October 29

"QUESTION: Just quickly, how much money are you spending? How much money is this, like, initiative of the war of ideas? Can you quantify it?

UNDER SECRETARY GLASSMAN: It’s not much. I will say that much."

--Briefing on U.S. Public Diplomacy and the War of Ideas by James K. Glassman, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. LEFT: Book by Mr. Glassman (French translation)

"Earn it, Doc!"

--Tommy the Tank, Dr. Condoleezza Rice's fitness trainer

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Analysts Question Timing of Syria Raid - Ali Gharib, Antiwar.com: "A cross-border raid into Syria by U.S. forces in Iraq and subsequent stonewalling by U.S. officials unwilling to divulge details have led to rampant speculation among U.S. analysts about the origins and meaning of the attack. In retaliation, Syria shut down a U.S. school and cultural center in Damascus."

U.S. Embassy in Damascus may close - Reuters, International Herald Tribune

Briefing on U.S. Public Diplomacy and the War of Ideas - James K. Glassman, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State: ”In the war of ideas, our core task is not to fix foreigners’ perceptions of the United States, but to isolate and reduce the threat of violent extremism, not with bombs and bullets, of course, but with words, images, and deeds. And as I said, it’s about them, not about us.”

The War of Ideas and a CSM Op-Ed – GlobalPerspective, Reinventing Public Diplomacy: "In James Glassman's briefing on the War of Ideas, the State Department provided an update on its vision for public diplomacy and its engagement strategy. … While I agree with the premise of Glassman's vision, I find the characterization of a black and white world of ‘us’ and ‘them’ concerning. How can it only be about ‘them’ if it's ‘their’ perception of ‘us’ that we need to change in order to take away ‘their’ motivation and capability to do us harm? How can it only be about ‘them,’ if the United States seeks to draw on universal values and norms to bolster the ‘us’ position among international partners?”

Strategic Communication vs. Public Diplomacy vs. Dialogue - Bud Goodall, COMOPS Journal: “I applaud Under Secretary Glassman’s willingness to share his ideas about the relationship of strategic communication to public diplomacy. But I worry that viewing SC as a subset of PD, and that tying all forms and practices of SC to dialogue reifies an outdated way of thinking about communication. Strategic communication operates in a 'rugged landscape' that is more complex than a conversation or dialogue. Continuing to think of SC in those terms is both theoretically muddled and pragmatically too simplistic.”

Obama's victory a "great thing": Glassman – Press Trust of India: “The victory of Democrat nominee Barack Obama in the US Presidential elections would be a "great thing" for the country, a senior state department official said. ‘... I'm not endorsing a particular candidate here... But I think it would be a 'great thing' for the US to elect an African-American,’ Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, James Glassman said. But for that matter Glassman also emphasis that it would be great to have a woman as President or vice President.” See also.

US opens media facility in Brussels - Vanessa Macdonald, di-ve.com: “The US has opened a media facility in Brussels, offering the 12,000 journalists working there the chance to organise interviews with the many senior officials passing through this busy capital city. The facility is one of the latest initiatives by the Secretary of State, which has given public diplomacy a much higher profile during George Bush’s second term. … Another initiative is green diplomacy, which Dr [Colleen] Graffy [deputy assistant for public diplomacy at the Secretary of State] described in a recent webchat as ‘our effort to engage on environmental issues with the people of other countries in a way that communicates our values, culture and policies.’” Colleen Graffy, March 22, 2006:
“I came to London on a 'detainee propaganda defensive'. Before I went to Guantánamo, I had been on Radio 4's Today programme following the ‘interview’ of current detainee Fawzi al-Odah. He described being internally fed ‘using a thicker tube with a metal edge’. The ‘metal edge’ is not exposed metal, as he would want us to believe, but the hospital standard, which is sheathed. It was for this reason that I brought a sample on to Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme.” PHOTO: Colleen Graffy

Bush 41 Grownup Repudiates Bush 43 Foreign Policy - Spencer Ackerman, Washington Independent: “Edward Djerejian is a longtime diplomat and confidant of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and consigliere to George H.W. Bush. Djerejian was an outsized figure in GOP foreign-policy circles in its pre-neocon days, having been the only U.S. diplomat to serve as ambassador to both Syria and Israel. After leaving government service in the Clinton administration, he became the founding director of Baker’s institute at Rice University, and Colin Powell briefly recalled him to chair a State Dept. panel on public diplomacy during George W. Bush’s first term. In other words, he’s a grownup.”

