Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Public Diplomacy Week being held at DDP


koreajoongangdaily.joins.com
, Oct 31,2018

Image result for korea gorilla crews
image (not from article) from

The Korea Foundation is hosting Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] Week at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DPP) in eastern Seoul from tomorrow to Saturday to recognize embassies, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and private entities that share the culture and arts of their homelands.

Public diplomacy includes both diplomatic efforts by organizations and governments to share their homelands’ culture with citizens abroad, as well as any efforts by ordinary citizens to boost bilateral relations,” said Lee Si-hyung, president of the Korea Foundation in a press conference in central Seoul on Tuesday.

“The term public diplomacy may come across as unfamiliar, but this is more the reason to host such an event for us to share what we have been doing on the public diplomacy front.”

The three-day event at Dongdaemun Design Plaza will kick off with an opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, followed by a conference on public diplomacy with Nancy Snow, professor of public diplomacy at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and presentations by various embassies in Seoul, including of Mexico, Ecuador and the European Union, on their public diplomacy programs.

On Friday, a conference on the topic of the role of social media in public diplomacy will be hosted at Dongdaemun Design Plaza from 10 a.m. Later in the afternoon, Alberto Mondi, Italian TV personality and former cast member of JTBC talk show “Non-Summit,” Han Min-su, para ice hockey player, and others will also discuss their experiences representing their country’s culture and values abroad.

On Saturday, the final day of the event, the Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea Foundation and private organizations working in public diplomacy including Sayul and Future Forest will discuss finding jobs in the public diplomacy sector.

“This program is so far the most popular one, judging by the registrations,” said Ahn Mi-hee, director of the Korea Foundation’s Global Center, in the press conference. “A majority of those who have registered for the event are in their 20s and 30s.”

Every day, there will be concerts and performances by visiting artists and groups, including the award-winning Canadian musician Ori Dagan, Kambarkan Folk Ensemble from Kyrgyzstan and Korea’s Gorilla Crew [JB lettering].

All programs in the Public Diplomacy Week are free, the foundation said.

The foundation was designated by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the official organization to work on public diplomacy in and out of the country from 2016.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]

Donald Trump's Wrong: Russia's, Not China's, Influence Operations Are the “the Greatest Cyber Threat" to U.S. Elections," Experts Warn


Cristina Maza, newsweek.com; original article contains links

Image result for beware of china cyber threat
Image (not from article) from
Excerpt:
[E]xperts note that there has been little evidence of China’s engagement in the type of election interference Russia has been accused of. Over the past year, over a dozen Russians have been indicted for their efforts to influence the 2016 presidential elections.

“When Trump spoke at the U.N. and made this allegation, it was a pretty big surprise for most China watchers and certainly for the Chinese. There is no question that China has public diplomacy here like we do there, and there is no question they have an agenda that's different from ours,” Graham Allison, a political scientist at the Harvard Kennedy School, told Newsweek. “In the case of Russia's interference, there's chapter and verse, with details, so the claims put out by the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department gives observers reasons to believe that the Russians did something, and it's interference that's unusual.” ... 

Public Diplomacy, Not Development [originally posted 2015]


By Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council; via JJ

PD Word Cloud


In my view, Public Diplomacy has also become the farm team for development, where it is up to Public Diplomacy to organize programs to reform journalism, run scholarship programs, and provide opportunities to the dispossessed. Let’s be candid: Public Diplomacy doesn’t have the resources to make a lasting dent in any of these areas. And this puts Public Diplomacy into the broad field of social change, not the focused world of communication. To my mind, it’s a professional distraction, a diffusion of effort.

I made that comment in a speech some time ago. An article in Foreign Affairs, “Development Bloat” by Marc F. Bellemare of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, helps flesh out what I said. Some points of his critique of development might be applied to Public Diplomacy too.

Professor Bellemare argues that over the years, “economic development morphed into something else: a multi-billion dollar industry characterized by mission creep.”

