April 9

"The thing that was weird about Damascus is that you could walk the streets and see people drinking coffee and smoking nargiles in the cafés. Bizarre knowing that three kilometers away people were getting shot."

--Amy Tachco, a 36-year-old Foreign Service Officer (FSO), "when she was asked about leaving Syria as the US Embassy was evacuated" (DiploPundit); image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Blending Governance and Twitter - Chrystia Freeland, New York Times: "[T]he U.S. State Department’s social media team ... [is] led by Alec Ross, who is the senior advisor on innovation for Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state. Mr. Ross spearheads the State Department’s enthusiastic social media campaign. As Mr. McFaul [Michael McFaul] the U.S. ambassador to Russia, posted earlier this week, quoting Mrs. Clinton, 'Our ambassadors are blogging and tweeting, and every embassy has a social media presence.' ... Mr. McFaul’s moonlighting role as social media ambassador has particular relevance in Russia, where the government controls much of the traditional media, especially television, and civil society has moved to the Internet in response.

As a result, Mr. McFaul says, social media is more than a tool for communication — it is also a well-positioned window into the national debate. Mr. McFaul’s social media outreach has not protected him from controversy. Indeed, Russian leaders, including President-elect Vladimir V. Putin, have been suspicious from the outset of Mr. McFaul, who is a longtime student and occasional advocate of democratization. ... But his social media presence has given Mr. McFaul the tools to reach beyond a sometimes hostile national media and speak to any Russians who care to listen." Image from

The Empire Fights Back! An Internet Governance Update - Sophia Bekele, circleid.com: "If the United States House of Representatives is now introducing legislation to bar the UN Regulation of the Internet, then it only implies one thing. The Empire is fighting back! It is quite apparent that the U.S. would view UN governance of the Internet as ‘anathema’. The U.S. invented the Internet and its potential as an America public diplomacy tool has grown over the years, to the chagrin of those countries that are clamoring for U.N. oversight of global Internet Governance.

Moreover, the Internet is already viewed as the birthright of every American, and to subject that right to the external oversight of the UN, and the ‘regulatory’ voices of other countries would be deemed unacceptable by the U.S. Congress. The battle lines are already drawn. Irrespective of the geo-political calculations that underpin the intricacies of these global affairs issues, I urge we should remains fully committed to the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance and should continue to rally unconditional support for it." Bekele image from article

US Hails Qatar as Beacon of Western-Arab Relations - albawaba.com: "Qatar’s Education City is a prime example of the flourishing partnership and dialogue between the US and the Muslim world, a senior US official has said. Kathleen Stephens, acting under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and former ambassador to South Korea, made the observation. On her first visit of Qatar earlier in the week, she engaged a group of students from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service - Qatar in Education City in a conversation about American public diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim world. Arab Spring signals positive relations  Stephens commended Qatar’s leadership for the foresight and vision to build the country as a centre of learning and culture in the region and as a leader in promoting interfaith dialogue.

Image from article, with caption: Qatar's Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani rides a wave of positive relations between the Arab Muslim world and the US

US envoy moves to fast track issuing visas to Nigerians - Victoria Ojeme, vanguardngr.com: "On the fight against corruption in Nigeria, he [The United States of America Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley] said: 'We have a variety of programmes to build capacity of the EFCC. We saluted the nomination of Chairman Ibrahim Lamorde. For a year and half, we tried to raise nomination because we recognized that the EFCC had not been able to fulfill its mandate. “We have a variety of training programmes in place to build the capacity of EFCC workers. Chairman Lamorde is going to Washington in a week’s time to have similar discussion with law enforcement and other agencies. At every opportunity, we talk about the need to address the problem of corruption. It is a dialogue we carry out at the highest level of this government and we recognize there is a problem. But I think we are deploying resources to assist the government of Nigeria to address this problem and it is part of our public diplomacy message.'” On EFCC, see.

From the Trenches - Janet Steele, takefiveblog.org: “'You are an unofficial representative of the American people.' These were the words of Richard Gong, the head of the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was September 1997, and I had just started what I hoped would be an exciting year as a Fulbrighter. I’d been awarded a position as a Senior Scholar at the University of Indonesia, where I would be teaching in the graduate program of the American Studies department. You could also say that this was the start of my career in public diplomacy. ... My start in public diplomacy may have been somewhat accidental, but I’ve been engaged in it for the past fifteen years. I’ve been a speaker-specialist in

ten countries, and although the topics and challenges have varied from post to post, I’ve never forgotten what Richard said. ... Accidental or not, this is public diplomacy from the trenches, and it’s what I’ll be writing about during my upcoming sabbatical year. As I tell visiting journalist friends who come to the US and meet my classes, they may be the first Indonesian or Malaysian or Bangladeshi whom my American students have ever met. At a time in which 'we are all Khaled Said' or 'we are all Trayvon Martin,' we are all public diplomats as well. Like it or not, in this interconnected world, each one of us is engaged in public diplomacy." Image from article, with caption: guest lectured for graduate political science graduate class at Cairo University.

US Border Patrol Turns to the Air Waves – mattkupfer, mediaviolence2012: Blog for Media and Violence class at Brandeis University: “Our discussion of illegal immigration on Tuesday reminded me of these two articles, one from a Latin American organization and one from the BBC. They describes a 2005 – 2009 (?) campaign by the US Border Patrol to deter would-be illegal immigrants from leaving Mexico by buying airtime and playing anti-immigration ballads on Mexican radio stations.

I swear, I’m not making this up. The songs released by the border patrol emotionally describe the hardships and dangers of the journey to America and promote the idea that choosing to remain in Mexico is a manly act. Though, officially, the border patrol claims the media campaign was a success, most people say any decrease in the number of illegal border crossings had to do with economic issues, not these songs. I, for one, am very skeptical of songs as cautionary tales. Many forms of folk music contain sad songs about lost love or ballads detailing lurid murders and the punishments faced by the killers. I don’t think people actually look to these songs for practical guidance, instead encountering them simply as good stories. Nonetheless, the article presents an interesting example of how the government can use the media to spread propaganda/public diplomacy without you knowing it.” Image from

