PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Op-ed diplomacy: Ink-stained presidents - bostonglobe.com: "First, it was Russian President Vladimir Putin, outlining his
dead? Are the leaders of controversial governments simply going to pitch to the American public directly, via newspaper columns? For Americans, who generally look well on promoting US-style democratic values around the world, it’s odd to be on the receiving end of some other government’s public diplomacy. (In contrast, Senator John McCain’s anti-Putin column in a Pravda-affiliated website was closer to the norm.) Critics of these efforts are wary of giving foreign dictators an audience; imagine if Mao Zedong had written for, say, the Houston Chronicle, trying to put a positive spin on his rule ('let 1,000 flowers bloom, y’all'). Still, many American readers will find it useful to hear at length from foreign leaders in their own words, and there’s always the comment section to keep would-be propagandizers in line." Image from article, with caption: Vladimir Putin wrote an op-ed for The New York Times.
Why Do World Leaders Still Write Op-Eds? - Joshua Keating, Salon: "With all the talk of how public diplomacy has been transformed in the Twitter age, world leaders still rely to a remarkable extent on the good old-fashioned newspaper op-ed. Today, it’s Iran’s newly-elected president, Hassan Rouhani, who took to the op-ed page of the Washington Post to urge his fellow leaders ahead of next week’s U.N. General Assembly to respond genuinely to my government’s efforts to engage in constructive dialogue. Last week, of course, it was Vladimir Putin, attacking U.S. policy on Syria and questioning the concept of American exceptionalism in the New York Times, prompting several rebuttal editorials by U.S. politicians in Russian newspapers. Using a newspaper op-ed to 'speak directly to the American people,' seems like a bit of an odd choice, given that the American people by and large don’t read newspaper op-eds. 'We know from the research that most readers in the United States do not read op-eds,' Guy Golan, who studies public diplomacy at the University of Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, told me today. They’re typically read by about 5 percent of readers. But it’s typically read by politicians, journalists, issue advocates, and academics. The journalists then pick it up and it becomes salient in media where the readers become aware of it.' ... John McCain may have been under the impression that Pravda.ru enjoys equivalent influence in Russia to the New York Times and is the modern successor to the Soviet-era Pravda newspaper. Not exactly." Image from article
McCain's Op-Ed in Pravda -- The Other Side of the same Coin - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "After Putin’s bashing op-ed in the New York Times last week, Senator McCain was so distressed, he decided he absolutely had to respond. ... Just as in the case of Putin’s op-ed, McCain’s piece [in Pravda] did the exact opposite of 'public diplomacy'."
Operation Discretit Russia - 3dblogger.typepad.com: "A certain kind of Moscow correspondent, and a certain kind of hipster journalist, and a certain kind of IR Realist pundit and a certain kind of twitterer is mocking Sen. John McCain right now for supposedly being backward and out of it, and still living in the dark, old days of the Cold War -- thinking Pravda is still important and mixing up Pravda and Pravda.ru in placing his op-ed --- and then 'getting it all wrong' when he talks to the Russian people. But while I didn't vote for McCain and opted to vote for Obama in 2008 for lots of reasons, I don't think he deserves to be mocked over this and the claims about his backwardness or need for public realtions skills tutoring or Russian area studies are way overblown. ... Only a figure as bad-faithed as Max Fisher could write that Putin's op-ed in the New York Times was "ever-so-slightly" merely nudging: [']Putin's op-ed, in other words, was an act of savvy if cynical public diplomacy. [']"
What’s Behind the New Iranian Charm Offensive - Karl Vick, world.time.com: "Close students of Tehran recognize that the most encouraging development in months was the behind-the-scenes role Iran evidently played in the deal to bring Syria’s chemical and biological arsenal under international control, to which Obama alluded. The stars were aligned for that cooperation, what with Iran’s wrenching history with chemical weapons and weariness with Assad. In terms of public diplomacy, it’s just possible the mullahs don’t realize they’re talking as loudly as they are — simply because they’ve never before been saying the same things, together, at the same time. Khatami’s elected reformists was constantly at war with the appointed mullahs who held the top positions in Iran’s sprawling system of governance, which was the main thing Khatami aimed to reform. Rouhani’s primary aim is transforming Iran’s image with the outside world, a goal that’s easy to rally behind, especially with the rial at a fraction of its value and the government paying its contractors a dime or two on the dollar. Another, more likely explanation: Iran is letting the world know just how very eager it is to talk because it knows perceptions matter a great deal just now."
World Musicians Kick off Cultural Diplomacy Tour in Orlando - "A group of young musicians from all over the world will begin a US concert tour with a performance in Orlando tonight.
Play Audio Story One Beat is a "cultural diplomacy" program organized by the US State Department. 25 musicians from 16 countries have spent two weeks rehearsing in New Smyrna Beach for the concert tour. 90.7's Matthew Peddie spoke to One Beat co-director Elena Moon Park, and Mpumelelo Mcata, one of the program fellows and a guitarist in the South African band BLK JKS. Mpumelelo will join other musicians from the residency in a concert at the Timucua White House in Orlando this Friday night." Uncaptioned image from entry
White House’s Macon Phillips To Get New Digs at State Dept’s Bureau of International Information Programs - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: “Macon Phillips, the Director of Digital Strategy at the White House will reportedly get new digs at the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. That’s the same bureau involved with buying FB likes and almost plunking a $16.5 million contract on Kindles [sic] ... Mr. Phillips ran the new media program for the Presidential Transition Team (Change.gov) and served as the Deputy Director of the Obama campaign’s new media department (BarackObama.com). Prior to the campaign, Phillips led Blue State Digital’s strategy practice, working with clients like the Democratic National Committee and Senator Ted Kennedy. His WH bio says that he is 'a proud Americorps*VISTA alum,' is a
William Vincent Astor and L. Ron Hubbard – British Spies and American Traitors – 10 – Final Segment - mikemcclaughry.wordpress.com: “'Throughout his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt liked dispatching personal representatives to foreign countries to accomplish important tasks. The sensation created by these 'special envoys' enhanced the reputation of several figures in U.S. public life who were regarded as mysteriously clever and intriguingly powerful. This dramatic public diplomacy reached its high point at the end of 1940 and beginning of 1941, when Roosevelt simultaneously dispatched three such emissaries to the most troubled spots of the globe. 'The inclusion of William Donovan among FOR’s special emissaries seemed to affirm the already publicized friendship between the two men.'”
