This week's PD News headlines explored European public diplomacy initiatives. The Erasmus student program celebrates its 30th anniversary of cultural exchange, while Germany unveiled its "Marshall Plan" strategy aimed at strengthened economic cooperation with Africa. Other stories looked at President Trump's influence on the European Union moving forward, and how Germany's history continues to play a role in its global leadership strategy.
ISIS says the US is at war with Islam. Trump just helped them make their case.
Updated by Jennifer Williams@jenn_ruthjennifer@vox.com Jan 29, 2017, 3:03pm EST
Excerpt:
Trump’s strategy to counter ISIS, which he laid out in a [Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] published on the White House website on Saturday [January 28], emphasizes the need to use “public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies to isolate and delegitimize ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology.”
Giving ISIS their biggest propaganda win of the last five years is a strange way to go about doing that. ...
[Trump's] third directive signed Saturday was a memorandum giving military leaders 30 days to construct and present a report outlining the U.S. strategy for defeating ISIS.
"This is the plan to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I think it's going to be very successful."
His memorandum calls for a "comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS," stating that "there can be no accommodation or negotiation" with the group.
The directive recommends "changes to any United States rules of engagement" and other policy restrictions, an exploration of alternative strategies to "isolate and delegitimize ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology," a strengthening of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition and an exploration of methods to limit the group's financial support.
It's unclear how exactly the plan would depart from past approaches to the group. Saturday's document mentioned public diplomacy, information operations and cyber strategies as alternative approaches for combating ISIS.
It's unclear how exactly the plan would depart from past approaches to the group. Saturday's document mentioned public diplomacy, information operations and cyber strategies as alternative approaches for combating ISIS. ...
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the US military to develop a preliminary plan to defeat Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria. He discussed the issue earlier in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is the policy of the United States that ISIS be defeated,” reads the order published on the White House website on Saturday. “Within 30 days, a preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS shall be submitted to the President by the Secretary of Defense.”
The comprehensive plan should include guidelines on the use of public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies “to isolate and delegitimize ISIS [Islamic State, formerly ISIL] and its radical Islamist ideology.”
It will also seek to identify “new coalition partners in the fight against ISIS and policies to empower coalition partners” to fight Islamic State and its affiliates.
The number of proposed measures “would depend upon the political risk that the president is willing to take when we do certain things that could exacerbate things with Russia or Turkey,” one defense official told Washington Post on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Trump and Putin had their first telephone conversation, in which they expressed their mutual intent to cooperate on combatting Islamic State.
“The presidents have spoken in favor of establishing a real coordination between the US and Russian actions in order to defeat ISIS and other terrorist organizations in Syria,” the Kremlin statement said.
Putin emphasized that “for over two centuries Russia has supported the United States, was its ally during the two world wars, and now sees the United States as a major partner in fighting international terrorism.”
Both leaders have also agreed to work out a time and venue for a possible meeting, according to the statement.
In their excellent new book “Sino-Japanese Power Politics” (Palgrave), Giulio Pugliese, a professor at King’s College London, and Aurelio Insisa weigh in on the propaganda skirmishing that has intensified since Japan nationalized the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in 2012. They draw attention to the “battle for shaping the global narrative on Chinese and Japanese behavior,” one that sacrifices history on the altar of nationalism. ...
But in his book, Pugliese also points out that the global media is generally better disposed to Japan, giving it a tremendous advantage. I think that the Japanese government risks losing this edge to the extent that it engages in punitive tactics such as orchestrating the ouster of critical news anchors and embarks on campaigns targeting media groups who expose the charlatans of revisionism.
A lavish new $500 million public diplomacy budget is helping sway global opinion — partly squandered on dreary CNN infomercials — but in my view Japan is not winning the soft power battle through propaganda. Rather, it outshines China through far more generous no-strings-attached funding for scholarly research that respects academic freedom. As an open society allowing unfettered access unimaginable in China, Japan appeals to opinion-makers. Japanese foundations are not keen on funding research critical of the government and society, even though they burnish the nation’s image internationally when they do so. ...
Jeff Kingston is the director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan, and the editor of “Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan” (2017).