What’s the Best Way To Foment Unrest in a Foreign Country? A how-to guide for the aspiring fomentor - Brian Palmer, Slate: “When U.S. missiles kill Afghan civilians, or U.S. forces commit an affront to Islam, Iran seeks to broadcast the news among the local population. Agents quickly generate and disseminate pieces of audio and video propaganda decrying the indignity and urging civilians to rise up against American forces. Some of these go beyond mere exhortations to violence. In Iraq, U.S. agents claim to have intercepted Iranian-produced tapes that included directions to Iranian-stocked weapons caches and instructions on how to build explosively formed projectiles capable of penetrating U.S. armored vehicles. The tapes are also said to provide detailed descriptions of routes frequented by U.S. troops. The government in Tehran, for its part, denies meddling in Afghanistan or other countries. And the White House says it makes no effort to foment rebellion in Iran, although the United States does acknowledge broadcasting its own take on world and Iranian news into the country via Voice of America radio and television. The United States also admits to providing financial support to Iranian opposition groups through a government-funded, private corporation called the National Endowment for Democracy. Officially, those grants do not support violent uprisings or even the peaceful overthrow of the Iranian government. ... In the past, the U.S. government has tried to foment rebellions abroad by promising financial or military support, or offering tactical advice to local malcontents. In 1956, an American colonel speaking on Radio Free Europe assured Hungarians that the U.S. military would support a rebellion, and a subsequent program offered tips on anti-tank tactics. The CIA-initiated Radio Swan, which broadcast from an island near Cuba beginning in 1960, mixed anti-Castro speeches, exhortations to defect from the military, and pop music. The station also broadcast coded messages to fighters in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1980, the CIA arranged for a transmitter to broadcast anti-Khomeini messages into Iran." Via

Retired general says North Koreans who receive US food aid should also receive a radio to listen to RFA and VOA - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Ghanaian children well informed about US politics thanks to international radio [including VOA - JB] - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

UK Royal family: a discourse on public diplomacy - bf041, Public and Cultural Diplomacy 2: A group blog by students at London Metropolitan University: "The perception that public diplomacy can be a tool for both domestic as well as foreign audience is never more evident than the campaign by the royal family since the death of Princess of Wales. ... The Royals have recognised the benefit of strong public relations (PR) in improving their image. PR has traditionally been used extensively by firms as a strategy in order to recognise brand loyalty, capture new consumers and identify long term profits.

The advantages of getting the message across and capturing the attention of individuals, as a model, have been adopted by nations and heads of states such as the Royal family in recent years. ... A healthy image at home also reflects abroad. The royal family’s enhanced image domestically, has arguably been translated abroad. Notwithstanding Jamaica’s recent announcement to remove the Queen as head of state, 2011/2012 has witnessed a sort of rejuvenated royals. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16449969) The Foreign office will clearly seek to utilize the family in the near future." Image from

The situation on the Korean peninsula Chinese table concerns and anxiety - oibaby.org: "Three foreign minister listened to the China, Japan and South Korea cooperation ShenFengJi secretary-general of the secretariat of the report of The Three Kingdoms cooperation good momentum and expressed his satisfaction with the secretariat.

Three party discusses The Three Kingdoms cooperation, to strengthen economic and trade, said the financial, energy conservation and environmental protection, weather, disaster prevention disaster relief, cooperation, concluded the China, Japan and South Korea investment agreement as soon as possible, an early start of the China, Japan and South Korea free trade negotiation, speed up the China, Japan and South Korea circular economy demonstration base construction, actively develop cultural exchanges and public diplomacy." Image from

The Future of Public Diplomacy, a USC conference - Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner: "The phrase 'public diplomacy' is variously viewed as a concept, a bureaucracy, and/or a practice. The community craves to see the word 'diplomacy' follow the word 'public' and debates when the phrase does and does not appear. Is it something defined by the objective ... ? Is it defined by means, by the actor? Is the term 'public diplomacy' itself problematic and self-limiting, suggesting an adversarial bureaucratic relationship with other agencies, a use of the softest of 'soft power' to 'win hearts' and be 'liked', or activities that 'influence' rather than merely 'inform', or all of the above?"

Two WUSTL Students Named Truman Scholars - Maggie Broderbund, universitycity.patch.com: “Two Washington University in St. Louis

students have been selected as 2012 Truman Scholars. Junior Arts and Sciences majors Madeleine Daepp and Ethan Lynch both will receive $30,000 in funding, including $3,000 for their senior year and $27,000 for two or three years of graduate study. ... Lynch plans to earn a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and eventually work as a diplomat for the United States Foreign Service. Fluent in French as well as Arabic, Lynch hopes to use his language skills and education to serve in the Middle East and North Africa. ‘I’d like to work in the public diplomacy sphere, strengthening and repairing our often-troubled relations with Arabs in the region,’ he said. Kiefer [Joy Z. Kiefer, PhD, assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, director of undergraduate research and WUSTL’s Truman scholarship representative] says Lynch is able to command the respect of his peers on campus as well as of faculty and global partners through his mature presence and keen intellect. ‘From the moment I met Ethan, I was struck by his passion and commitment to make a change in the area of public diplomacy,’ Kiefer said. ‘Ethan is a born leader: charismatic and hard-working with strong values and a remarkable ability to coalesce people around a common goal.’” Image from article

Game of Thrones in IR perspective - Paul Rockower, Levantine: “Foreign Affairs has a great piece on Game of Thrones in an IR context.  Luv it. ... I haven't found much of a pd angle for the show.  Definitely little use for soft power, as we got a rebuke to the notion that ‘information is power’ with a reminding dictum from Cersei Lannister in the first episode of the second season that ‘power is power.’  Prof. Pat James at USC teaches a class on IR and Middle Earth; maybe a Game of Thrones class could be in the offing.”

RELATED ITEMS

Obama’s lack of passion in supporting freedom - Fred Hiatt, Washington Post: Two decades ago, as the Iron Curtain shredded, the United States led a Western alliance that jumped at the chance to consolidate democracy from Slovakia to Estonia. The chance to nurture democracy in the heart of the Islamic world has not elicited a comparable response. This is consistent with Obama’s record elsewhere.