Two Parties, One Imperial Mission: The US Empire will Survive Bush - Arno Mayer, Counterpunch: “Taking the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), Fulbright Programme and Congress for Cultural Freedom of the anti-Communist cold war as their model, the stalwarts of the new global war on terror have created equivalents in the State Department's Millenni[ium] Challenge and Middle East Partnership Initiative. The defense department enlists universities through Project Minerva to help with the new model counterinsurgency warfare and unconventional military state-building operations. … The [American] empire has extraordinary reserves of hard and soft power for persisting in its interventionism." PHOTO: Arno Mayer, Professor emeritus, Princeton University.

In Georgia, war tanks turn to culture - Dan Catchpole, Washington Times: “Georgia's five-day war with Russia in August proved the futility of fighting Moscow's forces on the battlefield but opened a cultural war for sympathy being waged by combatants on both sides. Mr. [David] Sakvarelidze [38-year-old director of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theater] said he wants to make Tbilisi a jewel of the international arts community, and in doing so strengthen the West's personal connections with his small country. He and other Georgian artists are trying to defend their country with arias, paintbrushes and clay creations. ‘Art is our weapon,’ Mr. Sakvarelidze said. ‘We have nothing else here.’ Cultural warfare has a long history in the region. During the Cold War, the Voice of America broadcast jazz behind the Iron Curtain." VIA

Foreign and Security Policy in 2009: Expectations, Challenges, Opportunities - Von Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Frankfurter Allgemeine faz.net,“My country [Germany] will not be too keen to tighten sanctions [against Iran], in whatever institutional format, and then face again the wrath of major German companies that do business in Iran. Again, it may be possible to do so, but it needs careful preparation and improved public diplomacy.”

Poland: Public and Cultural Diplomacy Conference - ISRIA: “On 27-30 October 2008 in Warsaw, the Public and Cultural Diplomacy Conference is taking place in which directors of Polish Institutes are taking part as well as cultural, scientific and press attachés from Polish foreign missions.”

RELATED ITEMS

In Syria, a short-sighted attack – Editorial, Boston Globe: The timing of the cross-border assault could not have been worse. And the justification given - that Syria sacrificed the inviolability of its territory by failing to eliminate the infiltration of would-be fighters and suicide bombers - exhibits disdain for the principles of international law. The next president will have to bring US policy back in compliance with those norms and restore a diplomacy that balances the interests of different powers in the region.

Twilight Struggle: In its closing days, the Bush administration escalates the war on terror - Eli Lake, New Republic: With the clock winding down on the administration, it has a greater appetite for racking up victories against al Qaeda. Obama has said nothing about Sunday's strikes in Syria (a silence that has rightly earned him taunting from the McCain campaign). On one level, this new policy conflicts with Obama's stated desire for opening up diplomatic channels to places like Tehran and Damascus. On the other hand, this is precisely the type of policy that he has repeatedly promised at least for Pakistan.

The World From Berlin: 'Bush's Way of Waving Goodbye to Syria?' – Spiegel: The US says its cross-border raid into Syria killed a top terrorist. Still, international reaction has been intense and critical. While the German government has kept silent, media commentators haven't been shy about lambasting the US.

An Empty Trial at Guantánamo - Andy Worthington, Antiwar.com: Now here's a problem that anyone with half a brain could have seen coming. On Monday the second trial by military commission at Guantánamo -- in other words, the second U.S. "war crimes" trial since the Second World War, following the underwhelming trial of Salim Hamdan this summer -- opened not with a bang, nor even with a whimper, but with complete silence.

Sleepless in Tehran - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: “If America wants to get out of Iraq and leave behind a decent outcome, plus break the deadlocks in Lebanon and Israel-Palestine, it needs to end the cold war with Iran. Possible? I don’t know, but the collapse of oil prices should give us a shot.”

Sleepy in Washington - Hooman Majd, Huffington Post: Assuming that one Iranian administration's economic mismanagement will force the Islamic regime to reconsider all of its long-term goals would be a fatal mistake, Mr. Obama, should he become president, would be wise to try to understand Iranians, beyond conventional wisdom and what the "experts" in Washington say.

Yes, We Really Must Talk With Iran - Charles Knight and Chris Toensing, Common Dreams

Washington's new policy towards Iran - Hasan Abu Nimah, Electronic Intifada: Anti-Iranian propaganda in the US and from Israel has played up and often distorted Ahmadinejad's statements about Israel (as well as his statements questioning the veracity of the Holocaust) to stoke fears that Iran intends to attack Israel. The US-led efforts to weaken the "extremists" appear, if anything, to have achieved the opposite. American credibility and prestige have been severely damaged by its failed military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel's in Gaza and Lebanon, while Iran has gained in stature.

