
"I can't even hunt squirrels no more, because I'm not permitted to own a firearm."
--Lynndie England, of Abu Ghraib fame; image from cited article
“They’re adults; they know what industry they’re in.”
--Steven Hirsch, chief executive of the sex-movie company Vivid Entertainment; cited in Gardiner Harris, “H.I.V. Found in 22 Actors in Sex Films Since 2004,” The New York Times
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
An Army of One? Debating the "Obama effect." – Foreign Policy: "Since taking office, it's safe to say that Obama had made the United States more popular, but some commentators have gone further, attributing events -- ranging from Hezbollah's defeat in Lebanon's elections, to newly conciliatory gestures from the Kremlin, to the unexpected rise of Mousavi -- to the power of Obama's personal diplomacy. But can one man's speeches (or his mere existence) really change the course of political developments around the world? We asked seven sharp political observers to weigh on whether the 'Obama effect'

Let's applaud

Jefferson On Soft Power: Behind Obama’s Cairo Quote - Nicholas J. Cull, CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "[T]he real problem is whether President Obama’s actions will conform to the Jeffersonian rhetoric. The president may be speaking about wisdom in the use of power, but are his deeds conforming to his words?"
O(h) Ricardo- what are you guys thinking at Journal Communications? - DJ Haugh, Examiner.com: "How exactly has the country benefited from this [Obama’s] 'effective' public diplomacy? Despite breaking tradition and bowing to the head of another country (sorry, I forgot that depends on what your definition of 'bow' is), most of the Arab world still seems to dislike us. Considering the missile test and probable underground nuclear test, North Korea doesn’t seem all that impressed with our 'effective' public diplomacy. The governments of the E.U. seem less wowed with President Obama than their citizens did last year with Candidate Obama. Effective, isn’t it?"
Where did that 7 million figure come from? - Eric Fingerhut, Capital J, Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "Jewish leaders thought it had been debunked

Judith McHale at CNAS: Public Diplomacy: A National Security Imperative - Leadership Management Blog: "I found her [McHale’s] speech to be good and full of promise

Foreign Policy blogger: US international broadcasting "rarely taken seriously" - Kim Andrew Elliott discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: "US international broadcasting would not have its present weekly audience of 175 million (second only to that of the BBC world services), if it were perceived as 'propaganda and thus rarely taken seriously.'"
House Panel Approves $8.7 Billion for SOCOM in FY-10 - InsideDefense.com NewsStand [full text available by subscription only]: Entry from Google : “... defense secretary 'to submit a report on the assessment of the department's strategic communications workforce and on use of military public diplomacy. ... "
New York Arts Festival Aims To Dispel Misconceptions

Diplomatic Impropriety of (soon to be) U.S. envoy to Sri Lanka Butenis: Her Bangladesh Profile - Daya Gamage, Asian Tribune: "Patricia Butenis’ role as American ambassador in Bangladesh during her 14-month tenure in 2006/07 provoked widespread controversies and questions about diplomatic propriety. … The senior Foreign Service Officer Ms. Butenis has now been nominated by the Obama administration to be its next ambassador to Sri Lanka. … Now, she arrives in Sri Lanka when this South Asian nation is engulfed in a broad political debate which has spilled over the territorial boundaries to the international arena in which her employer is much in the middle of the discussion. … Sri Lanka is yet to identify her strategic communication and public diplomacy to convince the community of western nations that the defeat of the Tigers means not the silencing of the voice of the Tamil minority."
American splendour: With Archie scheduled to wed, S Subramanian ponders the comic character’s career in public diplomacy – The National: "The aspirations of today’s 10-year-old Indians are still tethered to America, but they are no longer built by children’s literature. Instead, they are shaped by our stock villains: television and the internet.

Better policing could quell racist attacks - Greg Sheridan, The Australian: "Since the earliest days of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its predecessors, Australia has conducted public diplomacy abroad.If you added up all the money Australia has spent on public diplomacy in the past and added it to all the money we are likely to spend on public diplomacy in the next 20 years, you couldn't buy a tenth of the bad publicity Australia has had in India, and at a less intense level in many other parts of the world, over this [ an assault on an Indian student in Adelaide]."
EU arms embargo against China 'absurd',

The Visegrad Four and YATA [Youth Atlantic Treaty Organization]– The Yata Blog: "[T]he Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary are part of a Central European Alliance, the Visegrad Four. The V4 was established for the purposes of cooperation and furthering their European integration. … [T]he Euro-Atlantic Center (YATA Slovakia) has organized in cooperation with representatives of all V4 YATA national chapters … in financial cooperation with NATO Public Diplomacy Division an essay writing competition 'Quo Vadis V4?'"
Climate Thoughts -

Katharine, A World Not Our Own - "A budding public diplomacy scholar, [sic] this blog is intended to follow my journey through the study of PD via travels, people-to-people encounters and various internships and opportunities in my life."
RELATED ITEMS
Cyberwar: Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan - Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger, New York Times: A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer networks.
Chinese Muslims face culture shock in Palau - Tomoko A. Hosaka and William Foreman, Washington Post: They came from a land of scorching deserts, snowcapped mountains, camels and mosques.

Why the hell should I feel sorry, says girl soldier who abused Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison: In this deeply disturbing interview, the trailer trash torturer who appalled the world by appearing in shocking 'souvenir' photographs remains utterly unrepentant and says she has 800 MORE torture photos that could rock the White House - David Jones, Daily Mail
Russia's Ideological Crusade Against Ukraine - Taras Kuzio, Eurasia Daily Monitor: The Levada Center recently found that 62 percent of Russians hold a negative view of Ukraine with only the United States and Georgia being seen in a worse light. At the same time, 91 percent of Ukrainians hold positive views of Russia, a reflection of media pluralism and the lack of state directed propaganda against Russia.
Putting the prop in propaganda - Princess of the Obvious: "In case you think your usual television is too mainstream, look what I found! A promo for a North Korean television show! Jaw. Open. It's like those Soviet propaganda musicals from 1930s/40s that I saw when a kid only times eleven. I think my brain checked out at dancing Kim Jong Il army people and never came back.I am going to laugh otherwise I'll cry."
IMAGE

Goats enjoy living in their own tower
--from boingboing
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