He remained aloof from the Green Revolution in Iran. In Iraq, he failed to maintain a residual force that might have helped protect the democratic gains of the past decade. He bolstered U.S. forces in Afghanistan but portrayed their mission almost entirely as safeguarding U.S. security, rarely, even secondarily, as helping Afghans live in freedom. His stance also reflects his own brand of idealism, which values international law and alliances more than the promotion of freedom. Image from

America’s new data centre makes UK surveillance plans seem petty - Alice Ross, thebureauinvestigates.com: In the small town of Bluffdale in the Utah desert, the US government is halfway to completing a gargantuan complex designed to store and trawl through billions of phone calls, emails, and other global communications. As the UK government reveals its own plans to carry out mass surveillance, a lengthy piece in May’s Wired reveals the full extent of the US’s ambitions to capture and spy on almost everything that is said online or on the phone. The Utah Data Center is the new hub in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) network of surveillance centres: a sprawling $2bn (£1.25bn) complex that takes the US one step closer to "total information awareness." The centre is so big it’s hard to get your head around the figures quoted in the article. Ten thousand builders are working on it. It will use an estimated $40m of electricity every year, according to one estimate. Much of this will be spent powering four 2,300 sq m halls filled with servers capable of storing a truly enormous amount of data – Wired mentions Pentagon ambitions to store yottabytes of data (septillion bytes of data). The centre will "intercept, decipher, analyse and store vast amounts of the world’s communications from satellites and underground and undersea cables of international, foreign and domestic networks," Wired reporter James Bamford says. Even the most apparently insignificant scraps of data will be captured and stored – in case they later become important: "private emails, mobile phone calls and Google searches, as well as personal data trails – travel itineraries, purchases and other digital 'pocket litter,'"Bamford adds. But the Utah Data Center has another, more secret purpose: cracking cryptoanalysis to allow the US security agencies to read foreign diplomatic and military communications, as well as confidential financial or personal messages, scouring the ‘deep web’ of password-protected and otherwise encrypted information.

U.S. policy on Iraq questioned as influence wanes, Maliki consolidates power - Liz Sly, Washington Post: On the face of it, Iraq’s first springtime since American troops withdrew in December is turning into the most peaceful and promising the country has witnessed in a decade, offering what U.S. and some Iraqi officials say amounts to a vindication of President Obama’s Iraq policy.

A feared collapse of order have not materialized. Although the group al-Qaeda in Iraq has continued to stage headline-grabbing attacks, they are diminishing in frequency and intensity. Oil is being pumped at record levels from the refurbished fields of the south. Iraq’s government has not rushed into the arms of Iran and, instead, has been wooing its Arab neighbors. But the appearance of calm that has endured for four months has come at a price, many Iraqis say, in the form of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s increasingly authoritarian behavior. Maliki, they say, has been moving steadily to consolidate his control over the country’s institutions and security forces with the apparent acquiescence of the Obama administration. Image from article, with caption: Iraq youngsters play soccer in central Baghdad in March.

Status of Afghan women threatens Hillary Clinton's legacy: Thesecretary of State has devoted herself to the issue, but gains made may bereversed as Afghanistan's conservatives become more powerful in the West's wake -  Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times:  In the final months of her tenure as secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting a long retreat on a cause close to her heart, and to her legacy — the status of Afghan women. Clinton embraced the cause long before the first U.S. troops landed in the country, and as secretary of State she has brought Afghan women worldwide attention, political power and unbending promises of American support. "We will not abandon you," she pledged. But now, with U.S. officials laying plans to remove most troops in two years, the Afghan government and other institutions appear to be adjusting their positions on women's rights to accommodate conservative factions. Restrictions on women have made a comeback.

Lifting sanctions on Burma’s regime would be a mistake - Tom Andrews, Washington Post: The writer, a former U.S. representative from Maine, is president of United to End Genocide.

The Myth of America's Decline: Washington now has added China, India, Brazil and Turkey to its speed-dial, along with Europe and Japan. But it will remain the chairman of a larger board - Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal: The world balance of power is changing. Countries like China, India, Turkey and Brazil are heard from more frequently and on a wider range of subjects. The European Union's most ambitious global project—creating a universal treaty to reduce carbon emissions—has collapsed, and EU expansion has slowed to a crawl as Europe turns inward to deal with its debt crisis. Japan has ceded its place as the largest economy in Asia to China and appears increasingly on the defensive in the region as China's hard and soft power grow. The international chattering class has a label for these changes: American decline.

The dots look so connectable: The financial crisis, say the pundits, comprehensively demonstrated the failure of "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have sapped American strength and, allegedly, destroyed America's ability to act in the Middle East. China-style "state capitalism" is all the rage. Throw in the assertive new powers and there you have it—the portrait of America in decline. Actually, what's been happening is just as fateful but much more complex. The United States isn't in decline, but it is in the midst of a major rebalancing. The alliances and coalitions America built in the Cold War no longer suffice for the tasks ahead. As a result, under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, American foreign policy has been moving toward the creation of new, sometimes difficult partnerships as it retools for the tasks ahead. For American foreign policy, the key now is to enter deep strategic conversations with our new partners—without forgetting or neglecting the old. The U.S. needs to build a similar network of relationships and institutional linkages that we built in postwar Europe and Japan and deepened in the trilateral years. Image from article

Foundation Files Reveal Insights on Culture – Sam Roberts, New York Times: A relatively obscure Ford Foundation official named W. McNeil Lowry had the last word in deciding which artists, writers and performers would receive grants from the Ford Foundation, the richest private source of cultural largess at the time. That made him the nation’s unofficial mentor in chief during much of the 1950s and ’60s, a cultural figure of remarkable influence who was virtually unknown to most of the public. This month letters to and from Mr. Lowry as well as thousands of other Ford Foundation records, films, oral histories and unpublished reports were opened to researchers at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., where they will now be housed.

At the Ford Foundation, based in Manhattan, most of the archives had been accessible on only a limited basis and were mostly intended for in-house use. The microfilm, papers and reports could yield a harvest of insights on cultural figures who achieved greatness, and some who have been forgotten, who were struggling financially and were compelled to explain their predicament and their output. Ford’s earliest grants were modest but nonetheless vital to the recipients, and the foundation helped showcase a diverse group of American artists when the United States was vying for cultural supremacy. By 1962 Mr. Lowry expanded its arts programs with $6.1 million in grants to nine nonprofit repertory theaters and later with stipends to writers, filmmakers, art schools, music conservatories and dance organizations. Image from

CNN to Broadcast N Korea Missile Launch - Tom McGregor, dallasblog.com: The North Korean regime has granted CNN broadcasting rights to air live footage of the launching of a long-range missile. NBC and AP reporters have been invited as well to help with North Korean propaganda efforts.

An Initial Propaganda Offering - Will free speech win out over censorship in China, or is the government about to reassert its control over media and public opinion? - Tom Orlik, Wall Street Journal: The People’s Daily Online Co. Ltd. website is displayed on a computer in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. The initial public offering of People’s Daily Online, the website of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspaper, gives investors an opportunity to take a view. The state-owned news website is selling a minority stake in a Shanghai listing that is planned for mid-April. It is aiming to raise 527 million yuan ($83.5 million) to upgrade its technology and improve its editorial team. The company certainly needs some polishing. The People’s Daily website ranks as the 39th most visited in China, according to Web-information company Alexa.

