"We’ve got too many priests and not enough jesters."
--Intenet skeptic Evgeny Morozov; image from
VIDEO
This World Oft Can Be - Paul Rockower, Levantine: Covers the State Department Central Asian tour of the bluegrass group Dellas
AWARDS
Yeni Diplomasi’s Review of Digital Diplomacy in 2013 - thepublicdiplomat.com
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
The future of digital diplomacy - Larisa Permyakova, Russia Direct: "Now e-diplomacy tools have become a core part of public diplomacy, which has its goal establishing contacts with a target online audience and then directly addressing this audience with specific messages anywhere in the world. However, e-diplomacy is much more than mere public diplomacy. It also represents a form of information management, or the management of knowledge and experience accumulated by foreign ministries. In consular affairs, e-diplomacy tools simplify processing of visa documents and facilitate direct contacts with citizens abroad. And last but not the least, in the occurrence of emergencies and natural disasters, e-diplomacy tools become particularly useful, providing foreign citizens a means of communication with their state embassies or consulates. Today, the
21st Century Statecraft,' a program that was designed to complement traditional foreign policy tools with new innovations in statecraft that fully leverage the networks and technologies of an interconnected world. As a result, the State Department essentially become a global media domain managing 288 Facebook pages with 12.9 million fans; 196 Twitter accounts with 1.9 million followers; and 125 YouTube channels that have racked up 16.3 million views. However, digital diplomacy doesn’t seem to be improving
How China and American can keep a Pacific peace - Kurt Campbell, Financial Times: "In an incalculably high-stakes game of naval chicken, a US guided missile destroyer last month narrowly avoided a collision with an escort ship accompanying China’s aircraft carrier during routine deployments by both navies in the South China Sea. ... The Pentagon and US Vice-President Joe Biden, speaking during a trip to China, strongly objected to these 'provocative' acts and called on Beijing to implement effective communication protocols and crisis prevention mechanisms to help prevent misunderstandings and potential escalation scenarios in the future. ... China is concerned that even a narrow operational accord might undermine claims of legitimacy for its disputed 'nine-dash line', which encompasses most of the South China Sea. ... Global optics also come into play. The kind of operational protocols requested by the US were a feature of the cold war; Beijing, in public diplomacy, seeks to avoid triggering in America a sense that China is a global adversary in the way that the Soviet Union was. Finally, China and the US have very different ways of seeking deterrence. America often employs overwhelming displays of military capability – shock and awe – to create apprehension in the minds of potential adversaries or competitors. For China, deterrence – or, perhaps better, doubt – is achieved not through overt displays of power, but through creating uncertainty in the perceptions of others."
Foreign Policy Must Be Bolder - Arvind Gupta, newindianexpress.com: "Indian foreign policy achievements in 2013 were mixed. While there was considerable diplomatic engagement, in critical areas there were many problems. ... In 2014, Indian foreign policy
must become bolder and realistic. It is important to repair the relationship with the US at the soonest but the US must respect Indian sensibilities. In dealing with China, India should build its strengths to back its diplomacy. Going beyond government-to-government ties, an effort should be made to reach out to multiple constituencies. Public diplomacy will have to be strengthened for the purpose." Image from
2GB Breakfast –- Interview with Andrew Moore Published By Foreign Affairs, foreignaffairs.co.nz : "ANDREW MOORE: Yes well it seems to have upset enough of us here, let alone for those people – I mean this Australian television network, this is the impression people are left with of this country when they’re watching it in places as afar as Pakistan or Malaysia, I’ve watched it in Fiji in the past – it goes all over the place. JULIE BISHOP: Well I have been speaking publicly in recent days about the Australia Network. It is a $230m funding agreement between the former Labor Government and the ABC, and I’ve had concerns from the outset because of the way the tender process for Australia Network was corrupted by the former government. ANDREW MOORE: Well it was badly botched; the recommendation was that it was going to be Sky News. JULIE BISHOP: Well the Auditor-General was scathing in the assessment of how this tender process was managed because the government – the Labor Government – essentially prevented it from being subjected to a competitive tender. ANDREW MOORE: Yes. JULIE BISHOP: And just awarded it to the ABC. Now, that’s fine, except that the whole process was corrupted, and that raises questions that still remain. The Australia Network is required to meet key objectives, including to foster and improve understanding of Australia’s global role, and to increase awareness of the links between Australia and Asia. It’s meant to be a vehicle that advances Australia’s national interests in the region – it’s a tool of public diplomacy, and I question whether it’s meeting that objective, because the feedback that I get from ex-patriots and local Asian viewers is largely negative, and that surely must be of concern to the ABC. ANDREW MOORE: Well what happens, Minister, if they don’t fulfil those objectives? JULIE BISHOP: Well the Australia Network contract is going to be viewed by our Commission of Audit. Your listeners will be aware that the Abbott Government has put in place a Commission of Audit that will look at government spending – all contracts and agreements and initiatives – and we will judge whether or not the contract is fulfilling its objective."
