September 24

“'What is his name?,' Palin asked.
'Mirwais,' Karzai responded. 'Mirwais, which means, ‘The Light of the House.’'
'Oh nice,' Palin responded.
'He is the only one we have,' remarked Karzai.

--Liz Cox Barrett, Palin’s “Photo Spray”

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

A Reliance on Smart Power: Reforming the Public Diplomacy Bureaucracy - Elizabeth Bagley (Ambassador) , Vice Chairman, U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy: Testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, U.S. Department of State: “Just over a year ago, the Commission reviewed the extensive recent literature on U.S. public diplomacy and determined that few if any observers had ever sought to 'look under the hood' and study the impact of internal human resources practices and structures on our Nation’s efforts to communicate with foreign publics. … In sum, Mr. Chairman, we found that the State Department:

• recruits smart people, but not necessarily the right people, for the PD career track,
• tests candidates on the wrong knowledge sets,
• trains its officers in the wrong skills, and
• evaluates those officers mostly on the wrong tasks.

In terms of personnel structures:

• State has a PD bureaucracy in Washington that hasn’t been critically examined since the 1999 merger and that may or may not be functioning optimally,
• its overseas public affairs officers are spending the majority of their time administering rather than communicating with foreign publics, and
• meaningful integration of public diplomacy into State Department decision-making and staffing remains elusive.

In short, Mr. Chairman, we’re not 'getting the people part right.' Let me now take up each of these points in a little more detail.”

SEE ALSO: John Brown, review of Getting the People Part Right: A Report on the Human Resources Dimension of U.S. Public Diplomacy by The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (2008), American Diplomacy

Senior diplomats in short supply - Kellie Lunney, Governmentexectuvie.com: The Foreign Service needs more senior public diplomacy officers, a top State Department official told a congressional panel on Tuesday. "On the public diplomacy side, there is some positive news, but it's a grim picture overall," Amb. Scott DeLisi, director of career development and assignments in State's Bureau of Human Resources, said before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.
SEE ALSO Mountain Runner

Brownback introduces public diplomacy legislation - Fort Scott Tribune, KS: Senator Sam Brownback today introduced legislation that would establish the National Center for Strategic Communications, an agency similar to the now defunct U.S. Information Agency. In addition to establishing a new public diplomacy agency, Brownback's proposal would abolish the existing Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy at the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Their functions would be transferred to the new National Center for Strategic Communications where they would be managed by single director.

Zimbabwe: charges against VOA stringer dropped - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Rep. Joe Rice Appointed To Board for Sister Cities International - Colorado House Democrats: State Representative Joe Rice (D-Littleton) was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for Sister Cities International, a non-profit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between U.S. and international communities. His responsibilities include setting policy for the organization and assisting members from over 700 communities in conducting educational, professional, and cultural exchange public diplomacy programs.

Alcoa President Klaus Kleinfeld and HRH Princess Ghida Talal of Jordan Honored at Institute of International Education Gala Dinner - AScribe Newswire: Dr. Henry Jarecki, IIE Board members and co-founders of IIE's Scholar Rescue Fund: "With her husband, HRH Prince Talal, the Princess has played a seminal role in launching the Iraq Scholar Rescue Project, which rescues persecuted scholars from Iraq and finds them safe haven at host universities within the Middle East region until they can safely return to rebuild their country." IIE's President and CEO Allan Goodman introduced special guest Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman.

A ´Community Organizer´ Frame of Mind - Yossef Ben-Meir, American Chronicle, CA: Community organizers know that public trust is generated in reaction to the empowerment people feel when their ideas for projects are implemented and the benefits are tangible; this may inform, at least in part, the approaches of community organizers to public diplomacy, the "war of ideas," and addressing root causes of of terrorism.

Philosophy and Real Politics by Raymond Geuss – Book Description, Princeton University Press: “Introduction: A strong ‘Kantian’ strand is visible in much contemporary political theory, and even perhaps in some real political practice. This strand expresses itself in the highly moralised tone in which some public diplomacy is conducted, at any rate in the English-speaking world, and also in the popularity among political philosophers of the slogan ‘Politics is applied ethics.’”

'Iran's request to join UNSC is absurd' – Jerusalem Post: The morning after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel speech at the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister and new Kadima leader Tzipi Livni said it was absurd that Iran was asking to join the UN Security Council. The consul-general in New York, Assi Shariv, said that "the most striking thing was that Ahmadinejad got a round of applause after his awful speech." Speaking to Army Radio, Shariv said that Israel was exerting great efforts in public diplomacy.

Catherine Fieschi announced as Director of The British Council's Think Tank Counterpoint - M/D/M Redaction alpha-2.info: The British Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Catherine Fieschi as Director of Counterpoint, the British Council's cultural relations think tank.

RELATED ITEMS

US Election Watchers, Home and Afar - Melinda Brouwer, Foreign Policy Association: Public Diplomacy and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election: The folks at PBS’ “Frontline/World,” a national public TV series that focusing on global issues, have been producing material that is highly relevant to this blog’s scope. Their “The World is Watching” series investigates global views of the US presidential election.

Global Electoral College: What if the World Could Vote – Economist: Who do you want as the next president of the United States? Now's your chance to let America know. Cast your vote.