That is way below the ranking for popular private news portals and, which come in at 4th and 9th place, respectively.The listing, though, comes at a sensitive time for China’s media. Sina’s phenomenally popular micro-blog—the closest thing China has to a forum for democratic debate—had to turn off its comments function from Saturday to Tuesday. That was a punishment for allowing rumors of political instability to spiral out of control after the ousting of top leadership contender Bo Xilai. Sina already has to fork out for a small army of censors to monitor and delete inappropriate content posted by users. Its Nasdaq-listed stock fell almost 10% last week as investors bet that heightened controls will add to the company’s costs. Now investors with access to the Chinese market have the chance to double down. Anyone betting censorship will win out over free speech can buy into the People’s Daily IPO and take a short position on Sina’s stock. Image from article: The People’s Daily Online Co. Ltd. website is displayed on a computer in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012.

April 8

"It's not what you say. It's what they hear."

--Slogan printed on the firm of Frank Luntz, "whose biggest triumph was rechristening the estate tax as the 'death tax'"; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

America’s ‘engagement’ delusion: Critiquing a public diplomacy consensus - m.gaz.sagepub.com: AbstractThe Obama administration has embraced ‘engagement’ as the dominant concept informing US public diplomacy. Despite its emphasis on facilitating dialogue with and among Muslims overseas, this article demonstrates that, in practice, engagement aims to leverage social media and related technologies to persuade skeptical audiences to empathize with American policies. Indeed, its primary means of implementation – participatory interactions with foreign publics – is inherently duplicitous. Through the authors’ description of how engagement is rooted in long-standing public relations and corporate marketing discourses, and in light of the historical and structural foundations

of anti-Americanism, this contemporary public diplomacy strategy is shown to be both contradictory and, ultimately, delusional. As an alternative, the authors argue that an ethical public diplomacy should be pursued, i.e., a public diplomacy that embraces genuine (rather than contrived) dialogue. Although this approach is difficult to achieve (primarily because it implies a direct challenge to entrenched US foreign policy norms), it constitutes a mode of public diplomacy that better reflects the idealized principles of American democracy. ...  International Communication Gazette April 2012 vol. 74 no. 3 203-220 Full Text (PDF)" Via CR on Twitter; image from

State Dept’s New Cartoon Spotlights Iran’s Online Censorship - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "The State Department recently started promoting its new cartoon called 'Behind the Electronic Curtain' highlighting online censorship in Iran. It promoted the video on Twitter in English, Chinese, Farsi and Arabic with the hashtag #ConnectIran.  It has yet to catch fire. Here is the official blurb: [‘]In his March 20 Nowruz message to the Iranian people, President Obama said ‘the United States will continue to draw attention to the electronic curtain that is cutting the Iranian people off from the world. And we hope that others will join us in advancing a basic freedom for the Iranian people: the freedom to connect with one another, and with their fellow human beings.’ Please watch an animated video highlighting how the Electronic Curtain isolates the Iranian people from the world. [‘] In late 2011, the State Department rolled out its Virtual US Embassy Tehran. It was blocked by Iranian authorities within hours of its launch.  ABC News reported that the English and Farsi versions went live at 6a Eastern time and by 5pm both were blocked inside Iran. Iran will either block this cartoon or will put out its own version. In related news, the State Department Persian spokesperson, Alan Eyre was recently interviewed by a conservative Iranian website, only to have the interview pulled down following official criticism and condemnation. Radio Free Europe quotes Iran Culture Ministry’s statement of April 4 saying that there was no justification for the Alef website to allow what it called a U.S. ‘intelligence officer’ the opportunity to respond to questions from Iranians. These online skirmishes will continue until the warmongers get their way and start yet another war.”

Hypocrisy of Free Speech: Only If We Agree with What They Say - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well:  "A story of our times as RT.com tries to pull back the curtain on the hypocrisy of US government statements about web freedom. They were kind enough to quote me: [']The State Department since 2008 has spent $76 million overseas on Internet freedom, giving tools and support to bloggers and journalists and online people around the world, particularly in countries that we have difficulties with,' he said. 'At the same time, the State Department… has found Internet freedom to be inconvenient in the form of WikiLeaks, and has worked just as hard and probably spent even more money trying

to shut down free speech that it opposes, while supporting free speech that it feels furthers America’s own political goals overseas. We call that hypocrisy. ['] While trying to stifle inconvenient leaks at home, the US perceives the Internet and social networking platforms as major tools for spreading democracy, and spends millions of dollars to help people in the Middle East and China get around Internet-blocking firewalls. At the same time, ironically enough, American companies provide Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with the technology to effectively block websites. 'A lot of the tools of control that are used by the so-called repressive governments are provided by American companies, Peter van Buren explains. The difference is that corporations, for better or worse, talk about profit as their motivation. However, the American government talks about freedom and democracy as its motivation, when in fact in many ways it seems to act in the opposite direction.'  Read the entire piece online, and don’t miss the video of SecState Clinton pounding the pulpit for web freedom, at least if you’re Chinese or Iranian." Image from

Thomas Friedman, all-American pundit - pulsemedia.org: "The following is an excerpt from a review by Central Michigan University professor John Robertson, for War in Context, of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work. With the publication of Belen Fernandez’s The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, Verso Press inaugurated a new series, called Counterblasts, with the intention of reviving a tradition of polemic that it traces back to the fiery political pamphleteers of the 17th century. Obviously, then, Ms. Fernandez was not supposed to produce an impartial, dispassionate analysis of the collected works of the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning chief foreign affairs correspondent. Rather, she has come up with something that the American public in general (and students of US foreign affairs and public diplomacy especially) undoubtedly need more: a systematic, detailed take-down of the neo-liberal bias, myopic US-Israeli chauvinism, and general intellectual shallowness that almost scream to be noticed in Friedman’s writing. Yet, lamentably, Friedman has been enshrined as a sort of American 'Everyman’s' go-to guy for understanding what’s happening in the world, what needs fixing, and how 'we' can and should do it."

China's CCTV9 and France Télévisions agree to "fast-track co-productions and acquisitions" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on international Broadcasting

As part of CBC budget cut, Radio Canada International will "move away from shortwave," drop Russian, Portuguese, and "news bulletins" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on international Broadcasting.