Reform list begins with ABC on top - dailytelegraph.com.au: "Any review of media must capture the fate of public broadcasting, particularly the disgracefully performing national broadcaster the ABC and its less-remarked upon sibling SBS. Former Labor communications minister Stephen Conroy should be paraded through the major cities as punishment for his appalling stewardship of the communications portfolio. Not the least of his abysmal performances was the awarding of the $223 million Australia Network contract to the ABC after serial recommendations that the contract go to rival bidder Sky News. Sky News Australia is part owned by UK-based pay-TV company BSkyB, which is controlled by 21st Century Fox, a sister company to News Corporation, the ultimate publisher of The Daily Telegraph. As Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told The Australian newspaper yesterday, the way the previous Labor government 'corrupted the tender process ... and prevented a competitive process from occurring has resulted in ongoing concerns about the contract that was awarded to the ABC.' She said she was aware of concerns within her department about whether the terms of the contract were being met, but also expressed wider worries of her own. 'I also have concerns about the quality of the programming and whether it is meeting the goal of promoting Australia's interests overseas," Ms Bishop said. "It is meant to be a tool of public diplomacy and I am concerned by the level of negative feedback I receive from overseas.' Just last month, the ABC chairman Jim Spigelman admitted that the Australia Network contract process had been 'flawed'. This is an understatement. If more proof was needed that the $1.2 billion-a-year ABC cannot manage itself, look no further than its pathetic and widely criticised coverage of Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks display." See also: (1) (2).
USAK Director Sanberk: Turkey should make EU accession its top priority - turkishweekly.net: "According to the latest poll sponsored by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, 44 percent of Turkish citizens support Turkey’s EU membership, down from 48 percent in 2012 and 73 percent in 2004. As another symbolic sign of resuming Turkish accession negotiation after a gap of three years, Turkey and the EU began a new round of membership talks in November with the opening of Chapter 22 (Regional policy and co-ordination of structural instruments) that would contribute in the coming years to reduce
the existing socio-economic disparities between the regions in Turkey. ... The latest progress report for Turkey released in October by the European Commission has been mainly positive, although it recognized some deficiencies in the fields of freedom of expression and media, judicial independence and freedom of assembly. A veteran diplomat, Ozdem Sanberk, who served as Turkey's ambassador to the United Kingdom, said that Turkey has been a victim of its own priorities in 2013.According to Sanberk, ahead of the elections marathon in Turkey starting in early 2014, the EU accession bid might become a domestic politics tool to further alienate public opinion from the EU agenda. ... 'At that point, both the Turkish politicians and the EU leaders need to give much more positive messages to Turkey to keep the accession ambitions alive, and play a sort of public diplomacy both vis-à-vis the political sphere and Turkish citizens,' he added." Image from
Grapevine: From Dimona to Davos - Greer Fay Cashman, Jerusalem Post: "After serving for 45 years in the Foreign Ministry, Gideon Meir, who is currently a senior deputy director-general heading the public diplomacy department, will be stepping down at the end of the month."
Government, Civil economic cooperation - significantly increase the social and cultural exchanges [Google "translation"] - news.donga.com: "North Korean authorities → private contacts unless extended review ...北provoking exchanges seemed to be resumed ministry is concentrated in North Korea on a private north-south flow of the contacts has decided to significantly expand. North-South economic cooperation and social and cultural exchanges are known to be considering expanding greatly. government officials for two days, 'the Korean peninsula in order to trust the authorities, but the relative progress of the process away from what had plenty of contact with the North Korean people to change their perception of reconciliation should be," he said. North Koreans against the kind of 'public diplomacy (Public Diplomacy)' means that the intends. Another said, 'Economic Cooperation, religion sports-related events and exchanges, including the excavation of Cultural Property Cultural Cooperation, aid organizations and the private sector than expanding initiative intends to improve inter-Korean relations,' he said.
Evgeny vs. the internet: Evgeny Morozov wants to convince us that digital technology can’t save the world, and he’s willing to burn every bridge from Cambridge to Silicon Valley to do it - Michael Meyer, Columbia Journalism Review: "Morozov obsessively, compulsively, sees the flaws in everything, including his own work. This trait has led him to burn numerous bridges with former allies, most notably with Ethan Zuckerman, who now directs the Center for Civic Media at MIT. An advocate of the Web’s ability to connect a global citizenry, Zuckerman brought Morozov
to the board of the Open Society Foundations’ Information Program in 2008, an important step in Morozov’s rise that eventually helped him land a fellowship in
Yeni Diplomasi’s Review of Digital Diplomacy in 2013 - thepublicdiplomat.com: "Yeni Diplomasi, a Turkish website that covers all things digital diplomacy, released their review of 2013 last week. Gökhan Yücel and his crew compiled an impressive list of awards in this presentation: ...