He notes:
  • The work of development agencies like USAID are now joined by NGOs and philanthropies, and “as the number of actors has grown, the definition of development has expanded.”
  • Once the focus of development was to increase the incomes of the poor. Now it includes much more: universal primary education, gender equality, maternal health, independent media, government transparency, cookstoves, ecotourism, microfinance, political reconciliation, and a global partnership for development. The array of programs includes the Global Soap Project, Teddies for Tragedies, and Clowns Without Borders. According to Professor Bellemare, however, the “links with one another are scarcely explained.”
  • Development specialists know that “there are no silver bullets,” and when they are candid, they know that many development projects do not provide what the poor want. Rather they give what the rich countries think the poor need. Yet the range of programs continues to expand.
Marc F. Bellemare
Image from article: Marc F. Bellemare
Bellemare is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, where he directs the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy. Photo by Reena Hashim.

Professor Bellemare’s article and his belief that development needs to concentrate on “higher, more stable incomes” has proved controversial. The comments and critiques of his article on the Foreign Affairs website open a window on a vigorous debate on the fundamental purposes of development. Even so, can those of us in Public Diplomacy draw some lessons?

Read Professor Bellemare’s article and substitute “Public Diplomacy” for “development.” To my mind, it’s suggestive.
  • There are now more actors in “public diplomacy,” not to mention “soft power,” than before. USIA once owned the brand. Now more countries have added Public Diplomacy to their diplomatic tasks. There are many new graduate schools, foundations, and NGOs engaged in public diplomacy. Not to mention that films and television communicate images that affect how America is viewed in the world.
  • Just as there are more actors, U.S. official public diplomacy now has more, and more expansive, goals. For decades, Public Diplomacy programs could mostly be grouped around democracy and human rights, economics and trade, security, global issues, and understanding the United States. Now the goals include the green agenda, climate change, empowerment, the digital divide, and youth. Exchanges now include programs in disability rights, sports visitors, international music, women’s mentoring, online exchanges, youth exchange and study, study of the U.S., MOOCs, international performing artists, celebrity envoys, community colleges, and a culinary partnership, to name a few.
  • Public Diplomacy work traditionally focused on opinion leaders, influencers, and rising stars — parliamentarians, editors and journalists, professors, policy institute scholars, and the like. Ambassadors still expect Public Diplomacy officers to know these influential leaders. As goals and programs have proliferated, however, so have audiences: athletes, musicians, performers, aspiring entrepreneurs, women, girls, and chefs.
The possible goals for Public Diplomacy are infinite, but money and the time of American FSOs are dear. Professor Bellemare’s caution against the proliferation of goals seems warranted. Here’s one man’s list of takeaways for Public Diplomacy.
  • The first is to ask sharp questions about proposals for Public Diplomacy initiatives, both in Washington and on Country Teams. Development agencies have, over the years, been gripped by many ephemeral fads: infrastructure, population control, civil society, microfinance, sustainability, bridge the digital divide, and so on. Proponents hailed each as a breakthrough; each taught some lessons; but achievements were more elusive. In Public Diplomacy as well as development, then, healthy skepticism of fads – “flavor of the month” programs funded by Washington — is warranted.
  • I am apprehensive that much of this is the Public Diplomacy parallel of Washington elites telling the people of other nations what they really need. Public Diplomacy posts’ priorities should rather be determined by the Mission Strategic Resources Plan. This allows those closest to the problems of another society to determine the priorities.
  • Public Diplomacy is not development, and developing its own small projects or exchanges aimed at development or social change misuses it. Serious development requires benchmarks, analyses, multi-year timetables and goals, pilot projects, budgeting, training, long term work with ministries and NGOs, and evaluation. Public Diplomacy can’t do any of these. Public diplomacy typically issues small, one-time grants. This is the “drop in the bucket” issue in Public Diplomacy planning. (There may be an exception, however. If our nation once again engages – for some vital purpose – in whole of government nation building, then there may be a need for Public Diplomacy to join an all-hands development effort. The decision to deploy Public Diplomacy in this way would, however, need an explicit charge.)
  • Said another way: Compared to USAID’s millions of dollars, PAOs have mere thousands. Public Diplomacy resources are paltry, and diverting a share to development to demonstrate good intentions makes scant impact.
The time devoted to minor league development projects, moreover, keeps PD officers away from their communication and exchanges work. When can an officer fit in reading opposition texts or watching Hezbollah videos when arranging travel and visas for program participants absorbs so much time? When is it possible to think through how to combat the rumors that polio vaccines are an anti-Muslim plot? Most PAOs will admit that they have no time to spend at opening and closing ceremonies. When can they strategize?