Image from entry

Australia's ABC, expanding to Middle East and Africa, will have to decide between "projecting messages" or reporting the news - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on international Broadcasting

Your Ideas, Your NATO: Increasing transparency 1.3 - Chris McCourt, the-pryer.co.uk: "Editor’s Note: The following is an extract from a collaborative policy memorandum by Costinel Anuta, Andrew Barr, Stephanie Theresa Baulig, Daryl Morini, and Megan Ann Reiss. In this section of the policy memo the writers call for NATO member-states to increase transparency by communicating clearly and openly both with one another and with the public. It recognizes that failure to do so will adversely affect the peceived legitimacy of the Alliance. ... The full memorandum can be viewed here. If NATO is to remain relevant, it must foster cohesion and unity based on Allies’ commitment to mutual values and interests. The following policy proposals focus on forging this unity by closing the gap between Member states’ perceptions of each other within the Alliance. ... The full memorandum can be viewed here. ... [highlighted in text  - JB] 1.3. Increase NATO’s strategic communication transparency. The following recommendations will improve strategic communication

of national and Alliance interests: - Emphasize during the Chicago Summit and through other diplomatic efforts the security and economic benefits of the Alliance. - Strike the proper balance between values-based and interest-based language in NATO’s public diplomacy pronouncements. -Acknowledge all available data in conveying non-classified information to the public. Assume that the public will know about available negative information and that withholding the information could decrease the legitimacy of the Alliance. [end highlight in text] NATO’s core values of liberty, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law already echo with the democratic peoples of NATO. Unity among its peoples can be enhanced and fostered by increasing the emphasis on the communication of the transnational commonality of these values through the Public Diplomacy Division, to engage people on both sides of the Atlantic in fostering and protecting their common values and purpose. These efforts should be measured through polling by assessing whether or not citizens associate NATO with the above-mentioned values. The strategic interests of individual Member states drive NATO. Frank discussions of key interests of each state should be on the list of topics for discussion at diplomatic venues of NATO, especially within the Council and behind closed doors during the summit meetings of NATO heads of state and government. In concurrence with values information, citizens deserve to receive accurate and prompt information from NATO, including on negative issues. Only through transparent dissemination of information will citizens have confidence that NATO is a legitimate organization rooted in democratic values."  Image from

Quote- Unquote - Indonesia Now with Duncan Graham: Interpreting Indonesia with a Western perspective: Improving inter-cultural relationships: “WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? The relationship with Indonesia is one of Australia’s most important

but it is still not on a firm footing. Government-to-government ties have been strengthening but relations are focused around a mostly negative set of security-related issues. Business-to-business links are underdone and mutual public perceptions are poor. Without significant incentives to drive closer ties, one of Australia’s Most important relationships will continue to stagnate. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? Mutual public distrust and stereotypes are so entrenched that dramatic leadership gestures are needed to produce a step-increase in relations. President Yudhoyono’s forthcoming visit to Australia presents an important opportunity to discuss a new approach. Four options are: seeking a multi-decade vision for the economic relationship that looks beyond, and is much more ambitious than, the proposed FTA; a new Colombo Plan for Indonesia – with both vocational education and university components aimed at educating thousands of Indonesians per annum; forging a more outward-looking cooperation agenda that looks beyond internal threats; and overhauling traditional approaches to public diplomacy. Fergus Hanson: Indonesia and Australia - Time for a Step Change. (Lowy Institute Report, March 2012)” Image from blog

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Jazz and the State Department: A Night on the Rhythm Road - Robert Keith Thomas Donahue, DipNote: "Each April, the State Department, in concert with music lovers around the world, celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month. In honor of this uniquely American art form, musicians, museums, schools, embassies, and others in the United States and around the globe host jazz-themed events to highlight jazz's contributions to our country and to the world. ... The Department of State's musical exchanges are a direct continuation of the Artistic Ambassadors programs of the 1950s and 1960s.

Those historic exchanges included Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and other legendary jazz artists, and the tradition will not end with the conclusion of Rhythm Road. The State Department continues to send American musicians overseas on international exchange tours through the American Music Abroad program, administered in partnership withAmerican Voices. For more information on JALC or American Music Abroad, please visit please visit www.jalc.org or www.exchanges.state.gov." Image from entry

External news services reviewed - english.vietnamnet.vn: "A national conference was held in Hanoi on April 3 and 4 to review external news service and the dissemination of information on the country’s seas, islands and border demarcation last year. The conference emphasised the improvement of the external news services in the

politic diplomacy, economic diplomacy and cultural diplomacy and work relating to overseas Vietnamese as well as external relations of the Party, diplomacy of the State and people-to-people diplomacy. Media and press agencies have widely provided news on developments and stance, and settlement of complicated situations in the East Sea by the Party and State, which, the conference said, has helped create confidence and consensus among people from all walks of life." Image from article, with caption: Mr. Dinh The Huynh speaks at the conference.

Indo-Bangla celebrations to mark Tagore's 150th birth anniversary - twocircles.net: "As a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore, artists of India and Bangladesh have begun jointly performing various cultural shows, including drama, on the themes penned by the Nobel laureate bard. Bangladesh's Monipuri Theatre group staged Tagore's noted drama 'Debotar Grash' here Friday night. 'A 32-member Bangladesh artists' troupe along with a large number of Indian artists would present various cultural shows in Agartala Sunday,' Tripura government information and cultural department secretary Shantanu Das told reporters here. Tripura chief secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda, who inaugurated the two-day joint cultural show, said: 'Tagore had pooled the people of India and Bangladesh. With this cultural performance, the closeness would be further strengthened. With this cultural diplomacy, the people of the two nations, especially the younger generations, would know each other for the future prosperity of the two countries,' said the Bangladesh government's mission head in Agartala, Obaidur Rahman."

Santorini Biennale of Arts 2012 - Stella Tsolakidou, greece.greekreporter.com: "Researcher and Professor of Cultural Economics and Cultural Diplomacy Kikos Papadopulos has great pleasure in announcing the inaugural Santorini Biennale of Arts, taking place between July 1 and September 30 2012. The Santorini Biennale of Arts aims to support the exchange of arts and experiences, while pursuing both a regional and

international programme of cultural collaboration. Determined by a fundamental need to cultivate a spirit of research, experimentation and excellence, the Biennale will act as a catalyst for cultural growth. ... The 2012 theme, ‘The Past: Memory and Nostalgia,' will examine intrinsic experiences and social relationships, inspired by how humanity accumulates a catalogue of our personal fabric and how these collected manifestations shape the patterns of our lives." Image from article

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. sees gains on Iran intelligence as boost to confidence and access - Joby Warrick and Greg Miller, Washington Post: The expanded intelligence effort has coincided with a covert campaign by the CIA and other agencies to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program and has enabled an escalation in the use of targeted economic sanctions by the United States and its allies to weaken Iran’s resolve.