Eytan Gilboa: “The only way to resolve the conflict is by peaceful means and not by violence” - "Eytan Gilboa is Professor of International Communication, Director of the School of Communication, and Director of the Center for International Communication at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Since 2005, he is also a Visiting Professor of Public Diplomacy at USC. He received his PhD from Harvard University and has been a visiting professor in several leading American and European universities including Harvard, UCLA, Georgetown, American University in Washington, DC, Tufts, and the University of Hamburg." Uncaptioned image from entry
Features [:]A selection of my feature articles on nation branding and public diplomacy - Samantha Manniex [:] Journalist specialising in place branding and public diplomacy - sjmanniex.com: "My interviews with key figures in place branding and public diplomacy."
2013: Three stories to tell - mylifeontheelist.wordpress.com: "I now work in international public diplomacy. It’s communications, but also research and event planning – two things I’m really excited to do more of."
RELATED ITEMS
Report: Arts, culture add $500B to nation's GDP - AP, Wall Street Journal [December 5, 2013] Creative industries led by Hollywood account for about $504 billion, or at least 3.2 percent of U.S. goods and services, the government said in its first official measure of how the arts and culture affect the economy. Via NI on Facebook
Troping the Enemy: Culture, Metaphor Programs, and Notional Publics of National Security - Robert Albro, robertalbro.com: The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) – established in 2006 in the spirit of the Pentagon’s DARPA to sponsor research for groundbreaking technologies to support an “overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries” – is a little-known US agency that social and behavioral scientists (especially sociocultural anthropologists) should pay more attention to. This is because IARPA is notably social scientific in orientation and has been developing concepts in specific ways for use by the intelligence community (IC) that US anthropology in particular is significantly historically responsible for introducing to the social sciences, if in different ways, most obviously: culture, its coherence and the extent of cultural consensus, its relationship to society and to human agency. At its inception IARPA was tasked with developing better ways, in USA Today-speak, to “help analysts measure cultural habits of another society.” And its portfolio continues to sponsor research intended to develop big data-type tools to process the linguistic and cultural information of countries, societies and communities of interest to
India Finds New Methods to Punish U.S. Diplomats - Gardiner Harris, New York Times: India’s diplomatic corps, still seething over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York, continued its tit-for-tat campaign against American diplomats this week, revoking privileges, beginning tax investigations and issuing new consular identity cards that say the card holder can be arrested for serious offenses. Outrage in India’s tiny diplomatic corps is particularly acute because those who deal with the United States often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communications. India has just three senior diplomats on its North America desk, who deal with scores of counterparts from the United States and Canada. And the issue of the treatment of domestic help does not resonate in India as it does in the United States. India is investigating whether spouses and employees of American officials are paying taxes on earnings made in India, particularly at the American schools in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. India has canceled the United States Embassy’s import privileges for food and alcohol. Via GG on Facebook
Afghanistan: A State of Fear (Part II) - Fahim Masoud, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Afghanistan is in disarray. The only way out of this miserable situation
is for a miracle to happen." Image from entry, with caption: Herat, Afghanistan. Taken by the author in 2013.
What the Mideast peace process needs - Yonatan Touval, Washington Post: Having already accorded Israel formal diplomatic recognition in 1993, the Palestinians have a strong case for objecting to the demand that they now recognize Israel’s national and cultural identity as well. The Palestinians may well seek to obtain an explicit apology for the consequences of Israel’s establishment, something Israel would be reluctant to offer. But Israel could acknowledge Palestinian suffering without undermining its own national narrative or — as it should be rightly wary — potentially exposing itself to legal charges in international tribunals. The United States should encourage Israel to move in this direction by tabling its own proposal for such an acknowledgment — one that might empower the Palestinians enough to reciprocate with the recognition Israel so avowedly seeks.
Obama's Magnitsky Walkback: The U.S. reneges on promises to sanction Russian rights abusers - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The Magnitsky Act bans the worst abusers of human rights in Russia from traveling to or doing business in the U.S. Last April, the Administration sanctioned 18 Russian officials. the Administration is refusing to fulfill its legal responsibilities under Magnitsky in return for more illusory Russian cooperation.
RUSSICA
--Moscow’s 800th anniversary celebration in 1947. Source: Robert Capa © International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos/Grinberg Agency. From; via BB on Facebook
IMAGE
--From "Amazing portrait photography by Alexander Kharlamov," phictures.co. Via FW on Facebook
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