Travel Promotion Act Clears House Committee, Moves Significantly Closer to Final Passage – Travel Industry Association: The "Travel Promotion Act," H.R. 3232, introduced by Representatives William Delahunt (D-MA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) and co-sponsored by 243 additional members of the House of Representatives, establishes a public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier international travel destination and communicate U.S. security and entry policies. The bill specifies that travel promotion would be paid for -- at no cost to U.S. taxpayers -- by private sector contributions and a modest fee on foreign travelers that do not pay $131 for a visa to enter the United States. Nearly every developed nation in the world spends millions of dollars to attract visitors.

Army Alters Photographs, Issues Them To AP - Megan McGinley, Columbia Journalism Review: Bob Owen, chief photographer of the San Antonio Express-News, notified the AP that the photos of two deceased soldiers, who died in Iraq on Sept. 14, were nearly identical. After inspecting the photographs, the AP confirmed that the images were, indeed, Photoshopped, and issued eliminations on the two photos.

Islamophobia Run Amok – Abukar Arman, American Chronicle, CA: Like Anti-Semitism and racism, Islamophobia is a real phenomenon that cultivates hate among communities, stereotypes a whole group for the acts of a few, and justifies transgression against the innocent. Hate speech and propaganda are often craftily camouflaged as talk radio punditry, political lampooning, speeches, or political infomercial.

Who Is Behind the ‘Radical Islam’ DVD? - Will Evans, Truthdig: Critics are calling the DVD, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” anti-Muslim hate, or politicking, or both. The DVD is distributed by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit set up by the film’s producer, Rabbi Raphael Shore. But not much is known about the group. It’s a 501(c)(3) charity, which means it can’t engage in partisan politics.

Hypocrisy 2.0: Islamic groups condemn a macabre anti-Muslim video game - Jonathan Schanzer, Weekly Standard: Kids in the Muslim world are encouraged to be anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and simply hateful to others in the spirit of Islamism.

The Smart Money in Afghanistan - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post: A little bit of money goes a long way in Afghanistan. Too bad so many in the aid community still haven't learned this, after all these years.

Our Generals Almost Cost Us Iraq - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Wall Street Journal: In late 2006, President Bush, like President Lincoln in 1862, adopted a new approach to the war. In Gen. David Petraeus, Mr. Bush found his Ulysses Grant, to execute an operational approach based on sound counterinsurgency doctrine. This new approach has brought the U.S. to the brink of victory.

After Kim Jong Il - B. R. Myers, Atlantic Monthly: We should be thinking less about the transition of North Korean power, and more about the worldview that Kim and all his potential successors have in common.

Pyongyang as Usual - Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The real issues are North Korea's refusal to turn over all of its plutonium, disclose how many nuclear weapons it has and where they are, and come clean on its suspected uranium program.

General Assembly required – Editorial, Boston Globe: Under the influence of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush has become somewhat more willing to advance American interests through multilateral channels. But he remains unaware that international cooperation must be a two-way street - and that his illusions to the contrary have led him to fritter away much of America's influence.

The Buck Stopped Then - James Grant, New York Times: Today’s dollar is faith-based. Since 1971, nothing has stood behind it except the world’s good opinion of the United States. And now, watching the largest American financial institutions quake, and the administration fly from one emergency stopgap to the next, the world is changing its mind. Cartoon from Truthdig.

A Bad Example: How the bailout helps petty tyrants -
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, New Republic: From now on, any petty tyrant anywhere in the world who takes over an industry will shut his critics up by saying that an American administration led by the party of free enterprise has done a de facto nationalization of a good chunk of U.S. capitalism.

Don't sell America's economy short: Despite the current financial crisis, there are many reasons to trust that the U.S. will, as always, rebound - Max Boot, Los Angeles Times

Dear Iraqi Friends - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: After a decade of the world being afraid of too much American power, it is now going to be treated to a world of too little American power, as we turn inward to get our house back in order.

A Dialogue and a Discourse on America’s Global Role [review of The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich; America And The World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, moderated by David Ignatius] - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times: Unlike neoconservative ideologues in the current administration, the two former national security advisers say that talks with hostile parties can be a useful tool, and they argue that in the wake of 9/11, the Manichean language employed by President Bush has alienated allies and aggravated resentments in many parts of the world. Mr. Bacevich makes the sweeping assertion that “Bush and those around him have reaffirmed the pre-existing fundamentals of U.S. policy, above all affirming the ideology of national security to which past administrations have long subscribed” -- a dubious assertion he later appears to contest himself in writing about the current White House’s embrace of the radical idea of preventive war.

Watching Oprah from behind the veil - Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe: They are the multitude of Saudi Arabian women whose devotion to her has made "The Oprah Winfrey Show" -- broadcast twice daily on a Dubai-based satellite channel -- the highest-rated English-language program in the kingdom. Is it any wonder that women trapped in a culture that treats them so wretchedly idolize someone like Oprah, who epitomizes so much that is absent from their lives?


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AMERICANA (VIDEO)

‘Daily Show’: Baron Von Moneypants – Truthdig: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed bailout plan carries a price tag of $700 billion, a staggering figure that CNN has helpfully translated into terms that every American can understand by consulting the McDonald’s (apple) pie chart.