Social media logos
Image from article: Social media logos Social media is a new tool and a new challenge for public diplomacy practitioners.

The debate in development should, then, prompt us to examine Public Diplomacy programs for our own “mission creep.” Public diplomacy goes through its own enthusiasms — American corners, American shelves, providing internet access, training in investigative reporting, narrative or storytelling, branding, messaging, and culinary diplomacy to name a few. The social media are the most recent. Startup diplomacy and entrepreneurship are other new initiatives.

Let’s take the promotion of entrepreneurship as an example. Exchange programs and visits are a hardy perennial of Public Diplomacy, and there is surely room for projects that focus on entrepreneurship. Networks of entrepreneurs who participated in U.S.-sponsored programs could, with sustained focus, speak for the possibilities of a more prosperous and hopeful future compared to radical alternatives. I confess to misgivings, however, if development is their objective. These programs aim not at shifting opinion, a clear mandate of Public Diplomacy, but rather on directly improving economic prospects for individuals and societies. That’s development.

First, Carl Schramm, University Professor at Syracuse University, notes that “there is no academic consensus on what works for starting a new business. Not surprisingly, as the number of entrepreneurship teachers grows, the number of new businesses continues to decline.” This should give pause to the idea that Americans know all the answers.

Protesters clash with police
Image from article: Protesters clash with police
Anti-corruption protest of the Romanian diaspora in Bucharest , Romania, August 10, 2018. Photo by: Cristian Iohan Ştefănescu, Flickr.

Next: In many countries, the greatest obstacles to entrepreneurship are corrupt police and officials (who squeeze money from a business as soon as it shows a profit) and the system that in India was called “license raj” (oppressive sequential bureaucratic approvals, each requiring a bribe, to obtain licenses). Adding to the burdens of aspiring entrepreneurs is infirm registration of land titles and other property rights. These all have proved notoriously resistant to reform despite many USAID projects aimed at change and reform. Can a few public diplomacy conferences or exchanges create an economic culture of entrepreneurship? Can an institution with a fixed rhythm of three-year assignments, whose priorities shift from administration to administration, stay on course long enough?

Mo Ibrahim, the celebrated Sudan-born entrepreneur, discussing entrepreneurship in Africa in Foreign Affairs, well portrayed the thick web of economic and legal dysfunctions. Yes, entrepreneurship requires “self-belief, that can-do spirit,” but “You can have the qualities, but if you don’t have the environment, you just wither away.” Had he stayed in Sudan, he said, “It was a stifling society with government controlling all aspects of life. You could not get funding for any sort of project. There was no infrastructure to support you.” “[In America] You have a massive community of venture capital angels; this thing is lacking in Africa.”

He continued, “For me, it has always been about the rule of law. When things are clear, and you have a process of bidding and licensing that is open and clean, it’s important …. In some countries we were met with suspicion – that any businessman coming here is essentially a thief and has to be watched very carefully, and if we can squeeze him, why not?”

Foreign Affairs magazine cover Jan-Feb 2013
Image from article: Foreign Affairs magazine cover Jan-Feb 2013
Foreign Affairs magazine issue from January through February 2013. Courtesy of Foreign Affairs.

Ibrahim noted that African education systems are not producing graduates in fields their nations need. In the same series in Foreign Affairs, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital also spoke of how it requires strong universities to foster entrepreneurship through fundamental basic research. “It places a big onus on government to provide a fantastic educational system …”

Here’s one more of Moritz’s insights. Speaking of many big companies, he said “you wonder where all those big companies went, they went away because the people at the top of them didn’t have an entrepreneurial bone in their body.” How many Foreign Service officers who are to lead Public Diplomacy entrepreneurship initiatives have entrepreneurial chops, scientific or technical degrees, or even MBA’s?

Public Diplomacy’s core strengths are in information, opinion, persuasion, and exchanges. Publicizing USAID programs and working to influence public opinion should be PD’s contribution to the development agenda. Running minor league development and social change programs is, in my view, a recipe for frustration because the tasks are so large and Public Diplomacy resources are so paltry. Moreover, they are a distraction from Public Diplomacy’s core goals and expertise.