[C]oncerns about an Orwellian consolidation and centralization of government media control have been expressed over administration efforts “to curb the flow of information from several government agencies involved in environmental issues,” and the possibility, as Politico reported, that the new White House might also try to put its stamp on the Voice of America, the broadcasting arm that “has long pushed democratic ideals across the world.” ...
Sarah Blake and Robyn Ironside, News Corp Australia Network
FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop yesterday sought to calm fears Australians will face travel restrictions to the United States after the government’s first high level engagement with the Trump administration.
Describing a “warm and engaging discussion” over the phone with US Vice President Mike Pence, Ms Bishop also tried to downplay concerns about the future of Australia’s refugee resettlement deal with the US.
She also dismissed speculation Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 20 per cent tax on all Mexican imports — to pay for a wall between the two countries — would be extended to other countries.
Julie Bishop has urged Australians not to fear policy changes in the US which will strengthen its borders and make it more difficult for tourists to gain entry. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP
“There certainly has been no indication at all that the administration is looking to renegotiate the Australia — United States Free Trade Agreement,” Ms Bishop said.
“It has benefited both nations enormously.”
The phone call with Mr Pence was the first official dialogue with the new US government and came as Ms Bishop spoke at a G’Day USA event in Los Angeles.
Currently Australia is one of 39 countries whose citizens able to apply for an electronic visa to enter the US at a cost of about $20.
In an interview with ABC America Mr Trump confirmed his administration would “exclude certain countries” from accessing the US and have “extreme vetting for other countries”.
“It’s going to be very hard to come in. Right now it’s very easy to come in,” President Trump said.
“It’s going to be very, very hard.”
US President Donald Trump is rolling out a new policy which could require face-to-face interviews before visitors are granted entry into the United States. Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP
Before the Presidential election, President Trump suggested he would scrap the visa waiver scheme — and require would-be visitors to go through a face-to-face interview with US officials to gain entry.
Ms Bishop said she would work with the United States to “ensure Australians continue to have access to the US as Americans have access to Australia”.
“We are two very like-minded countries; in fact there are few countries that have a relationship so close as that of the United States and Australia,” Ms Bishop said.
“We will continue to work together to strengthen and broaden and deepen this very strong relationship.”
Donald Trump is already making good on his pre-election promise to build a massive wall to keep Mexicans out of the US. Picture: David McNew/AFP
However she did acknowledge that Mr Trump appeared to be pushing ahead with his pre-election policies such as the Mexico wall.
“The President is giving support to the policies he took to the last election,” said Ms Bishop, when asked about the controversial proposal.
“We will be watching the policies very closely as they’re announced and we will continue to ensure that we act in Australia’s national interest when it comes to Australia’s relationship with the United States.”
More than 700,000 Americans visited Australia last year. How Mr Trump’s new visa policy will affect Australian tourism is yet to be known.
In the last year, more than a million Australians travelled to the US, and close to 700,000 Americans visited Down Under.
Ms Bishop will remain in Los Angeles for Qantas’ opening of an A380 hangar at Los Angeles Airport today, and the G’Day USA gala dinner on Sunday.
She said the tourism and trade event was the “largest public diplomacy initiative undertaken by any nation in the United States”.
“It’s an opportunity to not only showcase the best of Australia to one of the most remarkable marketplaces in the world, but also an opportunity to strengthen and broaden and deepen this already strong relationship.”
A Princeton PhD, was a U.S. diplomat for over 20 years, mostly in Central/Eastern Europe, and was promoted to the Senior Foreign Service in 1997. After leaving the State Department in 2003 to express strong reservations about the planned U.S. invasion of Iraq, he shared ideas with Georgetown University students on the tension between propaganda and public diplomacy. He has given talks on "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United" to participants in the "Open World" program. Among Brown’s many articles is his latest piece, “Janus-Faced Public Diplomacy: Creel and Lippmann During the Great War,” now online. He is the compiler (with S. Grant) of The Russian Empire and the USSR: A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Materials in the United States (also online). In the past century, he served as an editor/translator of a joint U.S.-Soviet publication of archival materials, The United States and Russia: The Beginning of Relations,1765-1815. His approach to "scholarly" aspirations is poetically summarized by Goethe: "Gray, my friend, is every theory, but green is the tree of life."