United States and Afghanistan sign deal on night raids - Sayed Salahuddin, Washington Post: The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on night military operations on Sunday, resolving a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and Washington.

The agreement removes a key obstacle to a long-term strategic partnership between the two countries, including a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, when all foreign combat troops are set to leave the country. Image from article, with caption: Gen. John Allen, left, and Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak clap after signing an agreement in Kabul.

The Big Bang: Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Kagan on the State of America [review of Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power By Zbigniew Brzezinski and The World America made By Robert Kagan] - Jonathan Freedland, New York Times: Reading the books side by side is to be reminded not only of Carter versus Reagan but also of Kerry versus Bush. And yet the great surprise is how much they agree with each other, especially on what matters.

They both insist that reports of America’s decline are exaggerated. Both note that the United States still accounts for a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product, a proportion that has held steady for more than 40 years. Both note America’s military strength, with a budget greater than that of all its rivals combined. As Brzezinski puts it, on every measure “America is still peerless.” Usefully, Kagan states that much of the current decline talk is based on a “nostalgic fallacy,” imagining a golden past in which America was all but omnipotent. Both men dismiss that other plank of declinist conventional wisdom, the assumption that China’s hot breath is on America’s neck and that it is about to take over. The two authors agree that it’s in every­one’s interest, not just America’s, for the United States to remain dominant. Above all, Brzezinski and Kagan unite in arguing against fatalism. American decline is not preordained, but neither is the status quo. If Americans want to remain on top, they will have to fight for that position, making some painful changes in the process. Image from

America’s Place in the New World - Charles A. Kupchan: The democratic, secular and free-market model that has become synonymous with the era of Western primacy is being challenged by state capitalism in China, Russia and the Persian Gulf sheikdoms. Political Islam is rising in step with democracy across the Middle East. And left-wing populism is taking hold from India to Brazil. Rather than following the West’s path of development and obediently accepting their place in the liberal international order, rising nations are fashioning their own versions of modernity and pushing back against the West’s ideological ambitions. As this century unfolds, sustaining American power will be the easy part. The hard part will be adjusting to the loss of America’s ideological dominance and fashioning consensus and compromise in an increasingly diverse and unwieldy world. Washington has long presumed that the world’s democracies will as a matter of course ally themselves with the United States; common values supposedly mean common interests. But if India and Brazil are any indication, even rising powers that are stable democracies will chart their own courses, expediting the arrival of a world that no longer plays by Western rules. This century will be the first time in history in which multiple versions of order and modernity coexist in an interconnected world; no longer will the West anchor globalization. Multiple power centers, and the competing models they represent, will vie on a more level playing field. Effective global governance will require forging common ground amid an equalizing distribution of power and rising ideological diversity.

The failure of Al-Qaeda propaganda - S Iftikhar Murshed, thenews.com.pk: For several years Al-Qaeda has persevered with a relentless propaganda campaign against Pakistan, but there has been no effort on the part of the government to neutralise this blitzkrieg. Suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, kidnappings and other outrages are justified by Al-Qaeda and its affiliates as jihad. Yet the report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) does not even acknowledge that the foremost threat that Pakistan faces emanates from terrorism. The inconsistencies in Al-Qaeda statements betray both panic and increasing frustration over its inability to achieve its ambitions in the region. The inescapable conclusion is that it has been considerably weakened because of the success of the military operations and the refusal of the tribal Pakhtuns to do its bidding. What is also needed is a parallel effort to counter the Al-Qaeda propaganda broadside against Pakistan. The government, which has the habit of forming commissions and committees on any and every thing under the sun, should constitute a cell consisting of representatives from the ministries of information and interior to collate Al-Qaeda statements, expose their contradictions, translate these into Urdu and Pashto and disseminate them widely with the help of the print and electronic media.

Book review: ‘Pakistan on the Brink’ by Ahmed Rashid - Bruce Riedel, Washington Post: Pakistan on the Brink depicts a nation with a severe socioeconomic crisis, and with political leadership that has neither the courage nor the will to carry out essential reforms and is building the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal on the globe. The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is in a state of virtual meltdown, Rashid rightly contends, with both sides to blame.

The information war over Syria: With international media not allowed into the country, both government and opposition are resorting to propaganda - aljazeera.com

Iraqi wartime PSYOPs against Iran - ibna.ir: Propaganda and Psychological Operations in the Iraq-imposed war on Iran is the title of a book by Ali Mohammad Naeini published by Revayat-e Fath publication center.

Image from article

NKorea's Bethlehem is birthplace of Kim religion - Jean H. Lee, Associated Press, deseretnews.com. Image from article, with caption:

In this Tuesday, April 3, 2012 photo, deep snow blankets a loud speaker used to broadcast propaganda at Samjiyon Grand Monument area in Samjiyon, North Korea where a large bronze statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung stands at the base of Mount Paektu. The story of Mount Paektu is the story of how one man managed to build an entire national culture and history around his own carefully crafted story, deliberately drawing on the methods and symbols of religion.

"Dreaming in French," by Alice Kaplan: A study of three iconic American women -- Jackie Kennedy, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis -- viewed through the window of their time in France - Megan Doll, startribune.com: 'If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast," Hemingway famously wrote. In "Dreaming in French," Alice Kaplan

looks at three iconic American women -- Jacqueline Bouvier, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis -- and captures not only the time each spent in France but also its reverberations throughout the rest of their lives. The transatlantic transformation is familiar terrain for Kaplan, a Minneapolis native and Duke professor, who wrote about her own relationship with French language and culture in her splendid memoir, "French Lessons." Image from article

April 7

“I’ve been hearing confessions for 36 years, and I haven’t been surprised for 35 years."

--Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, who since 2005 has served as rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, a Emmitsburg, Md., institution that boasts an expansive program of confession training that lasts a year and culminates in a series of mock confessions; image, with caption: Confessions on a Dance Floor

VIDEO

KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Швыдкой: США согласны защитить российские культурные ценности (Shvydkoi -- The USA is in agreement to protect Russian items of great cultural value) - vesti.ru: Москва и Вашингтон подтвердили свою заинтересованность в заключении межправительственного соглашения для защиты российских культурных ценностей в США. Эта тема обсуждалась в субботу на встрече представителя президента РФ по международному культурному сотрудничеству Михаила Швыдкого с новым заместителем госсекретаря США по публичной дипломатии Тарой Соненшайн.(Moscow and Washington expressed their interest in concluding an inter-governmental agreement for the protection of Russian items of great cultural value in the USA. This theme was discussed on Saturday at a meeting of the representative of the president of RF [Russian Federation] for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi with the new USA under secretary of state for public diplomacy Tara Soneshine). Via HS on Facebook;

 Shvydkoi image from article. 