An earlier version of this essay appeared on the old Public Diplomacy Council website on November 1, 2015.

Donald M. Bishop
Donald M. Bishop is the Bren Chair of Strategic Communications at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
Mr. Bishop served as a Foreign Service Officer – first in the U.S. Information Agency and then in the Department of State – for 31 years. Read More

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Up To the Task of Preparing Our Foreign Affairs Professionals


blogs.state.gov; via BW on linkedin



I’m deeply honored to be named by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo as the new Director of the Foreign Service Institute. The Foreign Service Institute, “FSI” for short, is responsible for training employees of the State Department and other U.S. Government foreign affairs agencies to represent U.S. interests internationally. As Secretary Pompeo said following his visit to FSI in June, the FSI team has an incredibly important job equipping our Foreign Service, Civil Service, and locally-employed staff with vital knowledge and skills, so that they can deliver maximum diplomatic impact all around the world on behalf of the American people.
In the 71 years since its establishment, FSI has evolved to equip foreign affairs professionals with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals in an ever-changing world. FSI focuses on diplomatic mastery and operational excellence, with training in 70+ foreign languages; area studies covering every region of the globe; tradecraft training for the Foreign Service “cones” (i.e., Management, Consular, Political, Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis], and Economics); applied information technology; and leadership.  In addition to State Department personnel, FSI trains professionals from over 50 U.S. government agencies and even offers programs for employees’ family members preparing for international transitions.   
Ambassador Daniel B. Smith poses for a photo near a campus map at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.
Teaching the often intangible skills that foreign affairs professionals require is no simple feat. Therefore, FSI employs experiential learning techniques, immersive and virtual reality technology to help learners practice the unique high-stakes scenarios they may face in all kinds of environments – from the consular window, to the negotiation table, to the TV broadcast studio, to a rural village.
The scope of FSI is indeed broad and it supports over 225,000 annual course enrollments, intended to get our globally deployed workforce the training they need, when and where they need it. That means offering in-person, regional, and online learning options. FSI has nearly 600 classroom courses and 250 online classes. It’s developed 33 custom mobile applications that offer job aids or job-specific vocabulary for positions like visa adjudicators and Diplomatic Security agents. While FSI’s main campus is located in Arlington, Virginia, it also conducts training at an annex in Rosslyn, VA, plus overseas facilities in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, and six cities in the Arab world. Moreover, FSI partners with the Department of State’s regional bureaus to deliver training at facilities around the world.
Ambassador Smith and FSI’s Deputy Director Ambassador Julieta Valls Noyes take in the history wall outside of the Office of the Director that depicts photos of previous FSI leadership and information about FSI’s 71 year history.
Since the global landscape and foreign affairs challenges the United States faces are constantly changing, FSI emphasizes continuous improvement to make sure training is meeting the needs of the day. In recent years, this quest for improvement and innovation garnered FSI six different learning industry awards and created opportunities for collaboration and benchmarking with academia, the private sector, and foreign counterparts.
FSI has a proud tradition and a strong record of performance. I look forward to joining the outstanding professionals at FSI and working with them to ensure we provide the best possible support for the State Department’s critical mission to advance our nation’s interests and represent the American people abroad. 
About the Author: Daniel B. Smith is a member of the Senior Foreign Service, holding the rank of Career Ambassador. Prior to his appointment as the Director of the Foreign Service Institute, he was the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Editor's Note: This entry also appears in the U.S. Department of State's publication on Medium.

USC Public Diplomacy @PublicDiplomacy (Twitter entries, Oct 13-Oct 29)


USC Public Diplomacy @PublicDiplomacy (Twitter entries, Oct. 4-Oct 13)


twitter.com/PublicDiplomacy


  1. “likes” aren’t indicative of meaningful relationships, write CPD Research Fellow and in their recent study. See their solution for measuring social media’s effectiveness in improving a country’s :

  2.   Retweeted
    .’s own chairing a panel on VR and immersive storytelling at in . Thanks to the great collaboration with and for the oops.
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