled nothing less than a 'think/do' tank for the Hoover Institution, the prominent conservative policy research institute based at Jared Cohen's alma mater, Stanford University. ... In her autobiography, Rice mentions how "a terrific staff of 'young guns' accompanied another member of the Stanford set, Stephen D. Krasner, to the State Department. 'One of his most inspired appointments came in 2006,' Rice continues, 'when he hired the 20-something Jared Cohen,' also a Stanford alum. She then goes on to claim credit for the Arab Spring on the State Department’s behalf. On a December day in 2008 — this was during the bitter end of the Bush presidency — Cohen joined State Department official James Glassman on stage at the New America Foundation to outline their gift to the next administration, and to the world: 'A new approach to communicating ... made far easier because of the emergence of Web 2.0, or social networking, technologies. We call our new approach Public Diplomacy 2.0.' In a talk that awkwardly referenced both Camus and Derrida, the wonks announced their support for a group of State Department-approved pro-democracy activists under the banner Alliance of Youth Movements."
Myanmar, Muslims and Ethnic Cleansing - Mohammad Rasool Shah, Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association - "The first evidence of 'ethnic cleansing' in Burma dates back to 1982 when a bill was passed against the ethnic minorities according to which some of the ethnic groups were not recognized as the citizens of Burma and they were termed to be 'illegal citizens' of Burma and were asked to leave the country and migrate to the lands where they originally belong. Along with some other ethnic groups, Rohingya Muslims of eastern Rakhine state became its targets. ... When the Myanmar government considers its open and democratic form of government, they must address one of the most barbaric remnants of their recent past, ethnic cleansing taking place in their midst, and right the wrongs done to the
Rohingya population. ... We ask the world to not look away, but to raise its collective voice in support of the Rohingya. In these days of public diplomacy, the citizens, civil societies, NGOs, private investors and business community have a vital role to play in the context of democratic reforms, human rights and development around the globe. We must use this voice. We, the Afghans make a strong appeal to the Myanmar government. You must amend the infamous 1982 law, and welcome the Rohingya as full citizens of Myanmar with all attendant rights." Image from entry
Is anyone listening? - Sarama South, blogs.fco.gov.uk: "The diplomatic arm of the
This out of a population of a little less than 3 million. Twitter is growing rapidly in
New Tourism Strategy from VisitBritain - C2SBEditor, ehospitalitytimes.com: "Culture Secretary Maria Miller launched a tourism partnership strategy for Britain which calls for the travel industry and the government, together with key public and private sector bodies, to unite behind a long-term ambition for growth that would see Britain welcome 40 million overseas visitors by 2020, spending £31.5 billion and supporting an additional 200,000 jobs across the country.
Tourism is an industry that already employs 2.6 million people a year – supporting one in twelve jobs in the UK. In the past two years a third of all new jobs created were in tourism. ... VisitBritain’s GREAT activity for 2013/14 will seek to maintain the awareness and image boost created by London 2012. ... VisitBritain – which is already at the forefront of partnership working – will look at creative ways in which existing resources, platforms and promotional material can be used by other organisations. This is expected to include private sector partners and public diplomacy teams in source markets such as Mexico and South Korea." Image from entry
DFAT and touching the void: A case for establishing an Australia Council - Ben Moles, International Security Discipulus: Commentary on International Security: Emerging Scholars Perspectives. diplomacy work. A plethora of nations have recognised the benefits of cultural ‘sexiness’. Examples include the Goethe-Institut, Alliance-Francaise, and even the comparatively recent Confucius-Institute. In this context,
What would the Australia Council do? Similarly to its British counterpart, it would promote
Falklands: Motion Of Thanks Speech By The Hon Mr Mike Summers - Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 08.06.2013 - sartma.com: "I benefitted hugely from listening to the two former Chilean Foreign Ministers who visited earlier in the year. They had a lot of interesting observations and advice to give and the level of assistance they can give us in moving forward with our public diplomacy programmes. That’s an element of our work that we need to keep talking about, keep thinking about and keep working on."
Motion Of Thanks Speech By The Hon Mrs Jan Cheek - falklandnews.com: "Involvement in our public diplomacy strategy has been fascinating. And to see plans, many of which were initiated over 2 years ago come to fruition has been very satisfying. But as long as Argentina continues peddling lies and attempts to damage our economy we can t afford to let up on those efforts. We have received much welcome good publicity and actually find that we are the envy of individuals in some of the countries we visited. Our funding of education in general, especially of higher education is widely recognised as priceless investment and one many wish they could emulate. It s therefore been a particular pleasure when putting out the Falklands case around the world, to see some of those who have benefited over the years from that funding playing an active and significant part in our campaign."
Tony Blair, The Neoconservatives and What is at Stake in Syria - Karl Naylor, karl-naylor.blogspot.com: "In mass democracies the line has to be promoted, through what it termed 'Public Diplomacy', that our interests are enlightened and good and Assad's and Iran's are evil. The problem is that it is more complicated than that."