Twitter: Danny Ayalon ‏@DannyAyalon - "I posted 4 photos on Facebook in the album 'Meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy'" http://fb.me/18WXi52r5

Congress tries to thwart BBG attempts to shut down Voice of America - Quo Vadis, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "Year after fiscal year, members of Congress in bipartisan fashion, question the plans of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and its powerful Executive Staff to eviscerate the Voice of America. Since 1999, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has governed the units responsible for U.S. international broadcasting including the Voice of America, Radio/TV Marti and the grantee organizations: RFE/RL, RFA (Radio Free Asia) and for the past several years, MBN (Middle East Broadcasting Network). All sorts of reasons for dismantling VOA are presented. The latest reasoning goes like this: the Chinese government jams VOA Mandarin and Cantonese broadcasts. In fact, the BBG people have demonstrated to congressional aides what jamming in China does to the signal. Ergo, the broadcasts should be shut down. Their solution? The Internet, leaving out the critical fact that the Chinese government has complete control of the Internet thanks to its most efficient cyber-army. Thankfully, Congress understood these facts when it decided to negate the BBG’s attempts last year to drastically cut VOA Mandarin and Cantonese radio and TV broadcasts to China. That did not deter the BBG Executive Staff from narrowing the reduction plan, now proposing to cut the VOA Cantonese Service in FY2013. ... It is comforting to know that there are many in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, who do understand what the VOA mission is all about, including Congresswoman Betty McCollum. In her remarks at a subcommittee hearing several years ago, Congresswoman McCollum stressed the strategic importance of radio in delivering the message of America to the world. She also pointed out that VOA is a vital part of the public diplomacy toolbox, a comment that no doubt aggravated the BBG Executive Staff who deny that any such function exists for VOA. Broadcasting employees could only wish that her belief in the value of VOA broadcasts would be shared, in some way, by the BBG Executive Staff."

RELATED ITEMS

Obama Embraces National Security as Campaign Issue - Helene Cooper, New York Times: With a Republican opponent all but chosen and the general election campaign about to start, President Obama is preparing to emphasize an issue that few Democratic candidates have embraced in the past: national security, long the domain of the Republican Party. At the same time, the Obama campaign is seeking to portray Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee, as a national security neophyte whose best ideas are simply retreads of what the president is already doing, and whose worst instincts would take the country back to the days of President George W. Bush: cowboy diplomacy, the Iraq war and America’s lowest standing on the

international stage. In the coming weeks, Obama advisers plan to release a list of national security “surrogates” — high-profile Democrats like former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Wesley K. Clark, a retired general — who will write newspaper op-ed articles, give speeches and take Mr. Romney to task every time he opens his mouth about foreign policy, Obama advisers said. The plan is to draw a contrast between Mr. Obama — who, his advisers say, kept his word on ending the Iraq war, going aggressively after Al Qaeda and restoring alliances around the world — and Mr. Romney, who will be portrayed as playing both sides of numerous issues. Image from

Can the United States Balance National Security and Economic Reality? - Chas W. Freeman, theglobalist.com: The greatest threats the United States faces today are not violent acts carried out by foreigners — but its own fiscal foolishness, political paralysis and promiscuous military impulses. Via TH by email

What's the difference between Anwar al-Awlaki and Jane Fonda? - democraticunderground.com: Anwar al-Awlaki was accused of training terrorists to attack America. But that's about the only difference. Both of them are/were U.S. Citizens. Both of them were accused of spreading anti-American propaganda overseas. Both of them were unarmed. Both were accused of being a danger to US troops. Neither were convicted of the crimes they were accused of. What would stop a Republican successor to President Obama from sending a combat drone to kill the next Jane Fonda... abroad or in America?

Happiness tops in Denmark, lowest in Togo, study says - Emily Alpert, Los Angeles Times: How happy is your country? In a report released for the meeting, economists John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs round up what is known about happiness around the globe. Different groups have asked different questions to measure happiness. In the widest such survey, Gallup asked people to rate their lives from 0 to 10. It found huge differences in global happiness: More than a third of Europeans ranked themselves an 8 or higher. Less than 5% said so in sub-Saharan Africa. According to polls taken from 2005 to 2011, these were the happiest countries: Denmark [,] Finland [,]Norway[,]Netherlands[,]Canada[,]Switzerland [,]Sweden[,] New Zealand [,]Australia [,] Ireland [.]

The United States ranks 11th, just after Ireland. The unhappiest countries were Togo (ranked last), Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Comoros, Haiti, Tanzania, Congo and Bulgaria. Bhutan, which pioneered the happiness index, is not included in the Gallup World Poll. (Other surveys rank countries differently from Gallup. To see some of the other rankings, read the full report.) Image from article, with caption : Danish Minister for Economy and Interior Margrethe Vestager after the second day of a Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday. Denmark is the happiest country in the world, according to Gallup polls. Via PS on Facebook

Missing U.S. in the World -  Steve Clemons, theatlantic.com: “I just got word that an impressive project designed to help Americans connect with global issues beyond a 'fear-mongering frame' is shuttering itself but will live on through the various reports it produced via the web.  The U.S. in the World Initiative, first launched many years ago by Priscilla Lewis, P.J. Simmons, and Sue Veres -- all then at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund -- was housed in various stages of its development at the Aspen Institute, New America Foundation, and Demos. Today's toxic political climate and the extreme polarization of views after 9/11 on a number of fronts -- ranging from energy and climate policy to economic questions to national security -- seemed to force politicians and policy-focused organizations to chase people at the extremes rather than to make the case for healthy civic debate, a deliberative process about trade-offs, and decisions based on interests rather than fear.” Via TH email.

A real-life 'Hunger Games': In North Korea, children are bred like livestock in labor camps. They are taught to betray their parents. They are worked to death - Blaine Harden, latimes.com: "There are about 200,000 inmates in six camps, the largest of which is 31 miles long and 25 miles wide, an area larger than the city of Los Angeles. ... I learned about daily life in these camps from Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person known to have been born in one of them and escape to the West. Shin was born in Camp 14 in 1982 after guards selected his mother and father for a 'reward marriage' and instructed them to have sex. Shin was 14 when he was forced to watch camp guards hang his mother and shoot his brother. ... [Shin] wants Americans to know the awful particulars of what North Korea has done — is still doing — to men, women and children in the camps.

He wants Americans to pressure their leaders to lean on China, North Korea's patron, and force the young dictator, Kim Jong Un, to close the camps." Image from article, with caption: People attend rally to mark the 100th day of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on March 25. The Kim family dynasty has presided over this human rights catastrophe for more than half a century without provoking much interest, understanding or outrage from the American public.