Anniversary of the mass firings of Radio Liberty journalists in Russia - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "Exactly one year ago, the previous American management of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) had fired almost the entire Internet team of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty in Moscow together with Mumin Shakirov, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist, and some radio producers. The firing operation continued on the following day when a number of best known reporters and other producers from Radio Liberty’s radio service in Moscow had also lost their jobs. This mass firing of some of the best independent journalists in Russia began the worst crisis of the history of the Radio Liberty (Radio Svoboda) and a public diplomacy embarrassment for the United States in Russia and elsewhere, a story that has been well documented by BBG Watch.
RFE RL acting president Kevin Klose greets Lyudmila Alexeeva at a party in Moscow. Thanks to efforts of many people and organizations — starting with the courageous Radio Liberty journalists themselves who organized Radio Liberty in Exile; human rights leader Lyudmila Alexeeva; former President Mikhail Gorbachev; BBG member Ambassador Victor Ashe; his colleagues Susan McCue, Michael Meehan, and Tara Sonenshine; Ann Noonan and Ted Lipien from CUSIB; journalists Mario Corti and Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, and others, too numerous to mention — the crisis was partially resolved and Radio Liberty’s reputation as a serious independent journalistic institution was largely restored. Much of the credit goes to Kevin Klose, who was eventually selected by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) as Acting RFE/RL President and later named to a full-time position of chief executive. He was able to sort certain things out and brought back many of the fired Radio Liberty journalists." Image from entry, with caption: RFE RL acting president Kevin Klose at a party in Moscow with Radio Liberty’s fired journalists shortly after being appointed to his post.
President Heather Wilson Inauguration Set for Oct. 4 at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology - digitaljournal.com: "She was president of the International Women’s Forum and chairman of both the Secretary of Commerce’s Export Conference and the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy."
RELATED ITEMS
Syria: The propaganda blitz: More than a decade after the war in Iraq, have global media outlets learnt to look beyond the spin? - This week on the Listening Post: Presidents, propaganda and channelling the media to get the message out: a look at the similarities and differences
between Syria in 2013 and Iraq 10 years ago. Image from entry
How easy is it to subvert America’s foreign policy in the Mideast? - Charles Ortel, Washington Times: The Obama Administration has embraced
Islamic organizations like no other Administration in history. Uncaptioned image from entry
Six Principles Of Propaganda Lenin Used To Consolidate Power - Monica Showalter, news.invesgtors.com: Having attained power in late 1917 on a raft of promises — land to Russia's peasants, bread to Russia's starving cities and peace to Russia's World War I-weary soldiers — V.I. Lenin was able to dispense with every one of them by advancing civil war from 1918 to 1921 to justify his acts by crisis.
Studying the Effects of War Propaganda on Combatants in Serbia - Kenneth Best, today.uconn.edu: Jordan Kiper, now a doctoral student in anthropology at UConn, who is
focusing his dissertation on the effects of war propaganda on combatants of campaigns involving human rights violations, particularly in Serbia." Kiper image from entry, wiht caption: Jordan Kiper, a graduate student in human rights, gives a presentation in Konover Auditorium on Sept. 18, as part of the 10th annual Human Rights Institute Conference. Above item from entry, with caption' below item from entry, with caption:
Some Exceptionally Vivid Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda - Rebecca Onion, .slate.com: In a post on the excellent Web archive Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, historian James von Geldern catalogs the steps that the new Communist Party took during the 1920s to dismantle the cultural power of the Orthodox Church (as well as that of the Islamic and Jewish authorities in Ukraine and Belarus).
The early years of the decade saw officially sanctioned destruction of church buildings and property, as well as violence against priests. Later, the government attempted to persuade people to leave religion behind through culture: films, books, newspapers, and art. Soviet officials focused, in particular, on the rural peasantry, thought to cling more closely to religious belief. These four caricatures appear to appeal to the class-consciousness of this group of laborers. Images from entry
AMERICANA
An American dilemma: Your clutter or your life: The United States has more storage facilities than McDonald's. Why? Because we have too much stuff - Howard Mansfield, latimes.com: There are 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space in America, or more than 7 square feet for every, man, woman and child in the country.
RUSSICA
(Rough translation: "Prestige Hairdresser"). Via RS on Facebook
THIRD REICH-EEKA
--From "Эротические фотографии Третьего Рейха" (Erotic photographs from the Third Reich); via LP on Facebook
MORE AMERICANA
DEFINITIONS
Hard power: Pre-orgasm male organ [POMO] (Rome before its decline)
Soft power: Post-orgasm male organ [POMO] (Rome after its decline)
--From an opinionated but valued PDPBR subscriber; image from
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