Expats should contribute to Nile solution: Presidential adviser - Joel Gulhane, dailynewsegypt.com: "A presidential adviser has called on Egyptians living abroad to 'contribute to the national defence of Egypt’s right to Nile water.' In statement published on Sunday, Ayman Aly, President Mohamed Morsi’s adviser on Egyptians living abroad, asked for contributions from the expatriate community 'whether they be ideas or visions.' He invited expatriates to make the government aware of any Egyptian experts in the fields of 'the Nile Basin countries, the construction of dams, international law and dispute resolution.' The adviser also called for 'Egyptian institutions seeking to create development projects in the Nile Basin countries and activating development partnership.' Aly’s statement also called on expatriates to put forward ideas to help activate 'public diplomacy in favour of the homeland.' He added: 'The matter requires concerted efforts.'”
70 Youth Educated Abroad Love Indonesia - mamette, blogmamet.com: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs again provide scholarships Arts and Culture of Indonesia (BSBI) to dozens of young people abroad. In the 11th time this year implementation, the Foreign Ministry chose 70 participants from 43 countries, including Indonesia. So says the Director-General for Information and Public Diplomacy Ministry, AM Fachir, after welcoming the participants BSBI at Gedung Pancasila, Friday, June 7, 2013. Fachir expects all 43 participants can be a promoter for Indonesia when they return to their home country."
Qasuri Reluctant To Re-Join Pti - Siasat.Pk: "yesterday, 04:14 AM #19 Bani Adam Regular Member ... Location Karachi, Pakistan Re: QASURI RELUCTANT To RE-JOIN PTI I think there's little need to debate FK here any more, till she announces her next steps. Enough has already been said and heard, and it feels like this continued media/social media spotlight is unduly glorifying her and portraying her as the indispensable queen, at the expense of PTI and IK. Enough damage has already been done, so pls let the emotions calm down and do a quiet diplomacy, not a public diplomacy or confrontation, if needed........ just an idea[.]"
Cultural Identifiers in Social Media - Giles Crouch, mediabadger.com: "We, as in humans, tend to want to make it clear what socioeconomic or cultural group we self-identify with when making statements, claims or arguments on issues in social media. Why is such self-identification important? Do we expect other readers to acknowledge a set of 'issues' that define a certain cultural group? What are the implications for public diplomacy or digital diplomacy? It sets up a lot of questions, but the facts seem to indicate that cultural self-identification remains an important social issue in online communications."
All the Awards I've Never Earned - Donna, emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com: "I've worked for the Department, on and off, since 1999. I've been in Consular, in CLO, in Political and in Public Diplomacy. Every cone but Econ, actually. And in that time, I've won exactly one award, way back in 2001. Okay, technically, I won another award in 2000, but that wasn't for any 'real' work. ... [S]ometimes, you know, just sometimes, it's frustrating to be 'just a spouse' and have no one notice your contributions."
Former U.S. ambassador spoke bluntly on Canadian issues - thespec.com: "Paul Cellucci often spoke bluntly on key cross-border issues during his four years as U.S. ambassador to Canada, but always insisted his direct approach was needed in the critical period after the 9/11 terror attacks. Cellucci died Saturday at the age of 65 at his Massachusetts home of complications from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. His term began in 2001 after serving as Massachusetts governor, and he became known for publicly voicing the views of Canada's neighbour and largest trading partner.
Cellucci spoke out on contentious bilateral issues of the day such as Canada's participation in a U.S. missile defence plan, chided Ottawa for not joining the 2003 Iraq War and called for greater military spending. But Cellucci defended his approach to 'public diplomacy,' maintaining it was part of what it means to be a U.S. ambassador in a new, security-conscious world. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says Cellucci was a friend of Canada." Cellucci image from article; see also.
CPD Research Fellowship, 2013-2015 - fpa.org: "In August 2009, the Center [USC Center on Public Diplomacy] launched a non-resident Research Fellowship program intended to support and publicize the work of scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy. The Center is now accepting applications from scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy for the 2013-2015 term. CPD Research Fellows will be expected to oversee a substantive research project that that will yield at least two outputs, including one publication for the CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy series. The second output could consist of a blog series for the CPD Blog, or another type of product which the Fellow develops with CPD. To review a list of current fellows, click here."
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Brave new world of government surveillance - Editorial, latimes.com: Secret, widespread spying on citizens by the government should be alarming to all Americans. Last month, President Obama warned that "a perpetual war — through drones or special forces or troop deployments — will prove self-defeating and alter our country in troubling ways." That observation also applies to domestic legislation enacted in the anxious aftermath of 9/11, and to the culture of secrecy to which both this administration and its predecessor succumbed.
PRISM, NSA – Propaganda Campaign? - Veverly Edwards, guardianlv.com: "I am not attempting to downplay the government’s ability to acquire our personal information by surveillance of phone calls and the internet.
I just do not think that my information is so important that I want to hinder the progress of national security and the ability of the government to intercept terrorist activity. Granted, I may be naïve. I actually believe President Obama when he says, 'nobody is listening to your phone calls.'” Image from article
U.S. mission in Afghanistan needs clarity from Obama administration - Editorial, Washington Post: Part of
Inside the mind of Samantha Power - James Mann, Washington Post: Power's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has raised speculation about whether she will push for a more interventionist U.S. foreign policy, particularly in places such as Syria. In her daily work, proposals for U.S. military intervention will seem remote, if not entirely irrelevant.