'We're not going to win this war' - China Hand, Asia Times: The trends both in the NATO countries and in the key South Asian countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan all point to a consolidation of expert consensus in favor of an Afghanistan change of course and a concurrent media campaign to enlighten and guide the befuddled populace in support of the new policy, all under military direction.

Angry Pakistan Tells America: 'Stop Launching Missile Strikes Over Our Territory' as 20 More Die: Frustrated Pakistani officials have ordered the U.S. to stop firing pilotless missiles over their territory: Daily Mail/UK, Common Dreams

The useless Cuba embargo: America's economic sanctions on Cuba, now 50 years old, are a failure – Editorial, Los Angeles Times: McCain favors business as usual with Cuba, but Barack Obama believes that Cuban Americans should have unrestricted rights to travel to the island and send remittances. Obama's proposals don't go far enough, but they're a good start.

Bush's foreign policy For the next commander in chief - Helle Dale, Washington Times: Time is closing in on the end of the Bush foreign-policy record. When all is said and done, his most important achievement, his essential legacy, was to keep the United States safe from any further terrorist attacks after September 11, despite the terrorists' determined efforts.

Why I support Barack Obama for president - Stuart E. Eizenstat, Jerusalem Post: “I have spent much of my adult life serving in our government to promote America's interests at home and abroad; I have made it a special calling to help Jews around the world, including Holocaust victims, and to strengthen the US-Israel relationship. It is with great pride that I support Senator Barack Obama to be our next president. … His life growing up with a single mother, for a time even on food stamps, embodies the values embodied in the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, the obligation to repair the world; to pursue, in the words of our prophets, ‘Justice, Justice; and to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and let the oppressed go free.'”

Al Qaeda in Iraq's Deadly Diaspora: Are Iraq's battle-hardened jihadis exporting their tactics to new fronts? - Bruce Falconer, Mother Jones: In recent months, as politicians, pundits, and military officials have debated the causes of the precipitous decline in violence in Iraq, some prominent terrorism experts (including Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank in the March/April 2007 issue of Mother Jones) have begun warning that the relative calm may be giving way to a new threat -- a fresh generation of Al Qaeda, battle-hardened in Iraq and bent on exporting what they've learned to new fronts.

Iraq's blast walls become canvases: 'We want to create a sense of beauty amid this violence,' says Asad Sagheer of Baghdad University's College of Fine Arts. So the gray safety barriers are taking on a colorful life of their own - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times: Painters dispatched by Baghdad University's College of Fine Arts, commissioned by the government to decorate the walls, have in the last 20 months turned them into vast canvases for landscapes, portraits, abstracts, images from ancient Babylonia.

Who Killed Anna Politkovskaya? – Amy Knight, New York Review of Books: Russian journalists have been under more pressure than ever to follow the official line.

Despite Ranking, Tajik Media Freedom More Relative Than Real - Salimjon Aioubov, RFE/RL: it is becoming progressively more difficult to evaluate objectively the media situation across the former Soviet Union, given that the governments in question have had 16 years in which to perfect the art of creating a democratic image that does not reflect reality.

America must lead a rescue of emerging economies - George Soros, Financial Times

Lifting the Shadow: Can Condoleezza Rice Emancipate Herself from Bush? - Marc Hujer, Spiegel: As the disastrous Bush administration drags down its members, only one of them, Condoleezza Rice, has what it takes to survive politically. Ironically, the president's close confidante, who bears part of the responsibility for all of the administration's crises, is the only one who stands a chance of scoring a comeback.

Propaganda Alert: Vikings were not metrosexuals! - Mark A. Rayner, The Skwib: “As the leader of the Noodly Norseman, I feel it is my duty to alert you all that a terrible lie is being spread by the Daily Telegraph (in the UK) that the Vikings were metrosexuals. … As is the case with all effective propaganda, the story is littered with truthful elements. It is true that Vikings washed on a regular basis. It is true that Vikings did not wear horned or winged helmets. It is even true that many Norsemen spent a large part of their time in ‘peaceful activities such as farming, building, writing and illustrating.’ However, it is the big lie, you have to watch out for: … that Norsemen were also stylish trend-setters.’”

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Bat-Manga: the lost Japanese Batman comics of 1966 - Boing Boing