Israel’s pinkwashing exposed as dishonest at New York debates - Uri Horesh, The Electronic Intifada: “Pinkwashing is a way to normalize Zionism in a queer context.” So said Nadia Awad, an American-born documentary filmmaker of Palestinian ancestry, at a panel titled “(Un)Occupying Territories of Gender and Sexuality in Palestine,” at the New School for Social Research in New York. The term “pinkwashing” has been used by activists for some time, but came to wide public prominence last November due to a New York Times op-ed by Sarah Schulman. In general, pinkwashing refers to an Israeli hasbara (literally “explaining” in Hebrew) — or propaganda — strategy to portray Israel as espousing liberal or progressive democratic values such as feminism, gay rights and multiculturalism, in order to distract from or discount Israel’s systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Sudan and South wage propaganda war‎ - The News International: "While guns blazed on the border between Sudan and South Sudan in recent days, the airwaves and newspapers of both countries have fired salvos of their own in an intense propaganda war. Almost two weeks ago the clashes between the neighbours began along their undemarcated and disputed frontier in the most serious unrest since South Sudan gained independence from Khartoum last July, after Africa's longest war. International fears have mounted of a return to full-blown conflict. But with access to the war zone restricted on the Sudanese side the full extent of recent fighting remains unclear, leaving much of the local media parroting inflammatory government rhetoric."

In Russia, Stalin enjoying a revival on school notebooks: School notebooks depicting Josef Stalin have become instant bestsellers. Critics decry the attempt to promote the brutal dictator as a Soviet hero in schools - Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

Image from article, with caption: Notebooks bearing Josef Stalin's image on the cover are flying off the shelves of the Pedagogical Book House store in downtown Moscow. The store runs out of stock each day.

Meet Your Mixologist: Bryan Ranere of Laszlo Bar - Donna Domino, The SF Examiner: It’s easy to miss this bar, tucked off the hallway entrance to Foreign Cinema, which is known for the classic films it projects on a wall in the restaurant’s courtyard. It has the look and feel of a neighborhood bar, a striking contrast to the elegant dining room down the hall. Russian propaganda posters and skateboards line the walls. Bar manager Bryan Ranere, who’s been there since Foreign Cinema opened in 1999, was brought in because of his filmmaking and bartending background.

Laszlo Bar, 2526 Mission St., San Francisco, www.laszlobar.com. [Q:] What was the inspiration for this drink? The owner has a fetishistic relationship with Russian Cold War accoutrement. We were changing the cocktail menu, and he wanted a Russia-themed cocktail. The vodka is neutral so the ginger shines through.  Russia House : ½ oz. Canton ginger liquor / 2 oz. Stolichnaya vodka /Juice of ½ lemon /Peychaud’s bitters.  Shake with ice in cocktail shaker. Strain into rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Float with Peychaud’s bitters. Garnish with lemon peel. Image from article, with caption: Iron Curtain cocktail: Laszlo Bar manager Bryan Ranere says this drink was inspired by the Cold War propaganda posters lining the walls. He uses the iconic Russian vodka Stolichnaya and Peychaud’s bitters for color, “because I wanted to show blood spilled on the ice.

AMERICANA

America loves a vigilante. Until we meet one - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "From Clint Eastwood in 'Dirty Harry' to Charles Bronson in 'Death Wish,' from Robert De Niro practicing his sneer in 'Taxi Driver' to comic-book superheroes sheathed in various hues of spandex, whether he is walking tall or falling down, the lone avenger speaks to something deep and abiding within the American psyche, engaging our most cherished ideas about a country founded by brash rebels and sustained by rough-hewn individualism, flinty self-reliance and a congenital suspicion of powerful institutions.

It’s easy to understand the enduring appeal of the vigilante archetype, whose hard-charging moral certainty jibes perfectly with this country’s sense of exceptionalism, not to mention the narrative constraints of a 90-minute action movie. Image from article

Caring, Romantic American Boys - Amy T. Schalet, New York Times: "In 1988, many more boys than girls, ages 15 to 17, told researchers that they had had heterosexual intercourse. But in the two decades since, the proportion of all American adolescents in their mid-teens claiming sexual experience has decreased, and for boys the decline has been especially steep, according to the National Survey of Family Growth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, though more than half of unmarried 18- and 19-year-olds have had sexual intercourse, fewer than 30 percent of 15- to 17-year-old boys and girls have, down from 50 percent of boys and 37 percent of girls in 1988. And there are virtually no gender differences in the timing of sexual initiation."

NEWS FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

A D.C. whistleblower goes unrewarded - Colbert I. King, Washington Post: "[Consider] the 61 D.C. government employees who, as WAMU recently reported, have been fired in the course of an ongoing investigation into workers receiving unemployment checks while employed by the city. Five others resigned, and one was suspended. Harry Thomas (D), who resigned his Ward 5 seat on the D.C. Council and pleaded guilty to federal felony theft and tax charges in January. He is to be sentenced next month. Mary Ayers-Zander, a former tax examiner for the D.C.

Office of Tax and Revenue, who was sentenced on March 19 to 30 months in prison on a federal charge of wire fraud over a scheme involving more than $400,000 in fraudulent refunds. Joe L. Parrish and Gregory A. Scott, two former inspectors at the D.C. Department of the Environment, who pleaded guilty March 13 to federal charges over a scheme in which they demanded and received $20,000 in bribes for not reporting serious infractions and assessing fines and penalties. Aisha Hackley, a former city police sergeant who was sentenced Feb. 3 to 18 months in prison over the theft of $40,005 from an 85-year-old District resident she met while investigating a crime. And who can forget Harriette Walters, the tax assessment manager who pleaded guilty in 2008 to a scam that netted her and her co-conspirators in the city tax office $48.1 million over 20 years?" Image from

INFORMATION FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT

Background Note: Afghanistan - state.gov: "While the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan is transitioning primary security responsibility to Afghan National Security Forces, the United States plans to remain politically, diplomatically, and economically engaged in Afghanistan for the long term. A Strategic Partnership Declaration between the United States and Afghanistan will solidify the long-term partnership. The United States fully supports the ambitious agenda

set out by the Afghan president, focusing on reintegration, economic development, improving relations with Afghanistan’s regional partners, and steadily increasing the security responsibilities of Afghan security forces. Rapid progress on this agenda is important and requires international support. Toward this end, the U.S. is encouraging the Afghan Government to take strong actions to combat corruption." Image from entry