Iranian FM Blasts Baseless Propaganda against Safety of Bushehr N. Power Plant - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi
dismissed the propaganda against the safety of Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr, stressing that the plant enjoys the highest safety standards. Image from entry
Worldview: Clues on Turkey in jailing of educator - Trudy Rubin, philly.com: If you want to understand why tens of thousands of young urban Turks have been demonstrating against their government, you need look no further than the tragic plight of
Kemal Guruz. Guruz, one of Turkey's most distinguished academic reformers and the onetime head of Turkey's Higher Education Council (known as YOK), has been held without charges in a maximum-security prison for nearly a year. Turkish media have been so cowed that the leading TV channels failed to cover the massive demonstrations. When social media tried to pick up the slack, Erdogan denounced Twitter as "the worst menace to society," and 34 cyberactivists were arrested. Reporters Without Borders has ranked Turkey 154th out of 179 countries on its press freedom index, just below Russia. Via RG. Guruz image from article
Turkey: Local Media is used as a Propaganda Mouthpiece for the Government - Gürkan Ö, firedoglake.com: Over the years, most media barons left their business to government related business people and the situation was the absolute silence we have seen throughout, if not for the disinformatary broadcast, accusing the protesters of crimes committed by undercover policemen, events that took place years ago and directly turning prime minister’s accusations into “facts." Moreover, as most of the country does not use internet, a seriously dangerous number of people still have no idea what has been going on and why. The only thing they see on the news usually is “the terrorists that we have always known, this time in our city center”.
On holiday: Countries with the most vacation days - Alexander E. M. Hess, USA Today: The United States is the only developed country in the world without a single legally required paid vacation day or holiday. By law, every country in the European Union has at least four work weeks of paid vacation. Austria, which guarantees workers the most time off, has a legal minimum of 22 paid vacation days and 13 paid holidays each year. The average private sector U.S. worker receives 16 paid vacation days and holidays. One in four Americans does not have a single paid day off.
‘The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America’ by George Packer - reviewed Marc Fisher, Washington Post: George Packer, a longtime and highly versatile reporter for the New Yorker, travels to the America that politicians and other leaders prefer not to see. In “The Unwinding” Packer leaves the anomalies of Washington and New York behind and shows how Wall Street, big corporations and the government atomized and polarized us, unspooling “the coil that held Americans together.” In this America, he writes, “everything changes and nothing lasts.” The reporter’s vision of how things went bad over the past generation covers everything from the fast-food-obesity nexus to the loss of localism, the end of cheap oil, the housing collapse and, above all, the death of trust.
Propaganda: Power and Persuasion at the British Library: Reading between the lines - En Liang Khong, newstatesman.com: The essential tenor of the British Library’s provocative exhibition Propaganda: Power and Persuasion is that the age of propaganda persists in our age of globalisation.
Although we might be confidently distant from the Orwellian imagination, the systems of information control are being perpetuated. Image from article, with caption: The White-Haired Girl. A Chinese film poster from 1950. British Library.
LEAKERS
"Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution has gone to great lengths to classify those who spill classified information to the news media. There are baskets: 1) the ego leak (for the purpose of self-aggrandizement); 2) the goodwill leak (a downpayment for a “future favor”); 3) the policy leak (“a straightforward pitch for or against” a certain proposal); 4) the animus leak (get back at the bastards); 5) the trial-balloon leak (self-explanatory); and 6) the whistleblower leak (generally deployed by career personnel frustrated by the lack of change)."
--Erik Wemple, "NSA source ID’d: 29-year-old Edward Snowden," Washington Post
MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY
“He has principles, but he doesn’t always stick with them.”
--Laura Murphy, who directs the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, regarding President Barack Obama
“There is a blurring of the line between content and context.”
--Stephen B. Wicker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, stating that the practical distinction between the metadata of calls and their content is rapidly disappearing because of technological advances, such as GPS features in mobile phones.
"Some volunteered to be spied on in exchange for reduced rates."
--Emily Bazelon, "Bazelon: I'm worried about the NSA. You should be too,"
IMAGES
One Million Bones To Transform the Mall Into a Symbolic Mass Grave - Leah Binkovitz, blogs.smithsonianmag.com: For the past few months, students, families, as well as church and synagogue groups around the D.C. area have been busy making human bones out of materials like plaster, glass, metal or wood. In fact, some 100,000 people from every state and 30 countries have made bones. Now, the hand-crafted bones–one million of them–will be placed on the National Mall in a symbolic act of artistic intervention, which they call a “visual petition” to act against the ongoing crimes of genocide around the world. Via WM on facebook.
Микроскопический вирус, он способен размножаться внутри бактерий (A microscopic virus, capable of reproducing inside bacteria). Via LZ on Facebook
From: LOOK: Amazing maps reveal how Americans say different words across the country
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